Jordan Wilson
11/12/10
4:41pm
Former US president Bill Clinton spoke at a forum in the Philippines on Wednesday. In this meeting, Clinton addressed what he considers to be the three “most significant problems we see in the modern world.” The first is that the world is too unequal to sustain the economic growth that would help people in the Philippines get a good education, have equitable chances to procure jobs or start good businesses. Clinton adds that this is not a situation unique to the Philippines, but to countries all over the world. Second, Clinton says that “the world is too unstable to be completely sustainable,” with the example of the financial crisis that began in the US and spread around the world. Lastly, he states that the climate change caused by greenhouse gases will remain an issue because “ways of producing (alternative) energy are not sustainable.” Countries do not believe that cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions would lead to better environment and better economics. Further, Clinton praised President Aquino for creating 43% of the electricity from domestic resources – geothermal, hydro and natural gases – and urged him to continue working in that direction because “it’s good for national security… economic security… more jobs and makes you much more competitive for long-term investments.”
This is a decent article about a former president’s ideas on how to better the world’s economic and environmental situations. Bill Clinton points out what he believes to be the world’s three biggest problems, but he doesn’t really give possible solutions or ideas that would help solve the problems. He neglects to provide ideas that would help the world become more equal and be able to sustain economic growth. If there are no solid examples of countries who are doing better than others in sustaining growth, it would be helpful to know what they are doing. If there are none, we should know why there are none and what could be done to stabilize economics across the world, one country at a time. Clinton does give a positive example of how to ameliorate the last biggest problem, climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. He commends one president for creating and using electricity that comes from domestic resources. He hopes that they continue to work on it until 100% of their electricity is domestically created. However, Clinton does not describe this example as one that is helping the environmental issue, but only that it is beneficial for the country’s national and economic security, and creates jobs. It’s nice to identify the problems, but coming up with solutions would be a productive thing to do.
1 comment:
I agree that throwing out some solutions to these problems would have been nice. At least by exposing what he thinks are the greatest issues it will get wheels turning in other peoples mind to start working on solutions.
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