BEE Japan

The message of protecting te environment, living sustainabily and all that jazz can sound pretty dull, or worse, didactic to many people.  Perhaps its that we’re so jaded and we don’t feel like we can trust politicians who set standards to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, only to break such promises when the new administration takes place (like most botches in the arena of international relations, we’re all too familiar with the bird that the Bush admin flipped to the Kyoto Protocol).  Or maybe it’s because “eco” has become as household name–really, how “green” can a new blender or hairdryer be?

But like I said, don’t take it from us.  We’re just a rag-tag group of 24~30 year-olds trying to share our best advice about how to live with less & still lead a fun, semi-normal life while riding what’s turning into 4000km across Japan (besides it pretty common sense to live thriftily when you have to lug all your material possessions around on a bike.

If not us, then who worth listening to?  Well, for starters, Severn Suzuki.  She made a speech in 1992 that I doubt many people are familiar with, one that urges our world “leaders” to quite playing tiddly-winks with our vital resources (air, water & food), and get freaking serious about solving many of the problems that if left unattended will render this Earth uninhabitable for our children.

This is the speech Severn Suzuki made at the Rio UN Earth Summit in 1992.  We listened to it today in a workshop here in Aichi Prefecture, Anjo City, which was provided by Kie Hirano-san of Gitanjari Fair Trade Shop and the International Understanding Group of Anjo.

Even though it was made almost 20 years ago, the exact same problems still plague our planet and its citizens–animals and plants alike–and it’s seems likely that our best minds and political representatives (who jobs are to serve us and protect us rather than serve their own needs) are not listening to the voices of their own children.  So I echo the call Severn made 17 years ago, in hopes that other young people will recognize its value and resound its words until her requests are met and we can create a world worthy of passing on to our children.

On a personal note, I realized while listening to this speech that I too am a child with the same questions, fears, and anger that Severn expresses in her speech.  I have been thinking seriously about whether or not I want to bring my own children into a world that I know will collapse and banish them to live in poverty of the wealth and beauty that I have been so fortunate to have experienced.   They deseve more.  I challenge everyone to think of a beautiful moment in nature they have felt or seen, and think deeply about whether or not their own children will be able to share that same memory.

Severn Suzuki’s Rio Summit Speech: YouTube version

“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”