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Bill Clinton Headlines Harvard Conference on Disaster Preparation, Warns of Looming Crises
05-04-2007 4:45 PM
By JESSE HARLAN ALDERMAN, Associated Press Writer
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (Associated Press) -- Former President Bill Clinton said Friday that disasters such as worldwide famine and an obesity epidemic could destroy the U.S. health care system unless politicians begin to look ahead and cooperate.
Clinton, speaking at a forum sponsored by Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, said losses of natural resources such as oil and farmable soil, coupled with rising population and climate change is a "combustible mix."
"This is coming," Clinton said. "And I know there is no great political constituency for these things, but we can avert these disasters for not very much money if they can be put into the public debate."
The Kennedy School is spending $1.5 million over two years to study why governments across the world have failed to act on threats such as heat waves and hurricanes, even when they know they are coming.
From looking back at Hurricane Katrina and forward to the absence of firm plans to cool the planet or stem malaria, some of the school's top researchers will study the roots of government inaction.
The studies will help Congress, presidential candidates and world leaders learn from past mistakes and prepare for future action, said Christopher Stone, a Kennedy School professor and head of the initiative.
The program was born in the botched response to Katrina _ the hurricane that experts had warned for years would ravage New Orleans' inadequate levies and poorly sheltered coast.
From looking at the failures, the world can better prepare for future disasters, just as the architects of World War II righted the woeful preparation for World War I, Stone said.
"Each of these are threats that we know are going to happen. This is not like saying, 'What do we do if the president of China is kidnapped tomorrow,'" Stone said. "It's not even that there is really technical disagreement about these things. It's just a matter of figuring how we can get governments to act."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
I miss Bubba...
05-04-2007 4:45 PM
By JESSE HARLAN ALDERMAN, Associated Press Writer
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (Associated Press) -- Former President Bill Clinton said Friday that disasters such as worldwide famine and an obesity epidemic could destroy the U.S. health care system unless politicians begin to look ahead and cooperate.
Clinton, speaking at a forum sponsored by Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, said losses of natural resources such as oil and farmable soil, coupled with rising population and climate change is a "combustible mix."
"This is coming," Clinton said. "And I know there is no great political constituency for these things, but we can avert these disasters for not very much money if they can be put into the public debate."
The Kennedy School is spending $1.5 million over two years to study why governments across the world have failed to act on threats such as heat waves and hurricanes, even when they know they are coming.
From looking back at Hurricane Katrina and forward to the absence of firm plans to cool the planet or stem malaria, some of the school's top researchers will study the roots of government inaction.
The studies will help Congress, presidential candidates and world leaders learn from past mistakes and prepare for future action, said Christopher Stone, a Kennedy School professor and head of the initiative.
The program was born in the botched response to Katrina _ the hurricane that experts had warned for years would ravage New Orleans' inadequate levies and poorly sheltered coast.
From looking at the failures, the world can better prepare for future disasters, just as the architects of World War II righted the woeful preparation for World War I, Stone said.
"Each of these are threats that we know are going to happen. This is not like saying, 'What do we do if the president of China is kidnapped tomorrow,'" Stone said. "It's not even that there is really technical disagreement about these things. It's just a matter of figuring how we can get governments to act."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
I miss Bubba...
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