Editor's note: The following is the transcript of the speech that Severn Suzuki gave to the Plenary Session at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio Centro, Brazil. Severn was twelve years old. SASS feels there is no better example of a young person standing up and speaking on behalf of something in which they truly believe, for the betterment of themselves and the world around them.
Hello, I'm Severn Suzuki speaking for E.C.O. - The Environmental Children's Organisation.
We are a group of twelve and thirteen-year-olds from Canada trying to make a difference:
Vanessa Suttie, Morgan Geisler, Michelle Quigg and me. We raised all the money ourselves to come six thousand miles to tell you adults you must change your ways. Coming here today, I have no hidden agenda. I am fighting for my future.
Losing my future is not like losing an election or a few points on the stock market. I am here to speak for all generations to come.
I am here to speak on behalf of the starving children around the world whose cries go unheard.
I am here to speak for the countless animals dying across this planet because they have nowhere left to go. We cannot afford to be not heard.
I am afraid to go out in the sun now because of the holes in the ozone. I am afraid to breathe the air because I don't know what chemicals are in it.
I used to go fishing in Vancouver with my dad until just a few years ago we found the fish full of cancers. And now we hear about animals and plants going exinct every day -- vanishing forever.
In my life, I have dreamt of seeing the great herds of wild animals, jungles and rainforests full of birds and butterfilies, but now I wonder if they will even exist for my children to see.
Did you have to worry about these little things when you were my age?
All this is happening before our eyes and yet we act as if we have all the time we want and all the solutions. I'm only a child and I don't have all the solutions, but I want you to realise, neither do you!
* You don't know how to fix the holes in our 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 forests that once grew where there is now desert.
If you don't know how to fix it, please stop breaking it!
Here, you may be delegates of your governments, business people, organisers, reporters or poiticians - but really you are mothers and fathers, brothers and sister, aunts and uncles - and all of you are somebody's child.
I'm only a child yet I know we are all part of a family, five billion strong, in fact, 30 million species strong and we all share the same air, water and soil -- borders and governments will never change that.
I'm only a child yet I know we are all in this together and should act as one single world towards one single goal.
In my anger, I am not blind, and in my fear, I am not afraid to tell the world how I feel.
In my country, we make so much waste, we buy and throw away, buy and throw away, and yet northern countries will not share with the needy. Even when we have more than enough, we are afraid to lose some of our wealth, afraid to share.
In Canada, we live the privileged life, with plenty of food, water and shelter -- we have watches, bicycles, computers and television sets.
Two days ago here in Brazil, we were shocked when we spent some time with some children living on the streets. And this is what one child told us: "I wish I was rich and if I were, I would give all the street children food, clothes, medicine, shelter and love and affection."
If a child on the street who has nothing, is willing to share, why are we who have everyting still so greedy?
I can't stop thinking that these children are my age, that it makes a tremendous difference where you are born, that I could be one of those children living in the Favellas of Rio; I could be a child starving in Somalia; a victim of war in the Middle East or a beggar in India.
I'm only a child yet I know if all the money spent on war was spent on ending poverty and finding environmental answers, what a wonderful place this earth would be!
At school, even in kindergarten, you teach us to behave in the world. You teach us:
* not to fight with others,
* to work things out,
* to respect others,
* to clean up our mess,
* not to hurt other creatures
* to share - not be greedy.
Then why do you go out and do the things you tell us not to do?
Do not forget why you're attending these conferences, who you're doing this for -- we are your own children. You are deciding what kind of world we will grow up in. Parents should be able to comfort their children by saying "everyting's going to be alright", "we're doing the best we can" and "it's not the end of the world".
But I don't think you can say that to us anymore. Are we even on your list of priorities? My father always says "You are what you do, not what you say."
Well, what you do makes me cry at night. You grown ups say you love us. I challenge you, please make your actions reflect your words. Thank you for listening
During
a UGC sponsored National Conference in Kozhikode on English Language
teaching one of the teachers from a reputed B.Ed college in Andhra
Pradesh was heard saying in front of a big audience that there is no
such thing called logic in making English sentences. And he also said
that he has been teaching English for the last twenty years. So that's
it. Don't try to question the traditional method of teaching English. Or
in other words, don't try to free yourself from the clutches of the
educational system designed by the colonial masters. Stick to Lord
Macaulay's minutes. This is what we have been doing to our children.
Imposing our traditional mindset on the next generation.
It was a summer vacation when I got a call from a computer institute asking me if I could take a vacation batch in Spoken English for a few school students. I accepted the offer and went to take my first class. But the class was not exactly like what I had imagined. There were just four students and they were not serious learners either. I started with the basic rules to make English sentences and asked them to write these rules seeing the board. They made a lot of spelling mistakes even while copying things from the board. 
Once while walking to the bus stop after my work I happened to notice the office premises of the New Indian Express Newspaper. I just felt like having a meeting/discussion with the editor on the idea of using blogs for educational purposes.
He has taken English Communication(EC) classes at various institutions in Kozhikode like : Calicut Medical College, Govt. College of Nursing, Govt. School of Nursing, Dist. Centre for English, K.V No.1, T.I.M.E, CREST(Centre for Research and Education for Social Transformation), FCI(Food Craft Institute), PVS School of Nursing, IMS,Sree Sankaracharya Computer Center, SUCCESS GARTEN(Thiruvambadi), ICANAS, AFT, Avalon Academy, Arena Multimedia, Aviation Academy, VETA, Veda Vyasa(MBA batch), Ichannur School(Pattarpalam), KDCH(Kozhikode District Co-operative Hospital) Nursing School, MES Central School(Tirur), CGA(Career Guidance Academy) and also for Mata Amritanandamayi Matam(Tanur), Paragon Restaurant Staff (Calicut), Institute of Commerce, JDT and ZADOKZ Institute in the last 12 years since 2000. Besides this, he has also taken workshops on English Communication for school teachers and students.
He is also a Skill Development Executive(SDE) for ASAP(Additional Skills Acquisition Programme) initiated by the Govt.of Kerala in 2012. He has taken classes for ASAP students doing the Level-1 course in Communicative English and IT for 180 hours at GVHSS Payyoli, Kozhikode.
