The Riverkeepers: Two Activists Fight to Reclaim Our Environment as a Basic Human Right

by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., John Cronin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Book Overview

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.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 068484625X
• ISBN13: 9780684846255
• Release Date: April 1999
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.67 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.6" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

The Reasons Behind Environmentalism

I spent most of my younger years in the Hudson Valley, and the work of the Riverkeepers has made a profound and positive impact on our local environment. The story of how they have stood up to the corporate and government polluters is outlined here and is inspiring. The real story of The Riverkeepers is outlining why they do what they do - our right to clean air, water, and an unspoiled environment. These are not priviliges, they are rights. For years, anti-environmental hacks have been trying to convince us that to be for the environment is to be anti-property rights, anti-growth, and, as Rush Limbaugh calls us, "wackos." The Riverkeepers points out that these people are motivated by at best a misunderstanding of the issues, and at worst motivated by pure profit. To be an environmentalist, The Riverkeepers points out, is to be for the very essence of American democracy: the rights of the people to stand up and protect our children, property, livelihoods, and future. The Riverkeepers will not only inspire you, it will make you feel at home in your caring for the environment, by showing you your place in the traditions and philosophy behind the environmental movement.

More than I bargained for

I bought this book thinking it would offer a profile of environmental activism that could be turned into action by others- I wanted to see how they did what they did. This I got, but also much more. This a most enlightening book, superbly written, difficult to put down. You get not only a history of environmental activism on the Hudson River, but a brief history of same in the U.S., complete with philosophical underpinnings. If you don't know how corporations act in the U.S., or how government complicity coddles them, read this book. If you THINK you know, read this book. If you are at all concerned about your rights as a citizen, and how they relate to the environment, read this book! An important, gripping work, at once hopeful and dismaying- and certainly inspiring.

Save Rivers, Blame GE

The RIVERKEEPERS is the most important book written in the last 15 years on the modern environmental law movement. This is the story of the battle for control of America's vital resources (i.e., water, air, and fishes,) that sustain life in this country. These resources belong to the PEOPLE, but are being taken away by large-scale private interests. This is the story of the people of New York's forty year fight to take back THEIR blessed Hudson River. If you want cleaner water and a purer democracy, you must read this book, and then go out and fight for OUR rivers. God Bless America's Rivers.

Inspiring, grassroots approach to environmentalism

Activists John Cronin and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., wade through the murky Hudson River, sneak onto corporate property, confront corrupt officials, take the polluters to court, and patrol the river in the Riverkeeper boat. The theme that emerges is that the best place to start improving the environment is in our own neighborhoods. Very inspiring.

It's a keeper!!

This is a terrific book about the beginnings of environmental activism in this country. I read with glee the detailed description of the downfall of Con Ed's Storm King project on the Hudson River--the case that opened up the courts to environmentalists for the first time in history. The book also piqued my interest in Bob Boyle and his writings. My one criticism is that I would like to have seen maps of the Hudson River scattered throughout the text, since I wasn't familiar with all the locations mentioned. And some photos would have made it more interesting. Otherwise, it's an inspiring and informative environmental treatise.