More than 50 years after his uncle, John F. Kennedy, spoke at UW-Platteville, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. addressed a crowded Williams Fieldhouse on March 26 as the university’s distinguished lecturer of 2010. Kennedy spoke from the same podium as JFK did when he visited the campus while campaigning to be the nation’s 35th president.

“Excuse me a minute while I move uncle Jack’s podium,” Kennedy said as he began his hour-and-a-half long speech on the environment and moving the nation forward in a green way.

While growing up in a family who was very interested in government and politics, Kennedy said that he has always been interested in ecology.
“I was interested in the environment since I was a little boy,” Kennedy said. “When I was eight years old, I wrote my uncle, President Kennedy, and told him I wanted to talk to him about pollution and the environment.”

Kennedy said that in order to preserve Appalachia, underground mining should be used instead of mountain top mining. Kennedy said only three more miners would be needed to mine underground as compared to mountain top mining. He said that the amount of dynamite used in one week in Appalachia is the equivalent of what is needed to produce an atomic bomb the size of the one that was dropped on Hiroshima in World War II.

Another issue that Kennedy spoke about was solar energy.

“Over a ten-year period the US will spend over $4.3 trillion toward the war in Iraq,” Kennedy said. “Today we have the opportunity to build an infrastructure that will impact history. For less than the cost of the war in Iraq, we could have free energy forever.”

The largest wind farm in history is being constructed in Texas. Kennedy said there are 3,000 employees needed for the project, and 2,600 of those employees are in China.

“We own the wind industry in this country,” Kennedy said. “This is the arms-race of the future, and the Chinese are dumping products on our market.”

Kennedy recognized that being eco-friendly may be costly, but assured students that there are ways they can get involved. Kennedy told students that if they want to see a change in the world, they need to become actively involved in their community, environment and politics.
“If you care about the environment get involved in the politics,” Kennedy said. “Work for politicians. It is more important to change your politician than it is to change your light bulb.”

Kennedy said that the students at UW-P have the opportunity of being part of the very bright future of the United States.

“We have a huge future in this country. This university is in good shape for the future, because it is taking part of the environment with green initiatives,” Kennedy said. “We are not protecting the environment for birds and rivers, we are protecting nature for ourselves and our future.”

One of Kennedy’s current interests is mountain-top mining in the Appalachian Mountains. Kennedy said that over 1.4 million acres, an area larger than the state of Delaware, has been lost due to mining in Appalachia. Kennedy said that unlike most forests that usually have only five dominant species of trees, the forests in Appalachia have over 80 dominant species. Kennedy said that the Appalachian forests are considered the mother forests of the continent due to this abundance of foliage.