Hello, I'm Severn Suzuki speaking for ECO, the Environmental Children's Organization.

We are a group of 12 and 13 year olds trying to make a difference.

Vanessa Suttie, Morgan Geisler, Michelle Quigg, and me.

We've raised all the money to come here ourselves, to come 5 thousand miles to tell you adults,

you must change your ways.

Coming up 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 who's cries go unheard.

I'm here to speak for the countless animals dying across this planet because they have

nowhere left to go.

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, my home, with my dad until just a few years ago we found the fish

full of cancers.

And now we hear of animals and plants going extinct everyday, vanishing forever.

In my life, I have dreamt of seeing the great herds of wild animals, jungles and rainforests full of

birds and butterflies, but now I wonder if they will even exist for my children to see.

Did you have to worry of these 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 know I want you to realize, neither do you.

You don't know how to fix the holes our the ozone layer,

you don't know how to bring the salmon back up in a dead stream,

you don't know how to bring back an animal now extinct,

and you can't bring back the forest that once grew where there is now a desert.

If you don't know how to fix it, please, stop breaking it.

Here, you may be delegates of your government, business people, organizers, reporters, or politicians,

but really, you are mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles, and all of you are someone's child.

I'm only a child, yet I know we are all part of a family 5 billion strong.

In fact, 30 million species strong.

And boarders 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 of telling the world how I feel.

In my country we make so much waste. We buy and throw away, 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 share. We are afraid to let go of some of our wealth.

In Canada, we live the privileged life, with plenty of food, water, and shelter.

We have watches, bicycles, computers, and television sets, the list could go on for 2 days.

2 days ago, here in Brazil, we were shocked when we spent time with some children living on the streets.

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, medicines, shelter, and love and affection."

If a child on the streets who has nothing is willing to share, why are we who have everything still so greedy?

I can't stop thinking that these are children my own age, that it makes a tremendous difference where you were born,

that I could be one of those children living in the Cavallos of Rio.

I could be a child starving in Somalia, or a victim of war in the Middle East, or a beggar in India.

I am only a child, yet I know if all the money spent on war was spent on finding

environmental answers, ending poverty, and finding treaties, what a wonderful place this Earth would be.

At school, even in Kindergarten, you teach us how 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 are attending these conferences, who you're doing this for.

We are your own children. You are deciding what kind of a world we are growing up in.

Parents should be able to comfort their children by saying "everything's going to be alright,

it's not the end of the world, and we're doing the best we can", but I don't think you can say that to us anymore.

Are we even on your list of priorities?

My dad 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, but I challenge you, please, make your actions reflect your words.

Thank you.

[applause]

[appluase]

That was very good.

I would like to thank you, the four of you, for your participation in this conference

and for reminding us that we are responsible for the world and for the future generations, and

also for reminding us that we are responsible not only for our words, but also for our actions.

I am keenly aware that what the four of you have said to us makes us all feel, to make a quote of a president poet,

that we all have 2 hands and the sentiment of the world, and I think this is what you have expressed.