I grew up with David Suzuki as a household name, as did many other Canadian children. A fellow Vancouverite, Suzuki taught us all to recycle, to care about our surroundings, to reduce our waste, and to be generally aware of our impact on the environment. He is a hero to my generation, and you can see his impact on the streets of Vancouver today – the city-wide recycling program, the energy-efficient hydrogen buses, the SkyTrain, the hybrid taxis, the new Amsterdam-style bike lanes and the ridiculous cost of parking and gas, all which make it much easier to do the right thing by the environment. He has made the younger generations of Canadians understand that they are responsible for the future of our planet, so its no surprise that his daughter, Severn Cullis-Suzuki, made one of the most famous environmental speeches at the 1992 Rio Summit on behalf of her group Environmental Children’s Organization (ECO), when she was only 12 years old. Right now, we are in the midst of Ri0 +20, and all of the behaviors that 12-year-old Cullis-Suzuki called the world delegates on in 1992 – the greed, the selfishness, the war-mongering – are all arguably worse than before. Living in LA, with a population of 9,830,420 people and 6,675,888 cars, the concept of making the environment a better place for the future is all but nonexistent. So watching Democracy Now’s coverage of the Rio +20 Summit, and hearing Cullis-Suzuki reflect on the lack of change, and in fact worsening conditions, of the world state is all too real and depressing for me. One thing is loud and clear – the world is ready for and in the midst of revolution, and just because we live in a bubble made by Target and Walmart, it doesn’t mean that revolution won’t be soon knocking at our own doors. We have to say fuck this system, and mean it. Soon we won’t have a choice, the Earth will say fuck us and wipe us off her surface. Check out the Democracy Now interview and Cullis-Suzuki’s inspirational speech below.
At Rio+20, Severn Cullis-Suzuki Revisits Historic ’92 Speech; Fights for Next Generation
The girl who silenced the world for 5 minutes
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