RFK Jr. Speaks Truth to Power in Live Earth Speech BradBlog.com
Sunday 08 July 2007
TRANSCRIPT: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Comments at Live Earth
Now we've all heard the oil industry and the coal industry and their indentured
servants in the political process telling us that global climate stability is
a luxury that we can't afford. That we have to choose now between economic prosperity
on the one hand and environmental protection on the other. And that is a false
choice.
In 100% of the situations, good environmental policy is identical to good economic
policy - if we want to measure our economy, and this is how we ought to be
measuring it, based upon how it produces jobs and the dignity of jobs over the
generations, how it preserves the values of the assets of our community and
how it averts the catastrophe of global warming.
If, on the other hand, we want to do what they've been urging us to do on Capitol
Hill which is to treat the planet as if it were a business in liquidation, convert
our natural resources to cash as quickly as possible, have a few years of pollution
based prosperity, we can generate an instantaneous cash flow and the illusion
of a prosperous economy. But our children are going to pay for our joyride with
denuded landscapes, with poor health, with huge cleanup costs and with climate
chaos which is going to amplify over time and that they will never be able to
pay.
Environmental injury is deficit spending. It is a way of loading the costs
of our generation's prosperity on to the backs of our children. Climate change
is upon us. Its impacts are going to be catastrophic and we are causing it.
The good news is, we have the scientific and technological capacity to avert
its most catastrophic impacts. We only need the political will.
If we raise fuel economy standards in our automobiles by one mile - we generate
twice the amount of oil that is in the Arctic National Wildlife Refugee. If
we raise fuel economy standards by 7.6 miles per gallon we yield more oil than
we now import from the Persian Gulf. We can eliminate 100% of Persian Gulf oil.
Think about what that would do for our economy, for our foreign policy, for
our global leadership, it would dramatically improve our balance of payments,
reduce our national debt and make all of us more prosperous and more independent
and spare us from wars in the Mid-East that are costing us, already, a trillion
dollars and from entanglements with Mid-Eastern dictators who despise democracy
and are hated by their own people.
Now you've heard today a lot of people say that there are many little things
that you all can do today to avert climate change on your own. But I will tell
you this, it is more important than buying compact flourescent light bulbs or
than buying a fuel efficient automobile. The most important thing you can do
is to get involved in the political process and get rid of all of these rotten
politicians that we have in Washington D.C. -
Who are nothing more than corporate toadies for companies like Exxon and Southern
Company, these villainous companies that consistently put their private financial
interest ahead of American interest and ahead of the interest of all of humanity.
This is treason and we need to start treating them now as traitors.
And they have their slick public relations firms and their phony think tanks
in Washington D.C. and their crooked scientists who are lying to the American
people day after day after day. And we have a press that has completely let
down American Democracy. That's giving us Ana Nicole Smith and Paris Hilton
instead of the issues that we need to understand to make rational decisions
in a democracy - like global warming.
And so I am going to tell you this, that the next time you see John Stossel
or Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity - these flat-earthers, these
corporate toadies, lying to you, lying to the American public, and telling you
that global warming doesn't exist - you send an email to their advertisers
and tell them that you are not going to buy their products anymore.
And I want you to remember this, that we are not protecting the environment
for the sake of the fishes and the birds, we are protecting it because nature
is the infrastructure of our communities. And if we want to meet our obligation
as a generation, as a civilization, as a nation, which is to create communities
for our children that provide them with the same opportunities for dignity,
and enrichment, and good health, and prosperity, and stability as the communities
that our parents gave us, we've got to start by protecting our environmental
infrastructure.
The air we breathe, the water we drink, the wildlife, the public lands, the
things that connect us to our past to our history that provide context to our
communities and that are the source, ultimately, of our values and our virtues
and our character as a people and the future of our children.
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