Climate, World Problems

The girl who silenced the world for five minutes

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Her name is Severn Suzuki, and here you have one of perhaps the most impressive speeches of all time, delivered by her (only a 12 year old at the time) at a UN meeting, at the Earth Summit in 1992.

[After 5 minutes]

An incredible story

Severn Suzuki was born in a remarkable family, with her mother being a writer, and her father being a genetician and environmental activist. She showed extreme determination and leadership at an age (9) where other children are still learning how to play with toys, by founding the Environmental Children’s Organization (ECO) – a group of children who wanted to learn more about the environment and teach other children about it.

When she was 12, she raised money with other children from ECO to attend the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, where that clip is taken from. Along with group members Michelle Quigg, Vanessa Suttil, and Morgan Geisler, Severn Suzuki attendend the summit, where she presented environmental issues that affect the world from a child’s perspective; she was applauded by summit members for minutes, and the video of her speech became one of the most inspiring ever.

Furthermore, one year later she published a book, Tell the World, which presents easy environmental steps to take for every family out there.

Where is Severn Suzuki now

severn-suzuki-2007

In case you’re wondering what she’s up to nowadays, she graduated from Yale in 2002, and now she’s an environmental activist, and even had her own show for children on Discovery. She was involved in an internet-based think tank which was used as an advisor for Kofi Annan, but the project was disbanded when she continued her education.

I’ve searched all over the internet but couldn’t find a way to contact her in the hope that maybe she could share a few words with us. If you know or happen to stumble upon an email address or something, it’d be really great; once again, we would like to bow our heads to Severn Suzuki, and the things she has accomplished along the years.

By Mihai Andrei

Andrei's background is in geophysics, and he published his first scientific paper when he was still an undergrad; now, his main focus is on how geology and geophysics can be applied to understand and protect the environment. Feeling that there is a gap between scientists and the general audience, he started ZME Science - and the results are what you see today.

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  • FLINTS

    She is David Suzuki’s, The Fruit Fly Guy’s Kid. Poor girl. No wonder she is so pessimistic.David Suzuki is the biggest jerk in Canada and we have a lot of jerks.

  • Maria

    It wasn’t just a UN conference, it was the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro.

  • http://tzopilotl.wordpress.com carlos lascoutx

    …flints, i would say you are the pessimist with a soul much smaller than a fruit fly and a vision infinitely smaller than that.
    since the dawn of language which gave expression for our souls, we have always known,that like sunlight, deity/teotl=
    theother=teo theo deo/dea was in everything. it’s no secret the
    earth is alive, is a lord and its lady, who stretches out before us
    and supports us in every way, is our bridge of life as the monkey
    king was limb for his subjects. there must be something seriously wrong with your reasoning if you can’t see that. to denigrate your own country, canada, and deprecate their good works, leaves me in
    serious doubt as to your hasty and off-hand judgement, so transparent and glib, as to guess it comes from immaturity planted there by the great dribble, drivel=d(r)/teuil-otl(N)=devil=glass,
    itself, added to which is the negative use of greening=jealousy=
    celotipía(sp), whose positive opposite=celia/ocelix(N)=reblossom,
    rebirth, encarnates the sacred wish that life go on. that
    we respect it, offer back what we can for the trespass
    of living, i.e.,consuming the gifts of our blue planet.
    the crux of religion is just that, an interconnexion between
    the taker and the giver, a juxtaposition where the taker becomes giver as well. if not, there is no balance to our lives and
    we fail the eternal test of living: being human. we deny our
    prometheus, dash the crown creation has given us as well as any
    hope of a future for our species, we fill the silent valleys
    with our bones and file out of the limpid halls of memory breaking
    looking glasses as we go, extinct, never to be seen again,
    nor stir the surface of a pond with a ripple of our breath
    because we didn’t bother, weren’t capable enough to break
    our fearful ego-fantasys and think all the way to the end of time,
    the proper filling of which is wisdom.

  • Paul Frank

    As of July 16, 2010 the YouTube link has been “removed for terms of use violation. Here is a new link for the speech at http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Severn+Cullis-Suzuki or choose from the other options at http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Severn+Cullis-Suzuki .

    Nice post. This young lady is incredible.

  • Lulu

    Now I could be wrong (I couldnt watch yr video as it says the terms were violated and unavailable) but I remember seeing a young girl ‘who silenced the world’ it was an amazing speech…well as far as I remember that remarkable little girl grew into a very brave young lady and was killed, I think in Palestine protecting a family whose house was going to be bulldozed by Israeli soldiers..I am pretty sure I found the dedication video to her on youtube. I am sorry to bring such sad news..she was in her mid twenties when she died, I believe and was american. But she certainly made an impact during her short life..she was on a peace keeping mission. x

  • http://www.hp.com/ Computers

    Obama are likely to be the original 1 expression prez we’ve received inside the prolonged time.

  • Grant

    Lulu.

    You need to get your facts straight and reference your information before making serious and possibly damaging claims (without evidence) that that someone “was killed”. Current info is:

    “Severn is married and now calls the Haida Gwaii (a. k. a. Queen Charlotte Islands) home where she lives with her husband and child.”

    Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severn_Cullis-Suzuki

    Cheers,

    Grant.

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  • Met58

    Royston Langdon would be an excellent choice for vocalist.  I have all of Spacehog’s albums, and I love his voice!