Aged 9, Severn Suzuki founded the Children’s Environmental Organisation. In 1992, long before Greta Thunberg, aged 12, she and three friends raised the money to travel from Canada to speak at the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, to fight for their future and give a young person’s perspective on environmental issues. In 1993, she was honoured in the United Nation’s Environment Programme’s Global 500 Roll of Honour. Sill fighting for the environment, she is now also a speaker, television host and author.
A Child Speaks
Butterflies
are disappearing
like my breath on a windowpane
you would think
this clear view
would help them see
but no
maybe the last, gentle orangutan?
no
perhaps the ocean
lapping with plastic bottles?
no
possibly the last bee?
no
we save the rights
of those with a voice
but we are the undefended
the last tiger walking
and all the adults do is talk
about talking
© Liz Brownlee
Poetry Roundabout 