When I was 7 years old, I announced that I was going to write a book about pollution. I didn't get around to it until I was 29, but I always recognized that pollution was a theft. That it was a way of stealing something from the public - the common earth.
Water keepers patrol local waterways and prosecute polluters. Essentially, they act as the community's coast guard.
If you work hard at anything, you're going to experience some success. And the greatest gift is when you have something you really love to do and you can integrate that into your work life. I feel like it's a real privilege that I get to do something that is good for my community and good for the world. But it's also pleasurable for me.
We have very strong environmental laws in the United States and elsewhere around the world. The problem is that they're seldom enforced.
Democracy is about institutions: it's about having things like schools and judiciary and the Ford Foundation, or 'The Nation' magazine - you need progressive institutions, you know what I mean? Those are important institutions to make sure that the government functions.
