Last year, I wrote about a 12-year-old girl, Severn Cullis-Suzuki, who addressed the delegates in Rio de Janeiro at the Earth Summit in 1992. She became known as “the girl who silenced the world for six minutes” when she asked:
“Are we even on your list of priorities?”
Severn is now a mother of two, and an ardent environmental activist. Last week, Severn returned to Rio to deliver another speech to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, also known as Rio+20 Summit.
Severn recalls her “out of the mouth of babes” speech:
“As a 12-year old girl, I flew to the Summit from Canada to remind world leaders of what was truly at stake: the future of my generation and of all future generations to come. I said to them, “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.”
Severn’s speech 20 years later is accented with this:
“Pollution has changed our climate.”
She asks, can we envision a world where our actions reflect our words? Can we create a future…
- where we can all breathe clean air and drink clean water?
- where we have turned the tide against the pollution that threatens to swallow our oceans?
- where every person has access to electricity and the benefits that it brings?
- where we power the world with clean energy from the sun, the wind, and the soil?
- where we envision a world where the Earth’s natural treasures are protected and preserved?
- where no person goes hungry and poverty is a problem of the past?
- where all children get the nutrition they need, the education they deserve?
- where women and girls are empowered and human rights are respected?
- where preventable diseases don’t take the lives of children and childbirth complications don’t take the lives of their mothers?
- where health care isn’t a luxury to some, but available to all?
- where every young person has the opportunity to work and every community has the opportunity to prosper?
Severn concludes:
“History isn’t made by those who stand silent or by those who decide not to decide; it is made by those whose actions reflect their intentions. It is up to each of us here to continue to speak out for the future we want. And together, we are becoming a voice too loud to ignore.”
I could not agree with Severn more. Moms Clean Air Force is a force for change. MCAF is making a difference. We nurture change through mother love as we learn, listen, teach, and grow…and we will not be ignored.
PLEASE JOIN US because you know what’s at stake: Future generations of children.
WATCH Severn Cullis-Suzuki at Rio+20 Summit:
WATCH 12 year-old Severn address the Earth Summit HERE.
Pollution from power plants causes global warming.
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