Posted on 02/25/2019 8:59:13 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
On Friday afternoon, a few hundred students, faculty and guests filled the Yale School of Medicine’s Harkness Hall to hear former Secretary of State John Kerry speak about climate change policy and its relation to public health issues.
The event was co-sponsored by the Climate Change and Health Initiative at the Yale School of Public Health and the Yale Institute for Global Health. Moderated by Robert Dubrow, professor at the Yale School of Public Health and director of CCHI, the conversation began with introductions by Sten Vermund, dean of the Yale School of Public Health.
“Secretary Kerry is a champion of an aggressive U.S. and global approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Given the existential threat of global warming, his highlighting of economic and health risks was timely, along with his suggested strategies for positive responses,” Vermund wrote in an email to the News.
After Vermund’s introductions, Dubrow first asked Kerry why he thought a conversation on climate change needed to take place at the Yale School of Public Health.
“This is enormously a matter of public health. It is simply not being met adequately despite all of our efforts in Paris,” Kerry said, referencing the Paris Agreement. “We are, by acts of omission and commission, living out a mutual suicide pact. No exaggeration. We only have one planet.”
In the Paris Agreement, 185 nations agreed to combat climate change and to actively invest in a sustainable, low-carbon future, according to the United Nations’ Climate Change website. Kerry mentioned his disapproval of President Donald Trump’s decision to exit the Paris Agreement several times during the conversation.
Although Kerry identified many negative impacts of climate change, he also shared his faith in current science and technology to mitigate the damage caused by rising global temperatures. According to Kerry, many green technologies exist but are not implemented. He added that the lag between inventing and implementing green technology is largely an issue of the political landscape.
“We need to make 2020 the year we vote out politicians who don’t endorse a green economy,” he said.
Dubrow then asked Kerry his opinion on actions that corporations and industries, including Yale, are taking to impact climate change. He first asked Kerry about divestment from the fossil fuel industry, an issue students have been pressing the University on for several years.
Kerry explained that although any manifestation of reduction in investments of that nature is valuable, he does not expect fossil fuel divestment to have a large impact on climate change.
“Do I think it’s a game changer or that it’s going to make the difference? No, not necessarily,” he said. “Someone else can buy that stock.”
After questions from Dubrow, audience members were invited to participate in the conversation. One attendee asked Kerry about his opinions on the Green New Deal, a set of economic stimulus programs proposed by U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-MA, and U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, intended to address both climate change and inequality.
Kerry explained that he supports ingenuity and pushing the envelope, but sees the proposal as very ambitious.
“It’s reaching a little too fast too far, but there’s no harm. We should be encouraging people to put out new ideas,” he said.
In his closing remarks, Kerry outlined his current plans to create a day of world climate action. According to Kerry, he reserved the domain for the website “One Planet Action” just a few days ago and is hoping to create something akin to “Earth Day,” an annual celebration he helped to establish during the 1970s.
Attendee Harmanpreet Bhatti SPH ’19 wrote on Twitter, “‘We are not doing enough.’ Grateful that I had the opportunity to listen to former Secretary of State John Kerry discuss climate change policy. It served as a great reminder of the work to be done in this field.”
Kerry received his undergraduate degree from Yale College and currently serves as the Distinguished Fellow for Global Affairs at Yale.
LURCH IS BACK......
Surprise surprise. A Liberal is an expert in health care and Climate change.
Why the long face, John?
Are people not buying your BS?
testing the waters
The haughty lurch is back. Ya ever think these assclowns simply love to hear themselves pontificate on any subject?
doesn’t he have quite the estate? he probably isn’t living in a 2 br condo in Somerville..
It should be considered medical malpractice for anyone to talk about “climate change” as a factor in someone’s health, especially if they propose re-distribution and other “anti-global warming” measures as a way to keep people healthy.
He served in VEEEEtnam
There are those who claim, with some evidence, that old John is Alexandria’s mother.
“Doesn’t he have quite the estate?”
_______________________________________
His wife does. When her husband Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania was killed in a helicopter crash, Teresa inherited a boat load of cash and homes.
Kerry latched on to her because he is a gold digger.
Without his CIA bush-hat he’s nothing. One would think he’d wear it all the time. Although it doesn’t fit his brain, where the rice entered.
That this guy still draws breath is astonishing. Of course, I thought the same thing when he was a Senator.
OK!! Everybody pay attention!
Lesson for today:
1. The sun is 1,300,000 times as big as the earth.
2. The sun is a giant nuclear furnace that controls the climates of all its planets.
3. The earth is one of the sun’s planets.
4. The earth is a speck in comparison to the size of the sun.
5. Inhabitants of the earth are less than specks.
Study Question: How do less-than-specks in congress plan to control the sun?
Hard to say who is the biggest idiot here.....
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