An incredible speech by a Canadian girl, Severn Cullis, who spoke at a U.N. assembly in Brazil and left them completely silent and speechless for five minutes. At age 9, she started the Environmental Children’s Organization (ECO) with a group of friends committed to learning and teaching others about environmental issues. In 1992, with ECO, Severn attended the Rio Earth Summit, where, at the age of twelve, she delivered a powerful speech that garnered worldwide attention. For this she received the UN Environment Program’s Global 500 Award in Beijing the following year.
“You don’t know how to fix the holes in the Ozone Layer, you don’t know how to bring salmon back up a dead stream, you don’t know how to bring back an animal now extinct and you can’t bring back a forest that once grew where there is now a desert. If you don’t know how to fix it, please stop breaking it“
“I am only a child yet I know we are all in this together and should act in one single world towards one single goal.“
“In my anger I am not blind and in my anger I am not in afraid of telling world how I feel.”
“Even when we have more than enough we are afraid to share, we are afraid to let go some of our wealth.“
“I am only a child yet I know if all the money spent on war, would spent on finding environmental answers, ending poverty and finding treaties, what a wonderful place this earth would be.”