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Hello, I'm Severn Suzuki speaking for E.C.O,

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the Environmental Children's Organisation.

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We are a group of twelve and thirteen-year-olds
trying to make a difference:

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Vanessa Suttie, Morgan Geisler, Michelle Quigg and me.

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We've raised all the money to come here ourselves,
to come five thousand miles

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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
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
around the world, whose cries go unheard.

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I am here to speak for the countless animals,
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
because of the holes in our ozone.

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I am afraid to breathe the air,
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 of animals and plants
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 of these things
when you were my age?

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All this is happening before our eyes
and yet we act 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,
but I want you to realise, 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 forests
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, organisers,
reporters or politicians

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but really you are mothers and fathers,
sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles,

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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,

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and in my fear, I am not afraid
of telling the world how I feel.

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In my country, we make so much waste,
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,
we are afraid to share,

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we are afraid to let go some of our wealth.

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In Canada, we live the privileged life,
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 when we spent 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, medecines, 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 everyting
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
if all the money spent on war

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was spent on finding environmental answers,
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,
you teach us how to behave in the world.

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You teach us:

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to not fight with others,

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to work things out,

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to respect others,

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to clean up our mess,

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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
- we are your own children -

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You are deciding what kind of a world
we are growing 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 alright",

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"it's not the end of the world"

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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:
"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,
please, make your actions reflect your words.

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Thank you.