Dennis writes: "It turns out there will be a conference in Atlanta next month about climate change and its effects on public health. It just won't have the federal government behind it."
A view of the Los Angeles skyline as heavy smog shrouds the city in 2015. (photo: Mark Ralston/Getty)
CDC's Canceled Climate Change Conference Is Back On - Thanks to Al Gore
27 January 17
t turns out there will be a conference in Atlanta next month about climate change and its effects on public health. It just won�t have the federal government behind it.
The reason? Former vice president Al Gore.
�He called me and we talked about it and we said, �There�s still a void and still a need.� We said, �Let�s make this thing happen,� � said Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association. �It was a no-brainer.�
News of a revived conference comes days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention abruptly canceled its long-planned Climate and Health Summit in the lead-up to the change in White House administrations. Benjamin called the move a �strategic retreat� given the climate skepticism of the incoming administration.
Emails sent to participants and scheduled speakers did not explain the reason behind CDC�s decision. Nor did the agency offer an explanation in response to a request for comment from The Washington Post, saying only that it was exploring the possibility of holding the event later in the year.
The meeting now planned for Feb. 16 will take place outside of any government circles. Rather than at CDC, it will be held at the nonprofit Carter Center in Atlanta. It will be a one-day event rather than the three days originally planned. Its sponsors now include nongovernmental groups such as the Harvard Global Health Institute, the Turner Foundation and the Climate Reality Project, an education and advocacy group founded by Gore. Organizers say they are aiming to attract as many as 200 attendees from around the country to talk about the mounting risks to human health posed by climate change.
The CDC�s move last week exasperated some environmental and public health advocates, who see the issue as an increasingly urgent one and argue that the agency should have gone forward with the summit unless told otherwise by the Trump administration.
�The meeting was important and should have been held,� one scheduled attendee told The Post. �Politics is politics, but protecting the health of our citizens is one of our government�s most important obligations.�
The cancellation got the attention of Gore, who organizers said hatched the idea to salvage some semblance of the gathering.
�Today we face a challenging political climate, but climate shouldn�t be a political issue,� Gore said in a statement Thursday. �Health professionals urgently need the very best science to protect the public, and climate science has increasingly critical implications for their day-to-day work.�
It�s not clear whether CDC employees who were scheduled to attend the agency-planned event will be allowed to attend its replacement at the Carter Center. A CDC spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Evidence has continued to mount that climate change poses major risks to public health around the globe. Scientists say a warming planet could mean millions more deaths from extreme heat, more frequent outbreaks of disease, longer allergy seasons and more extreme weather.
For instance, researchers writing in the Lancet last year argued that addressing the problem of climate change could be �the greatest global health opportunity of this century.� Not adequately addressing the problem, however, �threatens to undermine the last half century of gains in development and global health.�
The Obama administration also viewed the problem of climate change and health as a serious threat. It held a White House summit on the topic, and the president oversaw initiatives to highlight the links between climate and health, including a 300-page report last summer that underscored how a warming climate could exacerbate major public health problems.
Benjamin said Thursday that given the urgency of the issue, waiting to find ways to address it isn�t an option.
�There�s a thirst out there for this,� he said. �This allows the scientists to get together. We feel really strongly that climate change is affecting our health. We know it�s happening now.�
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Your love for the Constitution-ha ting NSA is duly noted.
Walter? Did you write this?
The Canadian equivalent is the Toronto Globe&Mail which likes to fancy itself as Canada's "newspaper of record". I parted company with them when they recommended electing a Conservative majority govt (Stephen Harper as PM) in the last federal election campaign. They got their wish - I often wonder if they regret it. Common sense would suggest that they should. Anyway, for that and other reasons I gave up on them and shifted to the Toronto Star - which is also partisan but unlike the G&M doesn't pretend it isn't - and is partisan in a more civilized way. Also, the Star has much better columnists: Haroon Siddiqi, Heather Mallick, Linda Mcuaig, Thomas Walkom, Tim Harper, Rick Salutin, Chantal Hebert, ...
