Posted on 12/05/2003 8:39:39 AM PST by Stingray51
To preserve the environment is to preserve a link to God for future generations to enjoy, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said during his address to a Greenwich environmental group yesterday at its annual meeting.
"I don't believe nature is God or we ought to be worshiping it as God," Kennedy told members of the Greenwich Land Trust, a group that works to preserve open space in town. "But I do believe it's how God communicates with us."
Kennedy, an avid outdoorsman and attorney for two environmental groups, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Riverkeeper, talked for an hour at the Round Hill Club about the importance of the environmental fight, especially in light of President Bush's policies, which Kennedy criticized as favoring corporate polluters.
He spoke of new Clean Air Act rules that make it easier for older factories to upgrade without having to put in more pollution controls, and a new Environmental Protection Agency proposal to relax mercury pollution controls among coal-burning power plants, which could choose to make more modest reductions over time in exchange for emission credits.
Ned Lamont, a Land Trust director, introduced Kennedy as a valuable asset to those who are concerned about environmental issues but aren't as vigilant.
"He's our night watchman," Lamont said.
. . . [follow-link for full text]
Kennedy's fascination with nature began early, he said, recounting a story he has told on other occasions about his frequent visits as a child to Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., during the presidency of his uncle, John F. Kennedy.
. . .
Pollution also affects his children, said Kennedy, who lives in New York and has three children, including a son who attends Brunswick School and a daughter who attends Convent of the Sacred Heart, both private schools in Greenwich. All of them have asthma.
"I can watch my children on bad-air days gasping for breath," he said.
. . .
"If you look at every religious tradition, God always talks to humanity most clearly in the wilderness," he said.
Copyright © 2003, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.
(Excerpt) Read more at greenwichtime.com ...
I'm sorry, Ted, I didn't catch your reply...
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.
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