Severn Cullis-Suzuki (born 30 November 1979) is a Canadian

environmental activist The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement), also including conservation and green politics, is a diverse philosophical, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues. Environmentalists advo ...

and writer. She has spoken around the world about environmental issues, urging listeners to define their values, act with the future in mind, and take individual responsibility. She is the daughter of Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki.

Biography

Severn Cullis-Suzuki was born and raised in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. Her mother is writer Tara Cullis. Her father,

geneticist A geneticist is a biologist or physician who studies genetics, the science of genes, heredity, and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a scientist or a lecturer. Geneticists may perform general research on genetic processes ...

and environmental activist David Suzuki, is a third-generation Japanese Canadian. While attending Lord Tennyson Elementary School in French Immersion, at age 9, she founded the Environmental Children's Organization (ECO), a group of children dedicated to learning and teaching other youngsters about environmental issues. In 1992, at age 12, Cullis-Suzuki raised money with members of ECO to attend the

Earth Summit The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Rio Conference or the Earth Summit (Portuguese: ECO92), was a major United Nations conference held in Rio de Janeiro from June 3 to June 14, 1992. Earth Su ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

. 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. The video has since become a viral hit, popularly known as "The Girl Who Silenced the World for 5 Minutes". In 1993, she was honored in the

United Nations Environment Programme The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the United Nations Conference on th ...

Global 500 Roll of Honour The Global 500 Roll of Honour was an award given from 1987 to 2003 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The award recognized the environmental achievements of individuals and organizations around the world. A successor system of UNEP ...

. In 1993, Doubleday published her book ''Tell the World'', a 32-page book of environmental steps for families. Cullis-Suzuki graduated from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

in 2002 with a

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overl ...

and

evolutionary biology Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes ( natural selection, common descent, speciation) that produced the diversity of life on Earth. It is also defined as the study of the history of life ...

. After Yale, Cullis-Suzuki spent two years traveling. Cullis-Suzuki co-hosted ''Suzuki's Nature Quest'', a children's television series that aired on

Discovery Kids Discovery Kids (stylized as Discovery K!ds) is a brand name owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Starting as a television segment within the Discovery Channel, the brand expanded as a separate television channel. Most of its worldwide channels were e ...

in 2002. In early 2002, she helped launch an Internet-based

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...

called The Skyfish Project. As a member of

Kofi Annan Kofi Atta Annan (; 8 April 193818 August 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founde ...

's Special Advisory Panel, she and members of the Skyfish Project brought their first project, a pledge called the "Recognition of Responsibility", to the

World Summit on Sustainable Development The World Summit on Sustainable Development 2002, took place in South Africa, from 26 August to 4 September 2002. It was convened to discuss ustainable developmentorganizations, 10 years after the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. (It was the ...

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

in August 2002. The Skyfish Project disbanded in 2004 as Cullis-Suzuki turned her focus back to school. She enrolled in a graduate program at the

University of Victoria The University of Victoria (UVic or Victoria) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. The university traces its roots to Victoria College, the first post-secondary insti ...

to study ethnobotany under

Nancy Turner Nancy Jean Turner (born 1947) is a notable North American ethnobiologist, originally qualified in botany, who has done extensive research work with the indigenous peoples of British Columbia, the results of which she has documented in a number ...

, finishing in 2007. Cullis-Suzuki is the main character in the documentary film ''Severn, the Voice of Our Children'', directed by Jean-Paul Jaud and released theatrically in France on November 10, 2010. Cullis-Suzuki is an

Earth Charter The Earth Charter is an international declaration of fundamental values and principles considered useful by its supporters for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society in the 21st century. Created by a global consultation process, ...

International Council Member.

Personal life

Married in 2008, Cullis-Suzuki lived with her husband and two sons in

Haida Gwaii Haida Gwaii (; hai, X̱aaydag̱a Gwaay.yaay / , literally "Islands of the Haida people") is an archipelago located between off the northern Pacific coast of Canada. The islands are separated from the mainland to the east by the shallow Heca ...

, British Columbia, until August 2021. She moved to Vancouver, BC in order to start her new role as the Executive Director of the David Suzuki Foundation, which she began in September 2021. She is related to two

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

players,

Nick Suzuki Nicholas Suzuki (born August 10, 1999) is a Canadian professional ice hockey centre and captain of the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League (NHL). The Vegas Golden Knights selected him in the first round, 13th overall, of the 2017 NHL ...

and Ryan Suzuki.

Cultural Tributes

In 2009, French guitarist MattRach and his band used extracts from his 1992 speech in their track Human Bullshit.
In 2010, French D
Laurent Wolf
used his 1992 speech to turn it into a track : 2012 - Not The End Of The World.
In 2016, NINSKEEN used part of his speech in the title Make Your Actions Reflect Your Words.
In 2017, the French grou
Grands Boulevards
used an excerpt from his speech in the track Childen of Light 8.
In 2017, the French group Way For Nothing used his speech in the title Consciousness.
In 2016 and 2018, the French musician Owen Le Guen used excerpts from his speech in the tracks Before Our Eyes and They Exist.
In 2018, a few lines of his speech can be heard from the vertical version o
Alan Walker
s Different World music video.
In 2018
Louise Tilleke
painted a portrait of Severn Cullis-Suzuki which she presented in her Parisian exhibition entitled Ask not the Earth….
In 2022, for the thirtieth anniversary, the artist Selfish Patterns uses parts of speech in the track <
1992
/i>.

References

External links

''Severn Cullis-Suzuki official website''
*

''Time'' magazine, August 2002

at Library and Archives Canada
"We Need to Win"
Michael Archer interviews Severn Suzuki, "Guernica" magazine, April 2009
''Democracy Now!'' interview from 2012
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cullis-Suzuki, Severn 1979 births Living people Canadian television personalities Canadian people of Japanese descent Canadian women environmentalists Writers from Vancouver University of Victoria alumni Yale College alumni Child writers 20th-century Canadian women writers 21st-century Canadian women writers Climate activists Canadian women television personalities

Biography

Personal life

Cultural Tributes

See also

References

Further reading

External links