Environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy speaks

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. earned a standing ovation in the Satellite Student Union last Monday evening, when he spoke under the auspices of the University Lecture Series on "A Contract with Our Future."

Kennedy spoke about the progress that has been made through the efforts of the Hudson River Fisherman's Association and the Hudson Riverkeepers, for which he is the chief prosecuting attorney. Their legal wins have "forced polluters to spend $2 billion on remediation," he said.

"Today the Hudson River is the last major river left [anywhere] that has strong spawning stocks of its native species," Kennedy said.

He said that these successes have inspired the formation of other Riverkeepers on both coasts and that he expects the establishment

of "Keepers" on every major waterway across North America.

Kennedy is a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense council and a clinical professor and supervising attorney at the Environmental Litigation Clinic at Pace University School of Law in New York. His students pursue actual cases of what Kennedy calls "environmental injury."

He praised the past efforts of Cesar Chavez and told the audience, "We must not ransom our children's future for a few years of pollution-based prosperity."