Saturday, September 27, 2008

Clinton Global Initiative meeting discusses poverty, climate change

Associated Press: Global warming and poverty are intertwined because the world's poorest people are the ones hardest hit by changes in the climate, and solutions for both problems need to be found, panelists said Thursday at the second day of an annual conference spearheaded by former President Bill Clinton. "We need programs to match public policy to empower the poorest people and at the same time public policy to fight climate change," President Felipe Calderon of Mexico said at the panel Thursday at the Clinton Global Initiative.

Developing countries should aim for sustainable development but also be realistic in efforts to reduce inequality, said Rajendra K. Pachauri, who shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore for sounding the alarm on global warming. "In the initial period, if one has to provide infrastructure, industrialize and at the same time provide basic services, we really don't have too many choices but to use fossil fuels," he said. But he warned developing countries against following the path of the industrialized world and encouraged them to find a new, sustainable way.

In the United States, efforts to fight global warming can be an opportunity to do the same against poverty, said Van Jones, a civil rights and environmental advocate. Working to make buildings in the United States more energy-efficient could provide millions of jobs, he said….

Demosthenes Practicing Oratory (Démosthène s'exerçant à la parole, Jean Lecomte du Nouÿ (1842-1923)

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