This is propaganda at its worst. To say that this statement is so powerful because it came from a 13 year old is laughable.

She drank the Kool Aid just like all the other kids who parents raise them to be environmentalists, christians, muslims, democrats, republicans, etc…

The only credit I will give this young women is that she spoke to the U.N. at age 13. That is impressive. Her content was the same crap that they spew today.

"The sky is falling!"

Bleh

She puts a lot of faith in mankinds ability to change thats a mistake

,,,,

I'd be very proud if this girl was my daugther.

Am...to the poster who said she's preaching propaganda, I advise you to be silent, as you are the one spewing propaganda!

No S/F because you do not have your facts straight.

In 1992, at the age of 12, Cullis-Suzuki raised money with members of ECO, to attend the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Along with group members Michelle Quigg, Vanessa Suttie, and Morgan Geisler, Cullis-Suzuki presented environmental issues from a youth perspective at the summit, where she was applauded for a speech to the delegates

EarthSummit =/= UN...

I like how she realizes how lucky her circumstances are, yes, she could have been one of those poor children, and bless her for wanting to help them because they were not lucky enough to be born into her circumstance.

I think I'd die of shock if politicians made sure that their actions reflected their words.

Wise words for a 13 year old...
Yeah, but did she write the speech? I highly doubt it. Was a previous poster correct in saying she was David Suzuki's daughter??
That would explain a lot, as she is pushing for the same agenda he is. Suzuki has been known to wildly exagerate his claims of global warming catastrophe, among other other things, and bellitles scientists who present any AGW skeptical.

Sounds noble doesn't it. The cute little 13 year old said she didn't have an agenda. True. But her dad does. But you have to look at what is really being proposed. The UN wants a transfer of wealth, from the western nations to the third world nations. And they will be the middle man, taking a slice off of that wealth to fund reform of the UN into a global government structure. They have been proposing this for a long time, in fact around the time this speech was made. And Global Warming is going to be their ticket to all this profit.

A lot of what she says rings true, we are harming the environment in more ways than one. But the proposal of transfer of wealth to third world countries, so they can use expensive 'green' energy as opposed to cheap CO2 emmiting energy, in the name of 'climate change' is dubious.

Great speech, well presented by an articulate 13 year old, but questionable motives behind the person who wrote or "helped" write the speech.

words can not describe

Originally posted by Sentry-
How depressing, a decade and a half later and nothing has changed, things have just gotten worse. The problem seems to be that everything is connected, you can't just fix X problem and have Y and Z be solved, we have to change the whole for any real changed to come about, which at this point is nearly impossible to do.

We have to change paradigms, perhaps? [smile]

Yeah, I agree. We have to come up with a different approach.

Children should be seen ..........Not heard.

She probably wrote that speech.
No, I don't know that for certain. But she was definitely capable of it. I'm paraphrasing here, but this is just a fragment of the knowledge and wisdom you dismissed. How WW1 began: "A man got shot and then it all went bang bang". Which, if you think about iot, is a remarkabley consice and succinct explanation of an easily-overcomplicated war. Sure, there are a few details missing, but short is sweet. Adults seem to forget that often. Loud and long seems to be the only way to get your attention, which is why her speech had to be 6 minutes long instead of:
"You're killing people and destroying our world forever. Stop it."

Someone expressed the opinion that this video represents a child parroting the propaganda of others around them.

It is true that in the early 1990s and late 1980s, most kids in public school were taught about the greenhouse effect and pollution, and to that extent, I can entertain the possibility that this is a form of propaganda that she is parroting - of sorts. I am saying this in a strong effort to remain open-minded and to show respect for different points of view.

Nevertheless, it doesn't change the obvious concern that this child had when speaking. It doesn't lessen how real her emotions and desire to articulate a specific message were. Human-caused global warming is scientifically debatable, yes. Whether we are having some negative impact on the environment at all is not, in my personal opinion. Of course, people are free to disagree, and I respect that.

Far more moving to me, however, was her statement that adults always tell children to get along with one another, to resolve their disputes without violence, to be tolerant, and to share, but that the world's governments rendered those lessons hypocritical by persisting in warfare, waste, overconsumption, institutionalized intolerance (political or otherwise,) and greed.

As for whether she wrote this herself: I could easily have written that at the age of eleven.

Wow, it's funny I found this on ATS tonight...

I was just watching this video in a class I had.