Haiti Earthquake | December 18, 2011 | 34 comments

The Girl Who Silenced The World for Five Minutes///WOW/// Is her Speech still Relevant Today?

source: http://weightofsilence.wordpress.com/2008/06/23/the-girl-who-silenced-the-un-for-five-minutes/

BRAVATRAVELS
This is an incredible video of a Canadian girl who spoke to the United Nations and left them completely silent and speechless for five minutes.

Her name is Severn Cullis-Suzuki, and her speech was given at a U.N. assembly in Brazil when she was twelve years old. She had raised all the money to travel to the delegation, five thousand miles from her home, herself.

Speaking about the hole in the ozone layer, pollution, the devastation of the forests and extinction of so many species, Severn charges that we adults have no idea how to fix these things, in fact can’t fix them, and that we must change our ways.

“If you don’t know how to fix it, stop breaking it,” she pleads.

Severn continued to say:

“I am here to speak for all generations to come. I am here to speak on behalf of starving children around the world whose cries go unheard. I’m only a child and I don’t have the solutions…but neither do you. I am only a child, but I know we are all part of a family five billion strong; in fact, 30 million species strong, and borders and governments will never change that.

Even when we have more than enough, we are afraid to share. We are afraid to let go of some of our wealth. Two days ago here in Brazil, we were shocked when we spent some time with children living in 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, medicine, shelter, love and affection.’

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

I am only a child, but 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 world would be.”

And here’s the kicker – this speech was given in 1992, at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. How much is still relevant today? All of it. And the more important question is: How much has been changed, accomplished, since Severn spoke that day?

Years later, Severn wrote a piece for Time magazine in which she said: “I spoke for six minutes and received a standing ovation. Some of the delegates even cried. I thought that maybe I had reached some of them, that my speech might actually spur action. Now, a decade from Rio, after I’ve sat through many more conferences, I’m not sure what has been accomplished.

My confidence in the people in power and in the power of an individual’s voice to reach them has been deeply shaken…In the 10 years since Rio, I have learned that addressing our leaders is not enough. As Gandhi said many years ago, ‘We must become the change we want to see.’ I know change is possible.”

Severn comes from an environmental legacy – her father is the renowned David Suzuki. At the age of nine, Severn founded the Environmental Children’s Organization (ECO), a group of children dedicated to learning and teaching other kids about environmental issues. Today, Severn is an environmental activist, speaker, television host and author. She has spoken around the world about environmental issues, urging listeners to define their values, act with the future in mind, and take individual responsibility.

She co-hosted Suzuki’s Nature Quest, a children’s television series that aired on the Discovery Channel in 2002. In early 2002, she helped launch an Internet-based think tank called The Skyfish Project.

As a member of Kofi Annan’s Special Advisory Panel, she and members of the Skyfish Project brought their first project, a pledge called the “Recognition of Responsibility”, to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in August 2002.
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    Community,   News and Politics,   Politics,   Green,   19 more
  2. tags:
    Environment,  War,  Poverty,  Greed,  2 more
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34 comments // The Girl Who Silenced The World for Five Minutes///WOW/// Is her Speech still Relevant Today? // Video

  • Wetdog
  • alexandrek
  • BRAVATRAVELS
  • warman1138
  • BRAVATRAVELS
  • Anonmaly
  • Gravity_Man
    • +4
      Gravity_Man  
    • Anonmaly:

      She has been successfully muzzled & silenced. She stopped making speeches a long time ago. Confined to a wheelchair she sobs every so often.

      I think she breathed in some tar sand fumes, took out her vocal cords plus caused tar clots in her leg arteries that stopped blood to her leg extremities.

      She represents the future if Jesus isn't on the way.

    • 5 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
  • theknopfknows
    • +8
      theknopfknows  
    • Image

    • I Lost it, I`m in tears of Shame, I see in her eyes what is missing in me!
      THE FUTURE is in her hands and I wish for them, not to have to pay for My generational SINS:BE WHAT YOUR CHILDREN CAN SEE!

    • 5 months ago
  • BRAVATRAVELS
  • deane
  • BRAVATRAVELS
  • PetEr_Alan_ColE
    • +4
      PetEr_Alan_ColE  

    • I was really hoping a certain someone would of done at least something about global warming during the eight years. I'm not talking about population control by putting economic sanctions on Iraq which resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, many children. I wish he would of really done something or else we wouldn't be in this mess today. I mean we know the Pres. was busy getting BJz in the oval office. But where was the other guy?

    • 5 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • +2
      Gravity_Man  
    • PetEr_Alan_ColE:

      The truth is Mr. Cole that every combustion engine in the world can be converted to being a pollution-free steam engine that recycles its water => NEVER HAS TO STOP FOR FUEL PUMPS EVER. Your "other guy" was making a News Conference where he stated => "THERE ARE NO MAGIC WAND ENERGIES". In just a few blows of polluted air from his mouf he torpedoed the entire Green Energy revolution that chould have happened way back then 6 years ago.

