Severn Cullis-Suzuki was born on November 20, 1979, in Vancouver, Canada. She is a Canadian environmental activist, speaker, host, and writer. She is an activist who often urges people throughout the world to care about the environment. She is also the son of a well-known environmental activist, David Suzuki.
Her mother is a writer and her father is an environmental activist and also a geneticist, the third generation of Japanese descendants of Canada. When she was 9 years old at Lord Tennyson’s Religious Elementary School in Paris, she founded the Environmental Children’s Organization (ECO). This organization was founded to spread knowledge about the importance of environmental care since childhood. Eco is an organization consisting of children that provides information to other children to care about issues related to the environment.
Severn Cullis-Suzuki and Her Viral Speech
In 1992, when Severn was 12 years old, she struck the world for her short 6-minute speech before the Earth Summit in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. She collected money from members of the Environmental Children Organization to be able to attend the Earth Summit with other members including Michelle Quigg, Vanessa Suttie, and Morgan Geisler.
“You don’t know how to fix a hole in our ozone layer, you don’t know how to restore an animal that is now extinct. And you can’t restore the forest that used to grow in what is now a desert. If you don’t know how to fix it, I ask you to stop damaging it! “Cullis-Suzuki asked.
The conference which was attended by around 10,000 policymakers from all over the world gave her a standing ovation for her speech which left all participants silent. Al Gore even said that this was the best speech. She expressed her fear of the state of the environment and her concern for future generations and presented environmental issues in the view of the young generation at the Earth Summit.
The speech delivered by Cullis-Suzuki has been a hard blow as a warning to the delegates present at the conference to act to save the Earth. The uploaded speech became known to the world as “The Girl Who Silenced the World for 5 Minutes”.
Environmental Activities of Severn Cullis-Suzuki
In 1993, she was awarded an award by the United Nations in the Environment and Doubleday published her 32-page book Tell The World for environmental care activities from the family.
Cullis-Suzuki completed her undergraduate education at Yale University in 2002 with a Bachelor of Science degree in environment and biology. She also hosted the Suzuki’s Nature Quest, a television series program which began airing on Discovery Kids in 2002.
In 2002, she helped introduce research organizations and advocacy for social protection for the community known as The Sky Fish Project. As a special member of Kofi Annan’s advisor, she and other members of The Sky Fish Project carried out their first project, a pledge called Recognition of Responsibility at the Johannes Burg Sustainable Development Summit on August 11, 2002.
The Sky Fish Project finally finished in 2004 and Severn Suzuki resumed her education to pursue a Masters degree at the University of Victoria in the field of ethnobotany. Severn Cullis-Suzuki is now married and has two sons and is still actively involved in environmental advocacy activities.
