THE COST OF TAKING ACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE:
Isn?t the timing interesting? With the world is in recession and US unemployment figures hovering around 10% the EPA exceeds it authority and determines CO2 is a pollutant that must be regulated.
I challenge Washington to keep money, technology and jobs in the US by reducing trade imbalance. It is estimated that every billion in trade deficit equals 13,000 jobs lost.
America has natural gas and coal in abundance and can eliminate dependence on foreign oil and does not need to send billions to countries that sponsor terrorism.
During the decades America enjoyed great prosperity no concern was expressed for the plight of uninsured. Citizens cannot print money to pay off debt. Families have to balance checkbooks and they do a better job of controlling spending than the Federal Government ever will!
If politicians ignore the opportunity, citizens should Cap and Trade: hand the politicians their caps and trade them in for new ones!
WHO BENEFITS FROM CAP AND TRADE?
The US agreed to transfer jobs and technology to developing countries under INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENT Algiers Declaration, March 1975
In this context, they emphasize the necessity for the full implementation of the Programme of Action adopted by the United Nations General Assembly at its VI Special Session, and accordingly they emphasize the following requirements:
"With regard to the depletable natural resources, as OPEC?s petroleum resources are, it is essential that the transfer of technology must be commensurate in speed and volume with the rate of their depletion, which is being accelerated for the benefit and growth of the economies of the developed countries"
A major portion of the planned or new petrochemical complexes, oil refineries and fertilizer plants be built in the territories of OPEC Member Countries with the co-operation of industrialized nations for export purposes to the developed countries with guaranteed access for such products to the markets of these countries
Bill Gates, finishing his first year as an “elder statesman”, says we need to give more for health care and invest more in energy.
Gates talked to C|Net, launched a new Web site called Gates Notes, and announced he is putting his own money into a $1 billion energy fund put together by Vinod Khosla, on top of other alternative energy investments.
Gates’ big fear is that climate change is taking money from health, but his own actions demonstrate the real dynamic.
Energy makes money, health care takes money, but it takes money to make money.
The concerns about health care were expressed in his annual letter of his Gates Foundation, a philanthropic equivalent to Warren Buffett’s annual reports at Berkshire Hathaway. No surprise since Buffett is giving away his own fortune through the Gates Foundation.
Gates is very interested in vaccines, and has put dollars behind his interest, but notes in the letter that even the best vaccines cost money to distribute, and he initially underestimated the difficulties.
Politics also fights against vaccines. “Many countries have not added a new vaccine for over 20 years. Incredibly, some countries don’t even have a process for deciding whether to add a new vaccine.”
Gates’ Advance Market Commitment is meant to get over this hurdle, with donors putting up the money for distribution before a vaccine goes into the field. But, again, that’s money spent, and Gates (believe it or not) needs donors.
Gates is also becoming a big advocate of foreign aid in his “old age” (I put it in quotes because he’s five months younger than I am). He offers a chart in his letter showing that the U.S. puts less of its GDP into foreign aid than other countries, insisting that it’s an investment that pays. A lot of foreign aid goes into health.
Perhaps his most controversial statement is the one that follows, arguing that international fundraising against climate change must not come at the expense of health care, and making a connection between the two:
I am concerned that some of this money will come from reducing other categories of foreign aid, especially health. If just 1 percent of the $100 billion goal came from vaccine funding, then 700,000 more children could die from preventable diseases. In the long run, not spending on health is a bad deal for the environment because improvements in health, including voluntary family planning, lead people to have smaller families, which in turn reduces the strain on the environment.
On my open source beat, Bill Gates is often seen as a villain, Microsoft an enemy of free software. But it’s hard for me to argue with Gates the philanthropist, although after reading the letter in full I suspect others will.
I wonder how he’ll react to that?