      He declared Green a false hope & everyone did fast backstrokes.

      So that one line stuck like Spiderman's webs all over everything he aimed it at like a widespread torpedo attack. Before he pulled that little trick people were listening to me. He backed them all up into a corner and they never got up the backbone to come out even after he left Office. He was a hired gun for the Bible's Anti~Christ. You see, they were trying to prevent a certain Bible pronouncement from coming true. Paul wrote "soon as people start saying 'Peace and Safety' instant destruction would be upon them" (paraphrasing 1 Thessalonians 5 v 3).

      If people knew that car engine cooling systems were PREVENTING ENGINE HEAT (FROM FRICTION) FROM MAKING A STEAM ENGINE ~and realized they could do completely away with British Petroleum forever + all the other oil companies~ I imagine they'd start shouting Hosannahs or something. They'd go a'marching into a whole nother world.

      You simply cannot be allowed to go in that room.

    • 5 months ago
  • JohnA
  • Gravity_Man
    • +1
      Gravity_Man  
    • JohnA:

      Do you know how hot an engine gets when the radiator water runs out? That's part of it. The other part is to pull all the sparkplugs and replace with water injectors that SERVE DOUBLE DUTY as heater elements.

      The water is injected and hits the heater elements, like splash plates. I'm not a physicist or anything but the supply of heat is easily solved.

      When water changes to steam it's called a "State Change". An example of this is to heat a skillet on the stove and toss a drop of water into the pan. See how instantly a state change takes place! Once a state change begins nothing can stop it short of maybe nuclear I guess.

      One drop of H2O expands 800 times. But that's just the beginning! You see, since the piston isn't returning and being asked to compress air to 8:1 ratio (lost horsepower) all the steam energy is going into Forward Power. Also, instead of being a 4-stroke engine with only one Power Stroke every 4... this steam conversion engine would be every down stroke a Power Stroke, doubling the horsepower.

      Bear in mind many a car today barely needs 120 horses anyway due to smallness and low weight. All told => inexhaustible => and quite limitless => and reusable "fuel" from Water.

      You can also replace nuclear power plants with such an engine. They aren't using coal or diesel, no fossil fuels. The exponential State Change power explodes beyond the horses required to spin the generator to power the heated injector plugs. Plus the water when it condenses back to liquid is still very hot so when it is injected over again it is already near to steam explosion temperature.

      It only gets Better & Better the more you look at it. You would need to drill a drainhole in the side of the cylinder at the point where some pressure remains so that the condensed water would be blown out LIKE A WHALE'S BLOWHOLE.

    • 5 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
  • Gravity_Man
    • +1
      Gravity_Man  
    • JohnA:

      The heated injectors would be doing what the sparkplugs do now => heat the engine. However, for the sake of argument and fairness let's say engine friction + injectors wasn't quite enough then you'd have to design in a central sparkplug and use a tiny amount of combustion fuel as the "kicker".

      You'd still be pushing thousands of pounds of vehicle down the highway for pennies a mile IF that was necessary. I don't think it is. Steam Power is an awesome energy, a wonderful energy too w/out using Coal or Wood.

      The difficult part is to get people to think Steam without thinking Coal and Wood at the same time but once you get over that hump it's CLEAR SAILING TIL DAWN.

    • 5 months ago
  • rerushg
    • +1
      rerushg  

    • Never not awesome! Thanks.
      Hard to believe that was almost 20 years ago and we're still having an impossible time getting governments to have legitimate conversation. Note that her own country formally withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol last week.

    • 5 months ago
  • wolfess
    • +2
      wolfess  

    • "You are what you do, not what you say," these are profound words that so many don't seem to understand; or maybe they just don't care -- we ALL need to 'DO' instead of simply speaking. Words are hollow if we fail to act on them.

    • 5 months ago
  • kennymotown
  • wolfess
  • kennymotown
  • letsliveinpeace
  • BRAVATRAVELS
  • letsliveinpeace
    • +7
      letsliveinpeace  
    • BRAVATRAVELS:

      Oh yes she is amazing It takes ability, knowledge and talent to express oneself the way this little girl did. In addition to keeping their attention, her thoughts and words stimulated further thinking on the subject. she's revered highly, you can see it in their eyes. I wish her continued success in her life. Again thanks for sharing this. It's good to revisited positive stories like this.

    • 5 months ago
  • EdJoyProductions
  • BRAVATRAVELS
  • EdJoyProductions
  • letsliveinpeace
  • EdJoyProductions
  • letsliveinpeace
  • EdJoyProductions
  • BRAVATRAVELS
    • +5
      BRAVATRAVELS  

    • How come a young lady has more common sense than half of our politicians??

      This video was 20 years ago and still is relevant...\\

      What is it going to take for us to get it!!!

    • 5 months ago
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