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Published in Autumn 2002
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Goodbye to an environmental pioneer
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By Jon Plaut
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John Wirth
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My last conversation with John Wirth was on June 19, in Ottawa, at a meeting of the CEC's Joint Public Advisory Committee. A distinguished historian who had recently retired from Stanford University, John was known by his peers as an environmental prince and the soul and driving force of the continental approach. He was leaving for Toronto as the meeting concluded, but stopped at the hotel shop to buy two copies of The New York Times. One he handed to me, as my reward for "your three days hard work, my President," in joking reference to my role as JPAC chair.
The next day, John died suddenly while delivering a lecture at the York Historical Society.
He will be remembered as a tireless advocate for trilateral cooperation on the environment, which has led to such successes as a sound management of chemicals program that achieved the banning of DDT across North America. Among his many contributions to the cause, John was co-founder of the North American Institute (NAMI) in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the author of Smelter Smoke in North America: The Politics of Transborder Pollution, and the co-editor of two other books--Environmental Management on North America's Borders and Identities in North America: The Search for Community. He also founded the North American Community Service program, for young adults from Canada, Mexico, and the United States to work in environmental protection, community development, and historic preservation.
As late as the morning before he died, John Wirth was fighting for yet another continental program: transborder environmental impact assessment, which has been a subject of negotiation between the NAFTA parties, but not yet agreed upon. He also defended NAFTA's Chapter 11 and lobbied his colleagues for action on this thorny issue. John's great commitment to the North American concept was demonstrated, too, by his advocacy for the transboundary San Pedro River project.
North America is much the poorer for John Wirth's untimely death. His late-in-life friends, including former and current JPAC members and myself, join his wife, Nancy, his family, and the entire North and Latin American environmental community in mourning his loss.
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