DECEMBER 15, 2001
Smoke Signals 9
RFK, Jr. Speaks to the Issue of Environmentalism in Portland
Lobbyist, Attorney tells of his work with the Hudson Riverkeepers.
By Chris Mercier
To be completely honest, I can't
really say what was the most im
pressive thing about Robert F.
Kennedy, Jr.'s speech at Portland
State University in early Novem
ber. Maybe the fact that in less than
one hour he was able to provide the
most accurate, compelling, and up
lifting overview of environmental
ism in the United States today,
drawing from childhood experi
ences, a hobby in falconry and in
sights as an environmental lawyer.
That, or the fact he was able to
make the most eloquent of speeches
without so much as a note card.
"He's definitely a Kennedy," said
the man sitting next to me, who I
learned was an Oregon State Leg
islator. We had paid $30 for the honor of
eating breakfast in the Smith Me
morial Ballroom that day. I doubt
we were paying to eat, really, but
rather to have the honor of such a
close seat to the podium from where
Kennedy's speech "Our Sustainable
World" would blow our hair back.
At it turned out, Kennedy un
leashed if not his life story, at least
all the tidbits pertaining to environ
mental issues, all of it explained in
full. A person not even familiar with
the word "environmentalism" could
have listened and understood, only
proving that the ability to commu
nicate effectively and explain clearly
is an enduring trait of the Kennedy
clan, even to this generation.
Kennedy probably would have
attained fame even with a differ
ent last name, particularly on the
ecological front as an attorney for
the Hudson Riverkeeper organiza
tion, a recent chapter of which
opened up on the Willamette. For
those not the familiar with the or
ganization, the Riverkeeper is an
organization of people who have
established boat patrols in at least
two dozen major waterways in the
United States, with a new one just
started in Canada. Their mission:
reporting polluters.
The story of the Hudson
Riverkeepers exemplifies the late
20th century emergence of envi
ronmentalism and perhaps that is
why Kennedy stumps around the
country touting its legacy. The
story began in the Northeast of the
United States, home to the Hudson
River system.
During the 1960's, the concept of
anti-pollution enforcement was
non-existent, even though laws
existed protecting the rivers. Natu
rally local industries polluted freely
without conscience, dumping tox
ins into the river that either killed
fish or saturated them to the point
that eating them was inconceivable
and dangerous. Swimming was
largely considered unhealthy.
"These weren't your typical
tweed-wearing, pipe-smoking,
bearded environmentalists," said
Kennedy. "These were fishermen...
blue-collar workers."
The fishing industry that many
They (Republican?) tried to eliminate all federal
environmental laws. That is a fact. That is not
exaggeration that is not hyperbole. Most of our
laws would have remained in the books but
would have been unenforceable."
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
towns relied upon began to deterio
rate, with no agency that existed
to that had the authority to enforce
environmental laws upon the whole
river. But luckily an old law re
mained from the 1800's that al
lowed one who reported polluters to
be rewarded half the fine a
bounty to some degree.
Report they did, Kennedy said,
and with that reward money bought
a boat, established a patrol and
thus began the Hudson River
keepers. Now the Hudson River is
one of the cleanest waterways in
the Atlantic, including tributaries
like the Mediterranean Sea and the
Black Sea. And the Hudson is one
of the few rivers of the Atlantic to
still retain all original species.
Kennedy still lobbies for the
Riverkeepers on Capitol Hill in
Washington, D.C., a vocation no
doubt giving him an inside view.
Unfortunately, Kennedy said, not
everyone interprets environmental
ism as a good thing, certainly not
the corporations who have to spend
millions in compliance of regulations.
And now the battle rages on as
those same corporations dole out
money to politicians, who in turn
attempt to undo environmental
laws. Only the Clinton presidency,
Kennedy said, stood between the
Republican Congress of the mid
1990's and the eradication of envi
ronmental laws.
"They tried to eliminate all fed
eral environmental laws," he said.
"That is a fact. That is not exag
geration that is not hyperbole. Most
of our laws would have remained
in the books but would have been
unenforceable."
The main argument against en
vironmentalism that comes from
conservatives, he said, is that the
economic cost of compliance remains
too heavy. Not so, he said, because
long run costs generally amount to
more.
He used the Hudson River for
another example, pointing to an
instance in which a General Elec
tric plant opened up in New Jer
sey. General Electric promised one
town hundreds of jobs in exchange
for the right to dump PCB's in to
the river. After making $20 mil
lion in profit over a span of years,
the plant closed down to relocate,
laying off all workers and leaving
millions of dollars of clean-up costs
in its wake.
This, Kennedy said, is a classic
example of how taxpayers end up
paying for the carelessness of cor
porate polluters. While clean-up
costs have a dollar value, the ex
tinction of various animal species
does not.
Kennedy, who has been a falconer
since the age of 11 and even writ
ten one book on the subject, related
seeing his first red-tailed peregrine
falcon as child. He remembers it viv
idly, he explained, because since
then the bird has become extinct, the
result of excessive pollution and
habitat encroachment.
"Here you have this amazing
beautiful creature that took one mil
lion years to evolve," he said. "And
it goes extinct in the blink of an eye
because of ignorance and greed."
Oregon, when environmental is
sues are involved, is an "exemplary
community", Kennedy said. But
the west still remains rife with eco
logical abuse, much of it federally
subsidized. Farmers in Idaho and
Montana, he said, get access to fed
eral (read: public) land and water
for virtually nothing, playing once
again the "jobs" card with politi
cians. Farmers in Idaho, he said,
can get water from the government
for a fraction of the cost that a pri-
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, 5 8
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
vate supplier would demand (One
wonders why he didn't bring up
Klamath Falls' water problems).
And mining companies, he also
said, can likewise get access to pub
lic land and the resources for virtu
ally nothing. It is the same for log
gers and logging companies. And
clean-up costs? U.S. taxpayers
pay.
No surprise then, he said, that log
gers, miners and farmers are the
biggest critics of environmental poli
cies such laws prevent the exploi
tation and curbs their profits.
"But if you ask me," he said.
"They are all really just a bunch of
whiners."
Not exactly the words one expects
from a Harvard graduate, but ef
fective nonetheless. D
m.
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