That was 10 years ago. Today, a fresh graduate from Yale, Severn is a member of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Advisory Panel for the World Summit in Johannesburg.
Severn is the daughter of an English mother and a Canadian-born-Japanese father. She attributes her predisposition towards standing up for her beliefs to her mixed heritage: “The ethos in my family is that you have, not only a right, but a duty to stand up for what you believe in”.
The Global Youth Reporters caught up with her for a bit, and tried to decipher what else drives this amazing young lady! The following are some excerpts from the interview.
How did you get so involved in championing environmental issues, and especially from such a young age?
I grew up in a family that got to travel quite a lot… and grew aware of the imbalance… I’d say the catalyst, which led to my setting up the Environmental Children’s Organisation, was when my family was at the Amazonian rainforest for 2 weeks, at a Kaiapo village called Aucre. It was such an incredible experience. Then, when we were flying out over the forest, I noticed that the air was full of smoke, and I could see fires… This was the wonderful world which I had discovered just existed… and I had a gut reaction – it seemed wrong.
When I got back to Canada, I told my friends all about what I had seen, and we formed a club, ECO (Environmental Children’s Organisation)… educating ourselves about issues, talking to whoever would listen, organising beach cleanups, various fundraisers, we did a newsletter for kids… lots of things like that…
What would you say is your role as a member of the Advisory Council to the UN Secretary-General?
I can’t tell how effective it was. There are 13 of us from very different backgrounds. We got together at each of the Preliminary meetings – three times; I didn’t make the last one. Part of it was to give a high profile to Summit publicity, get out the message. It’s good for us too, to get our concerns out through the Secretary-General. Right now, there’s real obvious progress at the grassroots level. At Johannesburg, we’re working with a think-tank I’m now part of, Skyfish. We have written a pledge called “Recognition of Responsibility”, for people to make a personal commitment to being more aware of and to having more respect for the natural world. This is really important because, coming to so many conferences, it is very hard to get back to the reality of things…
Tell us a bit more about the reasons behind your introducing the “Recognition of Responsibility” pledge.
The “Recognition of Responsibility” is directed more at first world countries, who really have to think about our responsibility. Life’s pretty good, and there’s not much motivation to change. That’s why (the pledge is called) “Recognition of Responsibility”, because I think we have been really irresponsible people in developed countries…
In a recent article you wrote for TIME Magazine, you revealed a little of the disillusionment you feel about environmental issues. Could you give us some insight into what made you feel this way, please?
If you look at the last 10 years, the promises made in Rio were not fulfilled as they were supposed to be… All this talk about implementation and action was not started only in Johannesburg. It’s worrisome that the last 10 years have been our most greedy in terms of trade and economics… There have been some advances, but overall, Rio has not been acted upon.
What expectations do you have of this Summit?
One thing I hope to come out of the Summit is a commitment on the part of governments to foster and encourage local initiatives towards sustainability. After all, it is on the local level that you feel the effects of the problem, and that you know the solution and will actually act on it.
…I believe that the real action of the Summit will be from the follow-ups in our respective countries, and from personal pressures…
© GLOBAL YOUTH REPORTERS PROGRAMME 2002
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