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Hello, I'm Severn Suzuki speaking for E.C.O.
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- the Environmental Children's Organization.
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We are a group of twelve and thirteen-year-olds
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trying to make a difference:
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Vanessa Suttie, Morgan Geisler, Michelle Quigg and me.
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We raised all the money to come here ourselves
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to come five thousand miles to tell you adults you must change your ways.
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Coming up here today, I have no hidden agenda.
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I am fighting for my future.
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Losing my future is not like losing an election
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or a few points on the stock market.
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I am here to speak for all generations to come.
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I am here to speak on behalf of the starving children
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around the world whose cries go unheard.
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I am here to speak for the countless animals
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dying across this planet because they have nowhere left to go.
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I am afraid to go out in the sun now
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because of the holes in the ozone.
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I am afraid to breathe the air
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because I don't know what chemicals are in it.
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I used to go fishing in Vancouver, my home, with my dad
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until just a few years ago we found the fish full of cancers.
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And now we hear about animals and plants
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going extinct every day - vanishing forever.
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In my life, I have dreamt of seeing the great herds of wild animals,
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jungles and rainforests full of birds and butterflies,
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but now I wonder if they will even exist for my children to see.
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Did you have to worry about these little things when you were my age?
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All this is happening before our eyes and yet we act
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as if we have all the time we want and all the solutions.
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I'm only a child and I don't have all the solutions,
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but I want you to realize, neither do you!
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You don't know how to fix the holes in our ozone layer.
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You don't know how to bring salmon back up a dead stream.
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You don't know how to bring back an animal now extinct.
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And you can't bring back the forests
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that once grew where there is now desert.
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If you don't know how to fix it, please stop breaking it!
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Here, you may be delegates of your governments,
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business people, organizers, reporters or politicians
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- but really you are mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers,
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aunts and uncles - and all of you are someone's child.
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I'm only a child yet I know we are all part of a family,
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five billion strong, in fact, 30 million species strong
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and borders and governments will never change that.
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I'm only a child yet I know we are all in this together
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and should act as one single world towards one single goal.
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In my anger, I am not blind, and in my fear,
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I am not afraid to tell the world how I feel.
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In my country, we make so much waste,
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we buy and throw away, buy and throw away,
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and yet northern countries will not share with the needy.
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Even when we have more than enough,
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we are afraid to share, we are afraid to let go some of our wealth.
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In Canada, we live the privileged life,
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with plenty of food, water and shelter -
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we have watches, bicycles, computers and television sets.
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The list could go on for two days.
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Two days ago here in Brazil, we were shocked
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when we spent some time with some children living on the streets.
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This is what one child told us:
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"I wish I was rich
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and if I were, I would give all the street children
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food, clothes, medicines, shelter and love and affection."
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If a child on the street who has nothing, is willing to share,
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why are we who have everything still so greedy?
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I can't stop thinking that these are children my own age,
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that it makes a tremendous difference where you are born,
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that I could be one of those children living in the Favellas of Rio;
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I could be a child starving in Somalia;
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a victim of war in the Middle East or a beggar in India.
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I'm only a child yet I know
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if all the money spent on war
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was spent on finding environmetal answers,
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ending poverty and finding treaties,
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what a wonderful place this earth would be!
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At school, even in kindergarten,
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you teach us how to behave in the world.
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You teach us: not to fight with others,
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to work things out, to respect others,
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to clean up our mess, not to hurt other creatures,
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to share - not be greedy.
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Then why do you go out and do the things you tell us not to do?
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Do not forget why you're attending these conferences,
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who you're doing this for
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- we are your own children.
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You are deciding what kind of world we will grow up in.
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Parents should be able to comfort their children by saying,
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"Everything's going to be all right;
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it's not the end of the world. And we're doing the best we can."
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But I don't think you can say that to us anymore.
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Are we even on your list of priorities?
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My dad always says,
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"You are what you do, not what you say."
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Well, what you do makes me cry at night.
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You grown ups say you love us.
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But I challenge you,
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please make your actions reflect your words.
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Thank you.