Severn Cullis-Suzuki
I feel angry that I have been born into a society where, by no choice of my own, by no agreement, by no actual decision, I am inherently complicit in the destruction of the world. It is hard to do the right thing. You have to be militant. You have to be an activist. You have to be branded as green to do the right thing.Collection: Society
I am called an environmentalist a lot. But I don't necessarily identify with that word specifically, because of the compartmentalization of the so-called environmental movement.Collection: Environmental
I began to lead two lives... one being a kid and the other starting to speak internationally about the environment... and advocating for social and environmental justice.Collection: Environmental
I am only a child. Yet I know that if all the money spent on war was spent on ending poverty and finding environmental answers, what a wonderful place this would be.Collection: Environmental
Real environmental change depends on us. We can't wait for our leaders. We have to focus on what our own responsibilities are and how we can make the change happen.Collection: Environmental
In school 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? You grownups say you love us, but I challenge you, please, to make your actions reflect your words.Collection: Respect
I don't want to pretend that I am a little David Suzuki, because I am not. I'm really different. I have different issues. I'm more interested in the social aspect of environmental issues.Collection: Environmental
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!
In my life, I have dreamt of seeing the great herds of wild animals, jungles and rainforests full of birds and butterflies, but now I wonder if they will even exist for my children to see.
The '90s came, and then the 2000s, and we saw radical corporate interest extremism, we've seen the disparity between rich and poor just get bigger, with globalisation and the corporate agenda on the rise ever since.
I am afraid to go out in the sun now because of the holes in our ozone, I am afraid to breathe the air because I don't know what chemicals are in it.
Reducing our personal impact on the Earth via our ecological footprint, stop driving cars, eat less meat, all these things matter.
Well, I think it's pretty incredible watching Greta Thunberg in action.
When I became a mother, I was trying so hard, using reusable diapers, washing them, looking for organic supplies even though it's much more expensive, and facing so many challenges attempting to do the right thing.
We find ourselves heading fully into an era of mass extinction.
A theme throughout my life has been the intergenerational relationships human beings have.
As a parent, I understand that on an individual level parents would do anything for their child.
When we look as a society, we've really lost the connection between our actions and the future.
Growing up there was always a sense of 'We have so many gifts and we have to use that for the betterment of the planet.'
I was at Earth Summit in Rio 20 years ago... I was only 12 years old. And when I was speaking to the U.N. I was fighting for my future.
Despite humans killing off whales as much as they could, give it time and they come back. If we give nature a chance, it will regenerate.
The end times are here. And that is a lot, so that is why we have to do our best to stop it.
When you are little, it's not hard to believe you can change the world.
In my home city of Vancouver, most people put out their recycling boxes. The organic grocery and cafe on Fourth Avenue is flourishing. Bikes are popular, and there are a few gas-electric hybrid cars gliding around. But as this new century begins, my twentysomething generation is becoming increasingly disconnected from the natural world.
When I was little, the world was simple. But as a young adult, I'm learning that as we have to make choices - education, career, lifestyle - life gets more and more complicated.
Fragmentation is a big part of the problem. You have a city where trash is taken away from the curb every week, and you don't see it any more, and you don't have any sense of where water comes from. So there's no sense of responsibility and accountability and there's also no sense of empowerment for our actions.
Slow business is an interesting area because it's taking into consideration the reality that we have to make a living.
Clean air and clean ocean, you can't translate that into money if you look at the cost to health, cost to fishery industry.
When you pay for something, it's not just buying something from the store. You are actually supporting the political and economic structures that provide you with that good.
It's always been young people at the forefront of any revolution.
Social media has democratised platforms of expression so much - now a child can have a very loud voice.
There isn't a line that you can draw between the air and your body. We are the environment.
Engaging with your school as a unit of community is pretty powerful.
I worry that more and more kids my age are growing up without experiencing the outdoors, which means that fewer will care about the natural world.
At nine, I started catching fish in Vancouver full of tumours from toxins.
The Haida people taught me when you are depleted, go to places that are sacred for you - the ocean, or a forest. That is where you will find incredible energy.
We're in a new reality, living in a time of climate change. We already have climate refugees around the globe and now have to talk about adaptation and mitigation.
Sometimes it's hard not to feel really negative.
I don't want to be involved with just the environment because I think other issues tie so much into the environment, like native issues, children's issues, women's rights - I think they all completely tie into each other, even the economy.
Racism really, really makes me mad. I can see identical traits in people from other sides of the world and I can't believe some people would treat other human beings like they weren't even the same species.
I really have a passion for the sea, so I think it's important that whatever I do, I want to be near the sea.
Look at how lucky white people are compared to black people, who have suffered so much just because of their skin color, and then there are native people, who were the first people of this country and have suffered so much just because some newcomers came over and said 'hey this looks like a nice place to set up camp, just hand it over to us.'
At school, even in kindergarten, you teach us how to behave in the world. You teach us to not 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?Collection: Hurt
I known I'm only a child, yet I know we're all in the this together and should act as one single world towards one single goalCollection: Children
If you don’t know how to fix it, please, stop breaking it.Collection: Ozone
This aged economic system is out of date!Collection: Economic