Pierce Brosnan
COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES, MAY 19, 2019
Pierce Brosnan
Doctor of Environmental Advocacy
Citation presented by Kristin Strock
Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies
Conferring of the degree by Margee M. Ensign, President
Pierce Brendan Brosnan, we honor you today as a dedicated environmental advocate. To many, your name evokes iconic characters, including James Bond in Goldeneye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day, and Sam in Mama Mia and Mama Mia Here We Go Again! — I could go on. While we acknowledge your career as a legendary actor, film producer, artist and two-time Golden Globe Award nominee, it is your dedication to using your platform on the world’s stage to advance environmental issues that we honor here today.
In partnership with your wife, Keely Shaye Smith, you have promoted clean air and water campaigns, ocean and marine mammal protection, and defense of land and wildlife habitat. Your most recent endeavor, a highly acclaimed documentary film entitled Poisoning Paradise, which was directed by Keely and produced by you, shines light on the plight of native Hawaiian communities impacted by experimental chemical industry testing of genetically engineered corn and pesticides. You and Keely amplify the voices of local activists fighting for the protection of their local environments and communities. You nobly use your fame to advance the fight for environmental quality and environmental justice.
Taking on industry and governments in the name of protecting the environment is not new to you. For over 20 years, you’ve partnered with the Natural Resources Defense Council to elevate the organization’s environmental advocacy. Through this partnership, you have opposed environmentally destructive projects and activities around the world. You were honored for this work as the recipient of NRDC’s Forces for Nature Award and the 2007 Goldene Kamera award.
In your 20 years of environmental advocacy, one might wonder whether you get discouraged. Recently, you spoke publicly about the challenges and disappointment that can accompany trying to save the natural world, and in response, you referenced a quotation from marine scientist Dr. Roger Payne: “The environmental crisis we face provides us with the most singular opportunity for greatness ever offered in any generation in any civilization.”
Mr. Brosnan, you saved the world four times as James Bond, we honor you now for saving our world with your dedication to environmental activism.
President Ensign, for his commitment to working on behalf of our planet and for environmental justice, it is my honor to present to you Pierce Brosnan for the honorary degree of Doctor of Environmental Advocacy from Dickinson College.
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Pierce Brosnan, upon the recommendation of the faculty to the Board of Trustees, and by its mandamus, I confer upon you the Degree of Doctor of Environmental Advocacy, honoris causa, with all the rights, privileges and distinction thereunto appertaining, in token of which I present you with this diploma and cause you to be invested with the hood of Dickinson College appropriate to the degree.