I worry that more and more kids my age are growing up without experiencing the outdoors, which means that fewer will care about the natural world.
Interpretation
The quote expresses concern that children are becoming disconnected from nature, leading to a lack of appreciation for the environment.
Severn Cullis-Suzuki highlights the importance of outdoor experiences for children in developing a connection with the natural world. As fewer kids spend time in nature, there is a risk that future generations will be less inclined to value and protect the environment, which is crucial for sustainability and ecological preservation.
In practice
In a speech about environmental conservation, this quote can emphasize the need for outdoor education.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
The roofs are shining from the rain,_x000D_ _x000D_ The sparrows twitter as they fly,_x000D_ _x000D_ And with a windy April grace_x000D_ _x000D_ The little clouds go by._x000D_ _x000D_ Yet the back yards are bare and brown_x000D_ _x000D_ With only one unchanging tree-_x000D_ _x000D_ I could not be so sure of Spring_x000D_ _x000D_ Save that it sings in me.
I wanted to know the name of every stone and flower and insect and bird and beast. I wanted to know where it got its color, where it got its life - but there was no one to tell me.
Nature reserves the right to inflict upon her children the most terrifying jests.
To stay in one place and watch the seasons come and go is tanatmount to constant travel: One is traveling with the earth.
Each solstice is a domain of experience unto itself. At the Summer Solstice, all is green and growing, potential coming into being, the miracle of manifestation painted large on the canvas of awareness. At the Winter Solstice, the wind is cold, trees are bare and all lies in stillness beneath blankets of snow.
How sublime to look down on the workhouse of nature, to see her clouds, hail, snow, rain, thunder, all fabricated at our feet!
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