Q:What
environmental problems are of most concern to you right now?
First of all, I think we should really think about the word "environment."
It doesn't just mean trees and wild animals. The environment is
what surrounds you. In the city, on the planet. It includes everything
that physically affects you. I think that understanding that the
environment is everything that surrounds us and interacts with us
is very important-- it makes you realize that environmental issues
are very relevant to your life. Somehow we've become really disconnected
from our surroundings. We've lost consciousness of the fact that
we depend on our surroundings to exist! We don't think about where
our food comes from. We don't think about the fact that we breathe
the air that our cars pump their exhaust into. We don't think about
where our waste water goes after we flush the toilet. This is why
we now have serious environmental problems-- we have separated ourselves
from the reality of living in the environment. Now there are many
problems, like pollution of our air, water and soil, which are affecting
our health and our resources like fisheries and farms. This in
turn is affecting our social issues,
aggravating poverty and social imbalance. Our economies are affected
too. But I think that the issues stem from the root disconnectedness
that especially developed nations seem to have. We have to get back
in touch with how we humans are part of the natural systems that
sustain us. That we depend on. How do we do this? We start learning
about where our water and air come from and go, and we learn about
where our food comes from, and what the effects of our lifestyle
are. And, most importantly, we must spend more time outside, in
nature.
There are many global issues. But I think that it is most important
that everyone start looking to their own countries, their own homes,
their own selves to start tackling the issues at hand.
Q:Give us your mpressions of working as a
commissioner on the UN's Earth Charter.
It was a great experience to work on the Earth Charter Commission.
I was able to spend time with many inspirational people, from Kamla
Chowdhry of India to Mikhail Gorbachev of Russia to Ruud Lubbers
of the Netherlands. On the other hand, it was sometimes very frustrating--
we were trying to come up with a document that all of us (over 30
people), from all over the world, could agree on and believe in.
So it took a long time, and also it couldn't be too specific.
But in the end, we came up with something we could be proud of.
I was especially happy the last time that we met up, at the Earth
Dialogues Conference in France this winter. There were many commissioners
there and our meeting was like a family reunion. And everyone was
united by their dedication to working on social and environmental
issues in their own countries, and through the ethics of the Earth
Charter. It was incredible to hear of how people had used the Charter
in their own countries, cities and communities. I really got the
sense of a global community, that by sharing our individual projects
we were working together around the world. These people were truly
acting locally, thinking globally. It was quite beautiful.
I like that the document talks about spirituality. That it recognizes
nature as a sacred force. I think that that is important. Many
religions and nations know that nature is sacred. And if we think
of it as such it is easier to see our environmental awareness is
a priority.
Q:What are you most concerned about in Japan?
The issues of Japan are paralleled by the problems in other developed
countries with high populations. But Japan is an island, and so
must be very aware of its dependency on resources from the rest
of the world.
Issues that I think are major for Japan: Air-- I've heard that
pollution is very bad in Japan. Keibo says that in elementary school,
children with clear skin are unusual. Most kids have nasty skin
reactions to the air. Is this true? If it is, that's awful! Clean
air is our birthright. This is something we must fight for!
If air is polluted, I'm sure the water is too. Our bodies are
made up mostly of water. If we drink poisoned water, then our bodies
will be made up of poison. It scares me that people in developed
nations (Canada--a country with very clean water is included) are
buying water. This means that we are accepting the fact that the
water isn't clean, and we are abandoning the people that can't afford
to spend their money on water, because it comes from the tap. Water
is our birthright. We must fight for that too.
Another important issue is FOOD. Like Japan, British Columbians
depend on the ocean for food. Today the fish stocks are crashing.
What will we do without the Salmon? Our West Coast is already starving.
In Japan the fish have to be brought from around the world to sustain
the need. Knowing where our food comes from and what the consequences
of our harvesting are is crucial. We must realize that we are destroying
our own resources and we have to make a new plans to sustain longterm
use.
These are issues of our environment. These are also health issues.
And social issues. The point is issues of our environment ARE health
and social issues. And the first step to deal with problems is
to get educated about them, learn all the reasons for the problems,
aspects of them, how the environment affects our health, society
and economy, and vice versa. Then we can start problem solving.
Q: Tell us about Activists who are optimists.
