My dinner with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. delivered the keynote address in March at the annual BuiltGreen conference here in Seattle, a dinner was held in his honor on the eve of the event. As a supporter of the BuiltGreen program, I was lucky enough to attend the dinner and to get up close with Kennedy, a man who bears a striking resemblance to his father, the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and who is in person a soft-spoken, passionate environmental advocate with deep experience and a strong moral compass.
I was raised as an Irish Catholic and the Kennedys were iconic in our household. The dinner was a deeply profound moment for me and my twin, Patti Southard, seated on the other side of the table.
Prior to sitting down to dinner, Kennedy spoke fondly about his boyhood memories of exploring the natural beauty of the Puget Sound region with his father, along with friends such as U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas and famed climber and Northwest native Jim Whittaker. These experiences, it would seem, helped to form Kennedy’s passion for the outdoors and the environment. Through his work as the prosecuting attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper and as president of the Waterkeeper Alliance, Kennedy has transformed his passion into his career.
He has since expanded beyond water issues into a holistic realm of environmental action, including serving on the Board of NRDC; one of the groups I believe is making some of the most significant contributions to protecting endangered species. During his keynote address, he referred to the economy as a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment, and made it clear that economic opportunity is tied to strong environmental policy and practices.
With about 16 of us around the dinner table including director of the Washington State Department of Ecology, Jay Manning, along with designers, land use attorneys, developers, communications professionals, and other government and non-profit leaders, we each brought our own lens through which we viewed Kennedy’s work that evening. As the conversation warmed up and we discussed everything from skiing at Whistler to the country’s energy grid, Kennedy shared his thoughts on the growing list of environmental challenges we face today, the connections between them, and the role the environment plays in the economy.
On energy, Kennedy made it clear (as he did in his speech the following day) that our country needs to put a tremendous amount of support behind the creation of clean, renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power. He also spoke about the need to create an energy grid that can effectively carry energy from renewable sources over long distances, as our current grid cannot. Speaking of this as an opportunity – one where we can create jobs and energy independence – Kennedy explained how this change could take our country out of harm’s way and economic despair as we move away from our dependence on petroleum and coal, and into a more sustainable, enlightened age while creating thousands of truly green jobs.
Many in the media picked up on his language regarding “moving away from the fuels from hell (coal and petroleum) to the fuels from heaven (clean, renewable power).” While this sounds very dramatic, discussing energy and the environment with him in person gave all of us around the dinner table a sense of what’s possible and where we should be going.
Kennedy went on to discuss the dire conditions of many of our natural resources, including damage done to our waterways by years of industrial pollution. He spoke about the deadly impact of acid rain on the lakes and rivers of the Adirondack Mountains, the effects of industrial discharges to the Hudson River and, closer to home, the declining health of Puget Sound.
During his keynote address, he eloquently tied together the issues we discussed the night before, building on them and placing them in context to the well-being of our country and our society – not simply in terms of environmental conservation and preservation.
He spoke of his work to bring electric cars to Israel, where a newly constructed energy grid will allow that country a cleaner environment, and perhaps most importantly, the chance to break dependence on petroleum from surrounding countries.
It is in this very same context that Kennedy spoke of our country’s need to create the tools to get us off petroleum. As an issue of national security – getting off fuels we purchase from countries with which we have hostile relations – and as a step towards creating a truly free market economy.
Kennedy spoke about the massive subsidies he sees coal and oil companies receiving, and how tax breaks are then essential to give a leg up to green businesses that are trying to succeed in the face of this imbalance, green building included.
Throughout his speech, and our dinner, Kennedy addressed with passion his concerns regarding the environment, his criticism of the media for not being accountable when it comes to reporting on environmental issues and his hope for the future. His keynote address was not so much a speech as it was a sermon, as he spoke about the role of nature in the history of all major religions; a place where humankind has sought restoration and inspiration. Shaking his hand, I thought about his father and all the world leaders, environmental leaders and others whose hands he shook before mine.
At the end of dinner I felt that we were all left with a choice. We could go back to our lives, feeling hopeless about the state of the natural environment and of our world, or we could be motivated, knowing we can help address critical environmental issues to make a better future. In this, I was reminded of his uncle, President John F. Kennedy’s famous quote, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” The most patriotic action we can take is to protect this beautiful country and the resources that have been our economic drivers for close to three hundred years.
We are at a scary, exciting time in history, and Kennedy’s messages were global and highlighted the need for informed and immediate action. But it made me think of the importance of taking action at a local level. I thought of my own work supporting organizations like Northwest Natural Resource Group, Salmon Safe and Girl Scouts of Western Washington, helping property owners protect wildlife habitat, and the similar efforts of so many in the Northwest. I think all of us left that dinner, and the conference, with a greater commitment and renewed sense of passion to create a more positive future, fueled by ongoing environmental and economic innovation.
Tags: Built Green, coal dependence, Robert D. Kennedy, Waterkeeper