1) Participatory Media who's shares are owned by all Founder, Worker, Supplier & Consumer stakeholders who are represented in systems of Progressive Ownership in distinct associations & on the corporate board of directors. Time-based accounting in participatory companies accords credits for each stakeholder's exceptional natural contributions. When each of these 4 stakeholders exceptionally contribute expertise, time, resources, money, property, good, services or patronage, there are ways to measure the market value & accord shares.
https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/structure/7-participatory-companies
2) The news presented covers all perspectives, reporting from all sides with often conflicting vantages given. If media is not presenting all sides, they have a particular agenda, are lazy & usually are deliberately lying. https://sites.google.com/site/indigenecommunity/structure/both-sides-now-equal-time-recorded-dialogues
In 1975, the WP's unionized printers went out on strike. The post's response was to fire them and replace them with non-union labor. One can I think make a reasonable case that this became the precedent for Ronald Reagan doing the same thing to the unionized air traffic controllers in 1981 (hard to imagine Reagan's staff was unaware of this move on the part of the "liberal" WP and figured hey if the "liberal" WP can do it it's a no brainer for us to do the same).
We cannot.
And All Scoundrels Rejoice.
What goes around comes around. What do we expect for the invasions & destruction of humanity's sustainable vastly abundant worldwide 'indigenous' (Latin 'self-generatin g') cultures? Do we expect to just continue on in the destructive colonial patterns we worship? If we want to move forward as a sustainable people, then we will have to address our foundations. www.indigenecommunity.info
Major General Albert Stubblebine, a member of U.S. Military Intelligence Hall of Fame,
tried to get the truth out that no plane hit the Pentagon and the WTC towers were brought down by controlled demolition. No mainstream media including The Guardian would cover his statements.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daNr_TrBw6E
Ted Gunderson, former head of FBI for Los Angeles, Houston and Memphis, gave his opinions on why 9/11 was an inside job. No mainstream media would cover that either.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRaezLTU2a0
So why is the media covering Snowdon?
9/11 is the key to ending war forever, in my opinion.
If the majority knew the truth, it would certainly end the fake war on terror. But would that cause our illusion of democracy to be replaced with the very apparent police state that is lurking in the background, stockpiling millions of rounds of hollow-point bullets?
They have the wealth. They own the media.
They have the police state in place.
And most of the people I talk to have bought their lies.
So why is he cheap if you didn't know?
The answers are 1) Nothing, and 2)Because the rightwing (and extreme left) saw this as an opportunity to vilify Obama.
The uninformed majority in this country would most likely buy the false premise that if it is criminal to reveal the spying, the spying must be legal.
Are Snowden's actions worse than Berger's who only had to pay a fine?
Yes, of course they are! Snowden stole and SHARED classified US intelligence with foreign powers who do not necessarily have our best interests at heart. That's textboook espionage and probably legally treasonous.
Just keep tracking !
Anyone read today's Paul Craig Roberts article about Putin's remarks at the G8?
So thankful for anyone (like Greenwald) who believes that facts are good things, and competency should be a requirement in journalism. Or call the reports and paper, "opinion", not news.
God protect and preserve you, and the nothing but True Liberty and Freedom, and True Journalism, that you represent and uphold, Glenn Greenwald. God speed, True Patriot; and may you live long and prosper in those continued pursuits!
The case of Gary Webb is monumental. When he published his stories in the San Jose Mercury about CIA and cocaine traffic to gangs in LA, the WaPo lead the attack on Webb for his reporting. I recall Pincus was a leader in that attack.
We must remember that Walter Pincus was one reporter exposed in the 70s as having taken payments from the CIA. The Church Committee exposed 300 US journalists who took bribes from the CIA -- regular payroll they called it.
The WaPo story on Greenwald is not new. This is what Pincus and the Post have done over and over. They are the gatekeepers of news. They break the stories that they think americans should know and they cover up what they think americans should not know. Katherine Graham, long time owner of the Post, said exactly this in an interview, "there are some things the people should not know." Hardly, the right attitude for an owner of a major newspaper.