Interview with ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.

[pritchke]

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. thoughts on the war and on the Bush current U.S. administration's approach to environmental issues.

From: http://www.macleans.ca/
ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.: The U.S. environmentalist laments Washington's focus on war -- and profits

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. is one of America's highest-profile environmental crusaders. Senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, chief prosecuting attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper and president of the Waterkeeper Alliance, he has successfully sued hundreds of polluters. The third child of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated on June 5, 1968, he also visits trouble spots throughout the Americas, where he and his celebrity connections help draw attention to the issues. Some of these have been in Canada: Clayoquot Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island where old-growth forests are being logged, and Alberta, where factory farms are causing water pollution. Kennedy recently spoke with environmental journalist and Maclean's correspondent Stephen Leahy during a visit to Toronto.

How do you feel about the war with Iraq?

America should not go to war because it wants to. It should only go to war if it has to. If conflicts can be solved otherwise, then we have an obligation to do that. I think that has to be done through a combination of diplomatic skills, political adroitness and imagination. I think it's obvious those virtues have been absent in a lot of our decision-making recently.

What about the United States' move toward unilateralism?

I think that's distressing. We're losing a lot of the qualities that make people proud to be Americans, including the moral authority we once wielded around the world.

Has the conflict in the Middle East taken attention away from environmental issues at home?

It has made it easier for large corporations to operate without public scrutiny and enabled them to make deals that are scandalous. The fossil-fuel industry, and other commodity industries, are given much freer rein to operate. I'll give you an example. Smithfield Foods, the largest pork producer in the world, invented a way of raising pigs in large factory farms, which creates huge amounts of pollution, impoverishes farmers, and distorts markets. By educating the public, politicians and press in other countries, like Poland, we've been able to stop Smithfield from expanding into those countries. But as a result of President Bush's efforts to bring Poland into the coalition against Iraq, there was a $12.5-billion loan guarantee. Attached to that guarantee were a number of requirements that forced Poland to accept U.S. corporate presence -- including Smithfield.

How would you characterize the current U.S. administration's approach to environmental issues?

President Bush has a secret war against the environment. It is a stealth attack. He's now eviscerating America's environmental laws. He has 100 proposed rollbacks of environmental regulations that, even if just a portion goes through, by this time next year we will have no federal environmental laws. That's not an exaggeration. These laws are being passed below the radar screen. They're being attached to large budget bills that must be passed so there's no public debate in Congress or elsewhere.

If you talk to the American people -- and all the polling shows this -- around 75 per cent, Democrats and Republicans alike, support stronger environmental laws. Only seven per cent say we need the laws weakened. But it's those seven per cent that have influence with this administration. Those are the people from the oil, chemical and pharmaceutical industries and real estate developers. President Bush is the worst environmental president of the past 100 years.

[Charean]

Somehow none of this surprises me.

I am still hoping that I can last another 2 years until we can vote him out of office... (cough cough)

[khazadman]

As if the father wasn't bad enough, now we have the damn son spewing nonsense. Environmental activist? That's code for not having a real job.