The renowned environmental leader spoke to a unique crowd of teen-agers Monday night, cajoling them to save the world.

Despite the differences in their ages, the elder statesman and chairman of the Earth Island Institute inspired those 60 years younger than himself.

He stood before a crowd of several hundred on opening night of a weeklong Youth Environmental Summit. Nearly 100 students from around the world came to hear him speak at Willamette University as part of their global environmental education.

After describing the horrors of out-of-control population growth and our "addiction to growth," Brower threw in sex--something he said he likes to bring up just to get attention.

"On a dead planet, there'll be no sex," Browser warned.

Peppered with laughter, his speech still carried a hard undertone, challenging the teens to think about the future of a planet being injured daily by consumption.

"It's an incredible device, the human mind," he said. "And it's high time you put it to work."

"We want to look after the world," said Rebekah McQuiggin, an Australian teen who traveled with her teammates for 25 hours to meet other concerned teens from Japan, South Africa, Israel and Salem.

"We are the children of the future, and that means we must change the way people act toward the environment," said Imraan Parker, a high school student from South Africa who, with his teammates, danced for the Monday night crowd.

Later, he and others listened to Brower wax eloquent about nature and the marketplace.

"Economists can tell us how much a forest is worth in pulp and two-by-fours," Brower said. "But not how much it is costing us to lose the carbon dioxide, the oxygen, the habitat, the beauty."

Most of those who listened to Brower on Monday night weren't even born when he began his environmental activism. A good many of their parents weren't born yet, either.

Since the 1930s, he has made waves in the corporate and governmental worlds. His imprint is found in the pristine places he has helped to preserve, including the Grand Canyon, Redwood National Park and the Yukon.

He was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. He was also fired twice from different environmental groups, including the Sierra Club. Though he has yet to capture the peace prize, he did fight his way back into grace with the Sierra Club and serves again on its board of directors.

Oregon Secretary of State Phil Keisling introduced Brower to the audience by saying, "He was not, of course, universally beloved," Brower admits, he is "easily irritated," especially with those who disagree with him.

The agitator's breath may be a little labored. His voice doesn't carry as far as it once did. And he now spends much of time caring for his wife of 54 years.

But he hasn't stopped carrying causes, and hoping for the future.

"You people are tomorrow," he said to the high schoolers. "I'm at best today and largely yesterday. But it is yesterday that I hope you will learn from."

In his effort to pass the preservation torch, Brower laid out the bottom line for the teens: "We've insulted the earth, the land, air, soil and life in ways it's never been insulted before. And we don't even realize we've done it."