Eén van de meest beklijvende momenten uit de klimaatconferentie in Rio uit 1992 was de speech van een 12-jarige. Deze vat de bezorgdheid rond milieukwesties op een prangende manier samen. Voor wie de toespraak mistte, zetten we hier een link: Servern Suzuki speaking at UN earth Summit 1992. Jammergenoeg is hier geen nederlandse vertaling bij.

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.

Morgen gaat er een evaluatieconferentie Rio 2012 (Conferentie van de Verenigde Naties over duurzame ontwikkeling) van start.

Hopelijk is de besluitvaardigheid van verantwoordelijke politici en andere beleidsmensen groter dan in de voorbije conferenties, die steevast als een gemiste kans moeten bestempeld worden. U kan veel informatie over de huidige top vinden op de website van earthsummit2012.

Maar ook nu weer zijn de voortekenen niet gunstig. Diverse belangrijke politieke leiders blijven afwezig. Figuren van 2e rang of erger zullen wél hun opwachting maken om eventjes in de schijnwerpers te lopen. Zo zal onze eigenste Prins Laurent er zijn bescheiden 😉 ecologische voetafdruk in het zand zetten. We hebben het logo van Rio+20 daarom nu reeds in het zwart gezet.

Hopelijk zijn we te pessimistisch gestemd en komen er toch nog bruikbare elementen uit dit gebeuren. Wellicht zal de milieubeweging in al zijn kleurige schakeringen ook wel van zich laten spreken, gezien er ettelijke 10.000-en mensen verwacht worden.

Want anders zal men de nu 32-jarige Severn Suzuki profetische gaven moeten toeschrijven. En dan past er maar 1 beeld om het mediacircus dat zal opgevoerd worden te omschrijven: