Title: Gore, Bono Press West On Climate, Poverty
ALGOREismylife - January 24, 2008 11:00 PM (GMT)
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/24/...in3747503.shtml
Gore, Bono Press West On Climate, Poverty
At World Economic Forum, G-8 Nations Urged To Speed Up Global Warming, Hunger Efforts
DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan. 24, 2008
Irish musician Bono, left, sits with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore while addressing a conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 24, 2008. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
(CBS/AP) Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and Irish rock singer Bono warned the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday that efforts to tackle climate change and global poverty were lagging, and not improving conditions as much as is needed.
At an early-morning session that drew several hundred attendees, climate change campaigner Gore warned that the world climate crisis was worsening, and was in fact unfolding more rapidly than some of the most pessimistic projections by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
"It is difficult to summon the moral imagination necessary to understand the degree of responsibility that is on the shoulders on those of us who are alive in this day and time," said Gore, who shared last year's Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to fight climate change with the IPCC.
"All future generations will at some point look back and make an assessment of whether we succeeded or failed," he added.
Bono, a vocal and high-profile advocate of reducing global poverty by providing debt relief to African nations and boosting efforts to treat and prevent AIDS, was also critical of governments' failure to live up to their promises.
"There are now two million Africans on retroviral drugs and that is pretty astonishing," Bono said. But, he added, pledges by the Group of Eight (G-8) nations of $50 billion annually to eliminate poverty had not been met.
"The G-8 are not making good largely on their commitments. About half, I would say, is where we've got," Bono said. He expressed dismay that the United Nations' millennium development goals - reducing extreme poverty and hunger by half by 2015 - are not likely to be met.
"And this is a scandal," he said.
Speaking to AP Television after addressing the event, Bono said the West needed to work towards tackling extreme poverty, for example in Africa, where many people live on less than one dollar a day.
"The planet is in a precarious place right now and extreme poverty affects a billion people who are living on less than a dollar a day, scrambling for their life. We have a great life in the West. If we want it to continue we have to feel our interconnectedness with the people who are living on less than a dollar a day.
"Europe is next door to Africa. We need to partner with our neighbors in working some of this out."
Bono also stressed the interconnectedness of the issues of climate change and third world debt relief, as the environmental and economic consequences of global warming will only exacerbate efforts to reduce poverty, "and in fact undo all of the work that we've been trying to do over the years."
He called on all attendees to work together so "we can leave behind a better planet than what we were born into."
Bono said German Chancellor Angela Merkel has told him she will press for recommitment.
"She has promised to put that right, and that is courageous" considering that Germany is already spending 4 percent of its gross domestic product on its own efforts to reunify East and West Germany, Bono said.
He noted that French President Nicolas Sarkozy told him earlier this month that he, too, would try to keep France's commitments to the poorest of the poor even though he had his own campaign commitments to improve the lives of the French people.
The annual five-day meeting of 2,500 government, business and academic leaders in the Swiss Alps comes amidst turmoil and markets around the globe.
The opening day was made somber by the lingering fears of economic malaise.
"I think the mood is pretty gloomy," Chrystia Freeland, U.S. managing editor of the Financial Times, told CBS Early Show anchor Harry Smith. "People are watching the U.S. very closely. They're watching the American markets and also the behavior of the American authorities, both the Fed and the Treasury. And the big question here, particularly for the Europeans and the Asians, is will there be contagion? Will America's problems spread to the rest of the world? I think on balance, the Europeans and the Asians think that probably it will."
Gore, Bono Press West On Climate, Poverty
At World Economic Forum, G-8 Nations Urged To Speed Up Global Warming, Hunger Efforts
DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan. 24, 2008
Irish musician Bono, left, sits with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore while addressing a conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 24, 2008. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
(CBS/AP) Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and Irish rock singer Bono warned the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday that efforts to tackle climate change and global poverty were lagging, and not improving conditions as much as is needed.
At an early-morning session that drew several hundred attendees, climate change campaigner Gore warned that the world climate crisis was worsening, and was in fact unfolding more rapidly than some of the most pessimistic projections by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
"It is difficult to summon the moral imagination necessary to understand the degree of responsibility that is on the shoulders on those of us who are alive in this day and time," said Gore, who shared last year's Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to fight climate change with the IPCC.
"All future generations will at some point look back and make an assessment of whether we succeeded or failed," he added.
Bono, a vocal and high-profile advocate of reducing global poverty by providing debt relief to African nations and boosting efforts to treat and prevent AIDS, was also critical of governments' failure to live up to their promises.
"There are now two million Africans on retroviral drugs and that is pretty astonishing," Bono said. But, he added, pledges by the Group of Eight (G-8) nations of $50 billion annually to eliminate poverty had not been met.
"The G-8 are not making good largely on their commitments. About half, I would say, is where we've got," Bono said. He expressed dismay that the United Nations' millennium development goals - reducing extreme poverty and hunger by half by 2015 - are not likely to be met.
"And this is a scandal," he said.
Speaking to AP Television after addressing the event, Bono said the West needed to work towards tackling extreme poverty, for example in Africa, where many people live on less than one dollar a day.
"The planet is in a precarious place right now and extreme poverty affects a billion people who are living on less than a dollar a day, scrambling for their life. We have a great life in the West. If we want it to continue we have to feel our interconnectedness with the people who are living on less than a dollar a day.
"Europe is next door to Africa. We need to partner with our neighbors in working some of this out."
Bono also stressed the interconnectedness of the issues of climate change and third world debt relief, as the environmental and economic consequences of global warming will only exacerbate efforts to reduce poverty, "and in fact undo all of the work that we've been trying to do over the years."
He called on all attendees to work together so "we can leave behind a better planet than what we were born into."
Bono said German Chancellor Angela Merkel has told him she will press for recommitment.
"She has promised to put that right, and that is courageous" considering that Germany is already spending 4 percent of its gross domestic product on its own efforts to reunify East and West Germany, Bono said.
He noted that French President Nicolas Sarkozy told him earlier this month that he, too, would try to keep France's commitments to the poorest of the poor even though he had his own campaign commitments to improve the lives of the French people.
The annual five-day meeting of 2,500 government, business and academic leaders in the Swiss Alps comes amidst turmoil and markets around the globe.
The opening day was made somber by the lingering fears of economic malaise.
"I think the mood is pretty gloomy," Chrystia Freeland, U.S. managing editor of the Financial Times, told CBS Early Show anchor Harry Smith. "People are watching the U.S. very closely. They're watching the American markets and also the behavior of the American authorities, both the Fed and the Treasury. And the big question here, particularly for the Europeans and the Asians, is will there be contagion? Will America's problems spread to the rest of the world? I think on balance, the Europeans and the Asians think that probably it will."
AlGoreFan - January 25, 2008 01:54 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
| Gore says "changing light bulbs" not enough [Video with Gore and Bono: http://uk.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=7...environmentNews ] DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - Climate campaigner Al Gore urged world policymakers on Thursday to change laws "not just light bulbs" in tackling global warming, and a UN official said world market turmoil must not be allowed to delay action. An annual meeting of world political and business leaders in Davos, Switzerland, this year has scheduled a record number of sessions and workshops on global warming. But a sharp downturn on markets and fears of recession have dominated discussion. "If we get distracted by the aberrations that you see in the financial market right now it would clearly be very unfortunate," said Rajendra Pachauri, head of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Gore, in a swipe at U.S. President George W. Bush's environmental record, said the election of a new president in November could only bring an improvement. "In addition to changing the light bulbs, it is far more important to change the laws and to change the treaty obligations that nations have," Gore told delegates, in apparent reference to what he sees as the Bush administration's reluctance to initiate legislation on environmental control. "Whoever is elected is going to have a different position and a better position. But let's be clear: whoever the leaders are, this issue is going to be dealt with responsibly and effectively only when there is a sufficient degree of urgency on the part of the people themselves." MARKET FOR WATER Davos provides a rare opportunity for international business leaders and politicians to debate the means and the costs to economies and industry of reducing greenhouse gases believed to be accelerating global warming with its accompanying dangers of rising sea levels and climate change. Nestle SA Chief Executive Peter Brabeck touched on one of the most sensitive ecological subjects at Davos, the production of biodiesel as an alternative "green" fuel from crops such as maize. Brabeck said the drive for biofuels and industrial usage could severely deplete water resources. Action should be taken to create a market for water to drive conservation. "It takes 9,000 liters of water to produce one liter of biodiesel. This strategy, which is not the right one, is backed by all major governments," he told a panel at Davos. The demand for biofuels in Europe and the United States has also contributed to pressures pushing the cost of maize and soya upwards as world food prices have hit record levels. The head of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation said in Davos the economic slowdown and possible recession in the United States and other rich countries would not have an impact on food prices, at least in the short term. FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf told Reuters the fundamentals that have pushed food prices to records in recent months -- climate change, emerging country demand, demand for biofuels and population growth -- remained in place. (Writing by Ralph Boulton; editing by Sue Thomas) |