The following are quotations from an address by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at Cornell University's Senior Convocation, held from noon to 1 p.m. on May 25 in Barton Hall. Kennedy is supervising attorney at the Environmental Litigation Clinic at Pace University Law School, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council and chief prosecuting attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper.

We preserve nature "not for nature's sake, but because it enriches us. It enriches us economically; it enriches us spiritually; it enriches us culturally. And if we destroy [nature], we will be diminished and our children will be impoverished. We are not preserving those northern forests, as Rush Limbaugh would argue, for the sake of a spotted owl. We are preserving those forests because we believe they have more value to humanity standing than they would have if we cut them down."

• On Hudson River Valley residents' environmental efforts: "They said, 'The constitution of the state of New York says we own the Hudson, and if somebody takes the river from us, they are stealing from us; if somebody poisons the fish, they're stealing the fish.' Today, the Hudson River is probably the richest water body -- in terms of fish production, gallon for gallon -- on the face of the earth, and it's because the community took responsibility for it."
• On the pollution of Long Island Sound: "This is a tragedy that I feel with particular poignancy, because I grew up on Cape Cod and on Glen Cove, Long Island -- which is part of the hydrology of Long Island Sound -- and there are animals that I knew as a boy that my children will never see."
• "The primary threat to the environment today is what's going on on Capitol Hill . . . If the laws that passed in Congress this year were actually enacted by the president, we would have no federal environmental law left in this country; all 19 major statutes would have been eviscerated."
• "If we treat the planet as if it were a business in liquidation, convert all of our natural resources to cash to have a few more years of prosperity, we can generate an instantaneous cash flow and the illusion of a prosperous economy; but our children are going to pay for our joyride."
• "What we do as environmentalists is we elbow our way into the courts, or onto the editorial pages or into the back hallways of Capitol Hill -- where the mining companies, the oil companies, the cigarette companies, the big ranchers and the Cattleman's Association are all cutting up the pie that belongs to us -- and we say, 'We are emissaries for the future, and we demand an accounting. We want to know what you're doing with those things that don't belong to you, that belong to the future.'"
• "Noah's Ark is a mandate for diversity. God didn't say to Noah, 'Give me two of every creature that can demonstrate a current economic value.' He said, 'Take them all.'"
• "We have to stop allowing people to make the argument that an investment in the environment is a diminishment of our nation's wealth. It doesn't diminish our wealth; it's an investment in our nation's infrastructure, the same as investing in telecommunications or roads. . . . Good environmental policy 100 percent of the time is identical to good economic policy."
• "I invite you as a graduate to commit yourself, whatever your profession, to assist in building communities . . . and to devote yourselves and the gifts you've been given, including your diploma from this school, to serving your communities."

Senior Convocation is held the day before Commencement and features a guest speaker invited by members of the senior class.