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Environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. signed his 1997 book The Riverkeepers for Autumn Gonzalez '02 following his informal talk in the New York Room, Friday, March 24. |
In an impassioned speech to a
packed house at MHC last Friday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. underscored
the power of individuals to effect change and urged those concerned
for the welfare of the nation's land, air, and waterways to join
environmental groups. He highlighted the encouraging successes of an
organization called Riverkeeper--a pivotal force behind the Hudson
River clean-up--and presented a scathing critique of Capitol Hill's
evasive environmental tactics and big industry's "theft" of natural
resources. The evening's urgent message was underscored by his
alarming portrait of global environmental neglect. Introduced by MHC's Aaron
Ellison, Fisher Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, Kennedy
began with a presentation of a new bottled-water product called
Keeper Springs, which he plugged with the verve of an ad man and the
timing of a skilled stand-up comic. Profits from the product, he
said, "would go back into the environment" and help clean up streams
and rivers. "I happen to own the company," he quipped. What followed was a
breathless verbal montage of narratives, facts, statistics, and
history focusing on the environment. Urban sprawl he characterized as
"an environmental and social disaster," "the largest threat to the
Connecticut Valley" and what he called "Norman Rockwell" communities.
Malls, he said, "give the sovereignty of your town away." He urged
the "freezing" of development and the building of towns "upwards not
outwards," with an emphasis on "making our communities enriching
places to live." We're losing "our sense of place, our sense of
rootedness," he warned. Using the Hudson River as a
model of environmental recovery, Kennedy recounted the story of the
river's renaissance and the key role played by Riverkeeper, which
began in 1966 as a coalition of fisherman concerned that Hudson River
polluters were robbing them of their fisheries. Today, Kennedy refers
to the Hudson River as "an international model for environmental
protection," calling it "Noah's Ark" for its species-rich cargo. Kennedy's environmental
advocacy has been an uphill battle on Capitol Hill. He frequently
hears legislators claim that environmental protection and economic
prosperity are incompatible and sees this as a "false choice." Though
distressed with White House equivocation on the environment, he
applauded what he marks as the initiation of environmental investment
thirty years ago with the founding of Earth Day and lauded the power
of democracy to provide systems for change. Punctuating his arguments
with species data and personal history, Kennedy spoke of himself as a
passionate falconer whose boyhood sightings of such birds on
Pennsylvania Avenue are a thing of the past. He rattled off grazing
and mining statistics, denouncing government subsidies, while
deploying famous Kennedy wit: "They get the gold, we get the shaft."
Toxins from fertilizers used in farming go directly into ground
water, he said, "until they repeal the law of gravity." He railed
against "filthy industry," "polution-based prosperity," and "fat cats
who use political clout" to abuse the environment for their own ends.
But in his final call to
action, Kennedy celebrated the idea of community, which he defined as
"shared values" and "shared land," and he emphasized the obligation
of stewardship for the welfare of future generations. He ended on a
note of lyrical spirituality and patriotism, as he summoned God,
Jonathan Winthrop's "city on a hill" speech, and a Lakota proverb on
land as inheritance and responsibility.
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