Jerome Ringo

Born :

March 2, 1955

The single greatest issue for me as an environmentalist is climate change. I'd have to say that climate change is the single most important issue facing the environmental community and communities as a whole.

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Its going to require a global effort to reduce greenhouse gases and hopefully derail some of the adverse impacts that we are experiencing today and the devastating impacts that we are going to experience in the future as a result of global warming.

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I think that environmentalists have been terribly misunderstood over the years. I believe that anyone that cares about the earth is an environmentalist. People that make a decision to not throw garbage out on the street because they consider the possible impacts. That's environmentalism in its most basic form.

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I am more of a conservationist, myself. And people have come to me and said, "Wow, you're an African-American conservationist!" And my response is, "No, I'm a conservationist who happens to be black."

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I am the first African-American chairman of any major conservation organization in history. That's a big step.

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One of the challenges of educating especially poor people of any color on conservation and environmental issues is that poor people have a list of priorities that are more immediate quality of life issues.

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Some of my greatest role models are the young children who ask the right questions - who will sit down and share their concerns. They're not just learning from me - they're educating me. That's what drives me.

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I think that as an individual and as individuals in general, if we can't leave the earth feeling like we left something that someone in the future can use then I don't feel like we've served our purpose on this earth in an effective manner.

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