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A-Z GREAT SPEECHES

Severn Cullis-Suzuki: "If you can't fix it, stop breaking it" UN Conference on Environment and Development, Rio De Janeiro, 1992

Severn Cullis-Suzuki at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Rio De Janeiro, 1992

Severn is an activist and writer who has been speaking out about social justice and environmental issues since she was small. 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.

Since then, Severn has served on the UN's Earth Charter Commission and on Kofi Annan's Special Advisory Panel for the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. She also co-founded the Skyfish Project, an Internet-based think tank that encourages youth to speak out for their future and adopt a sustainable lifestyle. In 2000, she and five friends carried out Powershift -- a cross-Canada cycling campaign to raise awareness about climate change and air pollution.

SOURCE: We Canada (2012), posted on YouTube, Duration: 8:31 mins, URL: https://youtu.be/oJJGuIZVfLM

Analysis of Severn Suzuki's speech

SOURCE: O'Connor, Mark (2013), posted on YouTube, Duration: 27:45 mins, URL: https://youtu.be/OPa3beLSPR8

Context/Background

In 1992 the UN Earth Summit was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The findings of this summit contributed to the Kyoto Protocol and a global climate change accord. Yet the enduring memory of that summit was a dramatic speech given by a 12 year-old girl from Canada that silenced the world for five minutes. Her name is Severn Suzuki.

Severn Cullis-Suzuki (born 30 November 1979) is a Canadian environmental activist, speaker, television host, and author. She has spoken around the world about environmental issues, urging listeners to define their values, act with the future in mind, and take individual responsibility. She is the daughter of Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki.

Transcript: Suzuki: UN Conference on Environment and Development (1992)