In a scathing speech, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., told a University of Wisconsin audience Wednesday that President Bush is the “worst environmental president we’ve had in American history.”
Kennedy spoke at Memorial Union to a crowd largely composed of disappointed Kerry supporters the day after the presidential election.
Kennedy, an environmental attorney who believes “when we destroy nature, we diminish ourselves,” has just released a new book, Crimes Against Nature.
“It’s about the corrosive impact of excessive corporate power,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy complained the Bush administration uses “Orwellian rhetoric” to create the illusion of environmental sympathy, citing the Clear Skies and Healthy Forest initiatives as examples of tearing “the conserve out of conservatism.” He chastised the “absolute criminal negligence of the American press” for not educating Americans on environmental issues.
“Most Americans don’t know what is going on,” he said. “The press has not done its job of connecting the dots for the American people.”
Kennedy also criticized many reporters for acting as “stenographers for the White House.”
“The job of a journalist is about more than balance — it’s finding truth,” he said.
Noting 81 percent of Republicans think the U.S. should have stricter environmental laws, Kennedy said environmental concern was basic to all Americans, not just students or Democrats. He said the problem lies in the “gross misperceptions” many Americans have of what the Bush administration is accountable for and compared environmental destruction to deficit spending.
“I don’t even consider myself an environmentalist anymore. I’m a free marketer,” Kennedy said, adding there is a huge difference between free market capitalism and the kind of corporate crony capitalism he perceives is embraced by this White House.
He also said Americans should not have to choose between economic prosperity and environmental activism.
“The quality of life of most Americans is diminishing,” Kennedy said. He noted asthma rates have quintupled in the last decade. Ozone pollutants such as coal burning utilities cause thousands of deaths each year, Kennedy said, equivalent to multiple World Trade Center attacks.
“This should be on the front page of every single newspaper every single day,” he said.
He also said mercury levels in the United States have reached dangerous levels and one-sixth of American women have enough mercury in the womb to put their children at risk for a range of diseases and brain damage. Kennedy said removing mercury would be of little cost to industrial plants: only 1 percent of plant revenue.
“This White House is so skillful at marginalizing its enemies,” Kennedy said. “They’ve done this to the whole environmental community. There’s nothing radical about clean air and water.”
Kennedy spoke sadly of the last four years, noting: “We lost the love and respect of the world.” He recalled traveling to Europe with his uncle, John F. Kennedy, and father Robert F. Kennedy, Sr., and finding foreigners excited to meet Americans.
“Today we are the most hated nation on the earth,” Kennedy said. “For me, that is the bitterest pill to swallow.”
In a phone interview Tuesday, Kennedy said if Kerry were elected and there were still a Republican Congress, there would be obstacles but Kerry would have the power to “repair some of the damage the Bush administration has caused.”
He said he believed students were increasingly involved in politics and in protecting the environment.
Bush has noted the criticism he has received during his administration, but has disputed them, claiming he has the right plan for the environment.
“I know there’s a lot of politics when it comes to the environment,” Bush said at an Earth Day speech in Florida. “But what I like to do is focus on results.”
In light of Bush’s victory, Kennedy remains determined to rescue the environment from what he perceives as dangerous abuses of corporate power.
“I’m not going to bury the hatchet,” he said. “I’m going to do everything I can to take America back from them.”