I'm an optimist! We are young! Our whole lives are ahead of
us! We have to be optimistic. And we should be-- the world is an
incredible, beautiful place. We have to make sure that we get to
experience it as such! And ensure that our children can experience
a beautiful world too. A beautiful planet Earth is what our great
grandparents left our grandparents, what our grandparents left for
our parents. We must not be the generation to deny this legacy.
Our generation has a great challenge. Sometimes, the problems
seem so big. It is easy to get depressed when you think about the
imbalance that people have created. But being an activist for the
environment has led to the most amazing experiences I have had.
It has allowed me to meet passionate, inspiring people. I have
learned so much. I've learned about how to communicate with people,
what people care about.
And, perhaps most importantly, it makes me feel empowered. In
working to help the environment, I realize that there are many people
out there who are working on parallel paths. There are people all
over the world trying to make their communities better, trying to
find better ways to do things. Learning about what individuals
and groups of people are doing is a great source of inspiration.
What are environmentalists doing in Japan? I'm sure they're out
there, so we must learn about who they are and what they are working
on!
Q:What will be the core of your message to
the Johannesburg Summit?
I will focus on two things: 1) the interconnectedness of social,
health and environmental issues, and 2) the true theme of the conference:
taking personal RESPONSIBILITY for our problems!
Q:Do you feel the attitudes of Adult political
leaders of the world have changed since the Rio Earth Summit?
One of the problems with politics is that governments only care
about the short term-- getting elected again. That was why in Rio
I wanted them to think about their own children-- to get them to
think about the true, long-term stakes. Unfortunately, after the
last 10 years I think it's evident that after Rio political leaders
haven't started thinking long term at all.
I was hoping that after the September 11th bombings in the US,
people would start paying attention to the global imbalance, and
realize that we must start looking for serious, long-term, global
solutions to prevent such insanity and international attacks between
the Haves and Have-Nots from increasing. But unfortunately the
response of the government has turned into a bandaid solution to
hunt down the bad guys, not investigate the cause of the bad guys.
Q: What advice would you give to the youth of Japan and the rest
of the world in regards to resolving urgent environmental problems?
Get out into nature. I can't stress this enough. It is so important
that youth grow up with a sense of nature. I think it is important
for our individual health and sanity. I am worried that we are
getting more and more disconnected from nature, and that perhaps
our generation might be the first generation that doesn't have childhood
memories of nature. I think that this correlates with the fact
that children in cities are becoming increasingly unhealthy. This
is very dangerous-- if we don't know nature, how will we want to
protect it? We won't know why it is important, and will unfortunately
think we don't need it. If we spend time outdoors, in nature, we
will know and remember why we must preserve the natural world.
Getting out into nature is a big part of learning about the natural
systems and how we fit into nature, and depend on it. We have to
re-learn where our food comes from, how our air and water get purified
by the trees and oceans, and what the effects of our lifestyles
are. Learning about these will lead us closer to solutions to the
problems.
Q: What would be your dream for the future
of the world?
This is the big question! I am still learning, researching and
developing my thoughts on what a bright (and really possible!)
human future would look like. I know that if we spent all the money
we spend on militia, or advertising, or even on cosmetics on trying
to find sustainable solutions, we would have no problem finding
answers!
I think that there must be a revolution of our values. Today
we are taught about short term survival: about short government
terms, quarterly business reports. We are not taught to ask "what
kind of a future do I want?" In school we are taught a lot
of information, but not taught how we, as human beings, fit in with
the natural world and how we can take care of ourselves, each other,
or the Earth. We are not taught that those things are important.
We must give more importance to learning these things.
In the future there will be a revolution of our cities. They will
have to change-- today they are unsustainable. In the future I
hope that we can live in communities, where we feel some interaction
and solidarity with our neighbours. I think every city should have
many community gardens from which the neighbourhood could share
responsibility and the harvest. There also needs to be an efficient,
cheap public transit system.
There are many things that we could do to make our future sustainable,
and to make our cities far more pleasant! It is an exciting challenge.
We need to problem solve! It is very possible; there are many
examples of positive action in many cities. I think that this last
question, what is your dream for the future?, is the first step
to move towards it. This is the question I want to ask children,
youth, adults. What is your dream? And how can we begin to achieve
it? It is a good question to end this interview on, because this
question is the beginning of the solution. I would love to hear
from you what your dreams are, so we can start figuring out how
to make them real.
Thanks, everyone!
Love,
Severn
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