After Copenhagen, Even More Reason to Worry

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What Would Failure at Copenhagen Mean for the Poor and Developing Nations?

The Care2 Petitionsite reminds us that we need to protect the poor and vulnerable around the world from the effects of climate change. They are asking that we help the poor with the effects of climate change. ». Currently, they are at 6,744 with a goal of 10,000. I am 6,747. My two cents are below:

We are destroying our planet for us all, which is bad enough, we are also putting the greatest cost on the poor. Our governments need to be reminded that these funds are only a small down payment on what was promised in term of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals and especially 7. Environmental Sustainability. It is not money that is so desperately needed now, it is political will and global collaboration.

The fact that they are the ones least responsible for the changes in our environment and yet they are likely to suffer its worst consequences has been established previously in this blog under the post the Ugly of the Good, the Bad and The Ugly of Climate Change

There is funding set aside in the House's climate change bill to help poor people adapt to the effects of global warming, but at 1 percent of available resources, it falls short. What's needed is another $3.5 billion for international adaptation programs.

Poor people should not bear an undue burden of the impacts of climate change or the global adjustments needed to address it. Urge the Senate to help poor people adapt to climate change. »

The consequences of failing at Copenhagen don't look much better for the rest of us.

What Would Failure at Copenhagen Mean for Climate Change for the Planet?

From Scientific American: This is the consequence of failure at Copenhagen: A marked shift in scientific effort from solving global warming to adapting to its consequences, a hodge-podge of uncoordinated local efforts to trim emissions - none of which deliver the necessary cuts - and an altered climate.

Climate experts, scientists and negotiators say that, absent international agreement, the children and grandchildren of those living today will negotiate a world where planetary geo-engineering is a part of daily life, sea-walls defend coastal cities, the world's poor are hammered by drought, floods and famine and our planet is heading toward conditions unseen for the last 100 million years. MORE

Getting back to a positive path to the Millennium Development Goals

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My last few posts, both here and at My Pathways to New Paradigms, have leaned toward the negative. That is not what brought me to this point. My journey using the tools of Web 2.0 has shown me that change is possible not only through learning of new means of connecting and collaborating, but also new technologies and new methods of managing programs to bring about change.

One of the main sources of inspiration has been TED. One of the most interesting speakers has been Hans Rosling whose GapMinder is featured under the Understanding through Numbers section of this blog. Here is his latest TED Talk (and the 500th TEDTalk at that) Hans Rosling: Let my dataset change your mindset.

Talking at the US State Department this summer, Hans Rosling uses his fascinating data-bubble software to burst myths about the developing world. Look for new analysis on China and the post-bailout world, mixed with classic data shows.

TED also features GlobalTED, which this year was held at Oxford, England. Below are some additional talks that fit with the themes that I have contemplated during the time of my blogging.

• How can the Internet be used to enhance communication and collaboration?
  
• What new ways of thinking can be applied to the problems in the world?
• What new technologies can be developed to help those living on $1 a day create new opportunities for themselves rather than hand-outs from outsiders?
  

I also chose them because they refer directly or indirectly to the Millennium Development Goals.

Surprise speaker Gordon Brown waxing eloquent on the transformation of global politics, in the age of Twitter. (Despite Brown's job title as Great Britain's Prime Minister, this is no stump speech).

I believe there is a moral sense and a global ethic that commands attention from people of every religion and every faith, and people of no faith. But I think what's new is that we now have the capacity to communicate instantaneously across frontiers right across the world. We now have the capacity to find common ground with people we will never meet but who we will meet through the Internet and through all the modern means of communication, that we now have the capacity to organize and take collective action together to deal with the problem or an injustice that we want to deal with, and I believe that this makes this a unique age in human history, and it is the start of what I would call the creation of a truly global society.

Economist Paul Romer unveiling his bold plan for helping failed states by creating "charter cities," special zones governed by partner nations.

But there is another class of ideas. The rules that govern how we interact with each other. Rules like let's have a tax system that supports a research university that gives away certain kinds of knowledge for free. Let's have a system where we have ownership of land that is registered in a government office, that people can pledge as collateral. If we can keep innovating on our space of rules, and particularly innovate in the sense of coming up with rules for changing rules, so we don't get stuck with bad rules, then we can keep moving progress forward and truly make the world a better place, so that people like Nelson and his friends don't have to study any longer under the streetlights. Thank you.

A remarkable water filter from inventor Michael Pritchard that turns revoltingly filthy sludge into clear drinking water in seconds (our own Chris Anderson braves a sip to prove it).

