RFK Jr.: Americans’ Love Nature Can Unite Us

Source: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

From birdwatchers to fishermen, from snowboarders to surfers to people gazing out from their front porch or going for a stroll in the park: America is a country of nature lovers. Let’s put our differences aside and unite to protect the natural world. It’s not only an invaluable economic resource—it’s a portal to the divine and our potential as human beings.

TRANSCRIPT

As President of the United States, I'm going to do more than any president in American history to protect our sacred forests, our wildlife, our landscapes, our rivers and streams, our shorelines and oceans, and our purple mountains' majesty. Because I understand that we're not just protecting nature for nature's sake, we're protecting it for our sake. We will benefit, too, because nature is the infrastructure of our communities. Nature enriches us and enriches us economically, culturally, and historically, but it also enriches us spiritually.

God talks to human beings through many vectors: through organized religions and the great books of those religions, through the prophets and wise people, and through art, literature, music, and poetry. But nowhere with the same detail, texture, grace, and joy as through creation. And when we destroy nature, we impoverish our children. We diminish their capacity and our own to sense the Divine, to understand who God is, and to grasp what our own potential is as human beings. And in that sense, destroying nature is not just a crime against our children; it's a sin against our creator, our community, and ourselves.

I know that I'm not alone in recognizing these truths. America is a nation of nature lovers. It's true of liberals and conservatives, urban and rural folk, climate activists, and climate skeptics. So as president, I'm going to tap into the American love for nature to protect our environment and to inspire the whole world with our example.