Synopses & Reviews
A modern-day David and Goliath tale,
The Riverkeepers is an impassioned firsthand account by two advocates who have taken on powerful corporate and government polluters to win back the Hudson River. John Cronin and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., tell us how we too can fight for our fundamental right to enjoy our invaluable natural resources.
Revealing shocking stories of commonplace environmental crime -- from drinking water tainted with hospital waste to fish populations contaminated by freely dumped PCBs -- Cronin and Kennedy describe their dramatic confrontations with more than ninety environmental lawbreakers. The Riverkeepers is a timely call to action that will resonate across America as the backlash spearheaded by congressional leaders and their major corporate allies threatens to reverse the hard-won victories in environmental law and policy.
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Samuel G. Freedman The Riverkeepers comes as the tonic for a cynical age. It reminds us that the truest idealists are warriors of a sort.
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Vice President Al Gore from the Foreword The Riverkeepers is the kind of personal account America needs to hear more often.
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Craig Wilson USA Today The Riverkeepers often reads as much like a detective novel as it does a primer on how to reclaim a river.
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Barry Werth Outside A blueprint for ecosystem protection.
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Bill McKibben author of The End of Nature and Maybe One This fine book chronicles two great rivers: the mighty Hudson, unimaginably rich with life, and the equally mighty stream of environmental law that began flowing with the Magna Carta. If each can be freed from the sewage left by corporate polluters, they may nourish us for many centuries yet. Thank God for the Riverkeepers!
About the Author
John Cronin is a former commercial fisherman who was appointed Hudson Riverkeeper in 1983 and lives in Garrison, New York, where he serves as vice president of his local school board.
Table of Contents
ContentsPreface
Foreword by Vice President Al Gore
1. Battleground
2. John Cronin
3. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
4. Keepers
5. King John to General Electric
6. Westway and NIMBY: Democracy at Work
7. Enforcement
8. Watershed
9. Barbarians at the Gate
10. The Human Place
Appendix: Directory of Riverkeeper Programs
Index