There are really only two stories the coal industry tells: "Coal keeps the lights on, and by implication, you'll live in medieval, soul-shattering darkness if you don't let us do whatever the hell we want with the landscape and drinking water you public health, because there's no alternative."

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Categorized in : Two Drinking Light

The first sign of tyranny is government's complicity in privatizing the commons for private gain.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

gains government firsts

While communism is the control of business by government, fascism is the control of government by business.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

fascism communism government

Corporations are a good thing. But corporations should not be running our government... They have driven the American economy since its founding, and the prosperity of our country is largely dependent on the free operation of corporations. But some corporations don't want free markets, and they don't want democracy. They want profits.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

government running country

Most Americans don't know about environmental problems, because we have in our country a negligent and indolent press. The biggest lie that the right wing holds in our country is that there is such a thing as a liberal media. Americans are getting their news from the right-wing media.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

wings country lying

We protect nature not for nature's sake but for our own sake because it's the infrastructure of our communities.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

community nature sake

Corporate polluters, their phony think tanks and political toadies like to marginalize environmentalists as tree huggers, or radicals. But there is nothing radical about clean air or water.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

air water thinking

The most patriotic thing you can do is to take care of the environment and try to live sustainably.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

patriotic care trying

Listen, the environmental movement is not about protecting the fishes and the birds so much as recognizing that nature is the infrastructure of our communities ... If you're saying the values that drive the environmental movement are uncool and antithetical to America, then I would argue just the opposite. If you think being patriotic is not cool, I'd say that's not true either. I'd say the most patriotic thing you can do is to take care of the environment and try to live sustainably.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

patriotic opposites thinking

If we don't cut carbon's money pipeline, we will pay for their gasoline with floods, droughts, fires, super storms, drowned cities, mass extinctions, wars, and collapsing civilizations.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

cutting fire war

These are facts that would make every American upset. Our birthright is being stolen, the legacy of our country is at stake, and the values of our nation are in peril. The future whispers, and the present shouts.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

upset legacy country

Like other Americans, I've reconciled myself to the idea that an animal's life has been sacrificed to bring me a meal of pork or chicken. However, industrial meat production - which subjects animals to a life of torture - has escalated the karmic costs beyond reconciliation.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

meat animal ideas

The journalists in America are no longer covering critical stories. Investigative journalism is gone. Foreign-news coverage is gone. The press is owned by five giant corporations.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

covering corporations america

You show me a polluter, I'll show you a subsidy. I'll show you a fat cat using political clout to escape the discipline of the free market and force the public to pay his production costs.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

discipline cat political

We do not have free market capitalism in America; we have crony capitalism. There is a huge difference between free market capitalism that democratizes a country and makes us more efficient and prosperous and corporate crony capitalism.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

differences country america

The environment is the most important, the most fundamental, civil-rights issue.... Four out of every five toxic-waste dumps in America is in a black neighborhood.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

toxic-waste rights america

The way you get democracy to function is by informing the public.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

function democracy way

We know more about Tom [Cruise] and Katie [Holmes] than we do about global warming. We're the most entertained, least informed people in the world.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

global-warming people world

The Republicans are 90% corrupt, and the Democrats are 50% corrupt.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

democrat republican

Twenty-two percent of Americans say their primary news source is Fox News. It's divided our country in a way that we haven't been divided probably since the Civil War, and its empowered large corporations to get certain kinds of politicians and ideologues who are in the United State Congress elected -- the Tea Party ideologues who control the Republican Party.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

party war country

Investigative journalism has been relegated to a very, very tiny space in America. We don't really have much investigative journalism left. And the last refuge for it is documentary filmmaking.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

documentaries space america