Real environmental change depends on us. We can't wait for our

Hear now the words of Severn Cullis-Suzuki, spoken with the fire of youth yet carrying the weight of timeless wisdom: “Real environmental change depends on us. We can't wait for our leaders. We have to focus on what our own responsibilities are and how we can make the change happen.” In these words lies a call not to idleness, nor to empty hope, but to action rooted in the heart of each individual. For too often humanity has looked to kings, parliaments, and presidents to rescue the earth, forgetting that true power lies in the hands of the many, not the few.

The meaning of this quote is simple yet profound: environmental change cannot be achieved merely by decrees from above, but by the daily actions of ordinary men and women. Leaders may write laws, but if the people do not alter their ways, the forests will still fall, the rivers will still choke, and the skies will still darken. Cullis-Suzuki calls us to remember that each person is a steward of the earth, entrusted with the sacred task of preserving its life. Responsibility is not to be cast away, nor postponed until governments awaken—it is to be taken up now, in our own lives.

We find echoes of this truth in history. Recall the story of Mahatma Gandhi, who told the Indian people not to wait for foreign rulers or distant parliaments to grant them freedom. Instead, he urged them to spin their own cloth, to resist unjust laws, to live in a way that embodied independence. His was a revolution of daily acts, multiplied across millions of people, and it shook an empire. So too must environmental change be: not only speeches in great halls, but choices in homes, markets, and villages, carried out faithfully until they reshape the destiny of nations.

The words also strike against the slumber of complacency. Many say, “It is the duty of governments to save us,” and so they wait—while oceans rise, forests vanish, and creatures perish. But Cullis-Suzuki reminds us that the waiting itself is the greatest danger. The earth does not pause while we delay; time does not stop while we argue. To act only when leaders decree is to act too late. Therefore, the wise see that the hour of action is not tomorrow, but today, and that the hand of change belongs first to the people.

Yet this call is not one of despair, but of empowerment. For if change lies only with governments, then most of us are powerless. But if it lies within each person, then all are empowered. To walk rather than drive, to plant instead of cut, to refuse waste, to cherish water—these are small acts, but together they form a mighty tide. The individual becomes the seed of transformation, and when countless seeds are sown, the earth is renewed.

The lesson is plain: do not wait for distant voices to command what your conscience already knows. Ask yourself: What can I do, here and now, to preserve life? And then act, even if your act seems small. For just as drops of rain carve rivers and grains of sand form deserts, so too do small deeds of stewardship form great movements of renewal.

Therefore, let us take up Cullis-Suzuki’s charge. Teach your children to love the earth not as a possession, but as a mother. Reduce the burdens you place upon her, honor her rivers and forests, and live with restraint where once you lived with excess. In this way, every person becomes both guardian and warrior for creation.

Thus, her words shall be remembered: real environmental change depends on us. It does not wait on thrones or parliaments—it begins in kitchens, classrooms, and marketplaces. It begins with the choices of today. And when we act as one people, bound by love for the earth, then leaders will follow, and the world shall be healed.