Quotes from Severn Cullis-Suzuki

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.'

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.

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.

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.

When you are little, it's not hard to believe you can change the world.

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.

Social media has democratised platforms of expression so much - now a child can have a very loud voice.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

A theme throughout my life has been the intergenerational relationships human beings have.

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.

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.'

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.

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.

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.

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.

We find ourselves heading fully into an era of mass extinction.

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.

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 goal