Changing the World 中学3年英語長文　COLUMBUS 21-3

Changing the World 

                                       Severn Cullis-Suzuki
 
  I am here to speak for all future generations.
  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.
  I am afraid to go out in the sun now because of the ozone holes. 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 becoming extinct every day - vanishing forever.
  In my life, I have dreamt of seeing 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.
  Did you have to worry about these things when you were my age ? All this is happening before our eyes and 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 realize, neither do you!
  You don’t know how to fix the ozone holes.
  You don’t know how to bring salmon back to a dead stream.
  You don’t know how to bring back an animal now extinct.
  And you can’t bring back the forests that once grew where there is now a desert.

  If you don’t know how to fix it, please stop breaking it!
  Here you may be delegates of your governments, business people, organizers, reporters or politicians. But really you are mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles. And each of you is somebody’s child.
  I’m only a child, yet I know we are all part of a family, five billion strong - in fact, thirty million species strong - and 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’m 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 let go.
   In Canada, we live a privileged life with plenty of food, water, and shelter. We have watches, bicycles, computers, and television sets - the list could go on for days.
  Two days ago here in Brazil, we were shocked when we spent 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 everything still so greedy?
  I can’t stop thinking that these children are my own age, and that it makes a tremendous difference where you are born. 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 Fast, 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 how 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 are attending these conferences, who you are 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, “Everything’s going to be all right,” “ 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 dad 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.