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

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! Barry Werth Outside A blueprint for ecosystem protection. 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. Vice President Al Gore from the Foreword The Riverkeepers is the kind of personal account America needs to hear more often. 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.

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 river they love. John Cronin and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., report from the frontline of environmental activism, the Hudson River Valley, to tell us how we too can fight and win by reclaiming a fundamental right that dates back to the Magna Carta - the right to defend and 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 - John and Bobby describe their dramatic confrontations with more than ninety environmental lawbreakers. They vividly recount the hands-on investigations, the groundbreaking court battles, and the courageous local heroes that characterize their mission to bring to justice some of the world's most powerful institutions. Interweaving the personal, philosophical, and political, 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. It is an eloquent and essential reminder that environmentalism is really about defending democracy and our most basic rights as citizens.