If you could tell world leaders to act on poverty and climate change, what would you say?
Brittany Trilford, a 17-year-old New Zealander, was given one such opportunity Wednesday, when she addressed over 100 heads of state at the Rio+20.
She gave a stirring plea, demanding action and asking world leaders, "Are you here to save face? Or are you here to save us?"
We, the next generation, demand change. We demand action so that we have a future and have it guaranteed. We trust that you will, in the next 72 hours, put our interests ahead of all other interests and boldly do the right thing. Please, lead. I want leaders who lead.
I am here to fight for my future. That is why I’m here. I would like to end by asking you to consider why you’re here and what you can do. Are you here to save face? Or are you here to save us?
Trilford won the Date With History competition, which invited young people to record themselves giving a speech about the future they wanted. She didn't learn until later that she would have a chance to speak at the summit.
Rio+20, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, kicked off in Brazil Wednesday. The three-day event brings together heads of states, business leaders, NGOs, and the private sector to try to eradicate poverty, world hunger and climate change. The event is called Rio+20 in honor of the landmark Earth Summit in the city two decades ago. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is representing the US.
Already there is a "cloud of criticism" that the summit is falling far short in establishing clear goals. Expectations have been low for the gathering, as many world leaders are currently more focused on the global economic slowdown and the debt crisis in Europe.
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hey slackware why u criticize here? She is free to say it however she wants. You must be 95 and senile and don't care about the future or else you would have praised her for presenting such a thoughtful and well delivered plea. Your showing the rest of us how not to behave.
Continued fear mongering of the voter's children will leave neocons in power forever. It's costing us votes big time!!!!
How could thousands of scientists with thousands of unique views on the predicted “effects” of CO2 be anything close to a consensus of certain death for my kids? No way! I won't do this needless fear mongering anymore. Who is the neocon again?
-Julian Assange is a climate change denier.
-Occupywallstreet denies climate change because it does not
even mention CO2 in its list of demands because of the bank-funded carbon
trading stock markets run by corporations.
-Obama is a climate change denier because he has not
mentioned the crisis in the last two state of the unions.
-Canada killed Y2Kyoto and nobody cared, especially the
millions of scientists.
-“Socialist” Canada denies climate change because they voted
in a climate change denying prime minister to a majority.
-NASA’s climate change denying scientists have revolted
against NASA’s climate change policy.
History will call climate blame believers fear mongering bible thumpers and end of the world freaks trying to control the weather with taxes and sacrifice or otherwise burn in a CO2 hell.