When Robert Redford was promoting the movie The Candidate in 1972, he went on a mock whistle-stop tour through Florida, drawing larger crowds than actual presidential candidates got that year.

The actor would emerge from the back of the train, flash a “V” for victory sign and, in a Bill McKay way, tell them, “I have absolutely nothing to say.”

The satire not withstanding, Redford, who died Tuesday morning at the age of 89 , did have a lot to say. He devoted much of his career to environmental activism, perhaps rivaling or exceeding the time and energy he put in to his film career and independent cinema, in a way that called attention to issues struggling to get headlines.

Among other things, he served as a trustee for the Natural Resources Defense Council for five decades, and the

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