I talked a lot in the past about statistics, and the provision of safe drinking water for all. But they just don't seem to get through. And I think I've worked out why. It's because, using current thinking, the scale of the problem just seems too huge to contemplate solving. So we just switch off. Us, governments, and aid agencies. Well, today, I'd like to show you that through thinking differently, the problem has been solved. By the way, since I've been speaking, another 13,000 people around the world are suffering now with diarrhea. And four children have just died.

World Wide AIDS the Tragedy

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Today is is World AIDS Day and Bloggers Unite once again across the globe to focus attention on this issue. This is truly a millennium challenge for the planet, 6. Combat HIV/AIDS and other diseases. Fellow Blogger Unite of the blog Leftorium, il blog Riformista provided the synopsis below which clearly demonstrates the global impact of this disease.

Today there are about 33 million people living with AIDS worldwide. This virus affects both the more developed countries and those in developing countries. This virus affects both the more developed countries and those in developing countries. In the latter, however, are not available in any way, the expensive treatments and therapies used in richer countries. In the latter, however, are not available in any way, the expensive treatments and therapies used in richer countries. This is why the mortality rate is not only very high but, in fact, increases every year that passes. This is why the mortality rate is not only very high but, in fact, increases every year that passes. AIDS is now considered a real pandemic in Africa, India and South-East Asia. AIDS is now considered a real pandemic in Africa, India and South-East Asia.[translated from Italian by Google Translator]

All posts on this blog are explorations in learning, there isn't any claim to expertise or knowledge. These posts will explore current trends in this area using the resources made available by this blogsite. TED is one resource for inspiration, sometimes through poetry, sometimes through shock, sometimes both. Leftorium correctly describes the problem in one sense, but Kristen Asburn in the TED video does so in a far more poignant sense giving us a sense of what we trying to overcome.

In this moving talk from TED, documentary photographer Kristen Ashburn shares unforgettable images of the human impact of AIDS in Africa. (Recorded February 2003 in Monterey, California. Duration: 4:36.)

It is important to remember that for much of the developing world, AIDS is only one threat and often, such as AIDS and tuberculosis, they can strike together. So what is being done about on a global basis? Not enough according to EurActiv.com on 11/14/08, which reported on the story EU urged to fund research on 'terrible triangle' of disease. According to the story, the European Commission is failing to pay its "fair share" in funding research into the main poverty-related killers HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, according to health NGOs.

Speaking at a conference on poverty-related diseases on 13 November, EU Research Commissioner Janez Potočnik acknowledged that "sitting in our comfortable European homes, with well-developed healthcare systems, it is all too easy to forget about the pernicious impact that infectious disease has across the world".

This is one area where one needs to credit the United States and George Bush for actually having made some improvement, while still remembering that America has not met its Millennium Devleopment Goal promises yet.

The problem doesn't stop with governments not doing enough. Pharmaceutical companies are also not stepping up in many cases as this Oxfam report and video below demonstrate.

Oxfam, an international NGO, deplored that "after years of scientific progress, still less than 10% of all medical research is being dedicated to diseases afflicting more than 90% of the world's population". "R&D that focuses on the developing world's urgent needs is still highly dependent and driven by intellectual property, even though this system is demonstrably failing the poor," noted Oxfam's policy advisor Rohit Malpani.

Another reality of undeveloped and developing countries not found to anywhere near the same extent in developed countries is that AIDS substantially impacts children.

Children and HIV and AIDS

Over twenty-five years into the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic, the children in its path remain at grave risk. In 2007, it was estimated that 2.1 million children under 15 years old were living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and 290,000 children died of AIDS and 420,000 children were newly infected. Over 15 million children under 18 have lost one or both parents to AIDS, and millions more have been made vulnerable. Children affected by HIV and AIDS may experience poverty, homelessness, school drop-out, discrimination, loss of life opportunity, and early death.

This is only one pathway one could take to learn of the suffering caused by AIDS and the problems of facing the challenge. Hundreds of others will be taken by others on Bloggers Unite.

Related posts
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Barack Obama on Millennium Development Goals

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I think that we can be comfortable that Barack Obama supports the Millennium Development Goals. At least his heart seems to be in the right place. This seems pretty clear from both ends of the political spectrum.

According to today's TEDBlog, the two major US presidential candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama, released statements yesterday detailing their plans for fighting TB.

Barack Obama Statement at the TED Conference on Commitment to Fighting TB October 3, 2008

Today, I congratulate the TED Conference and James Nachtwey on their efforts to highlight the importance of preventing the spread of tuberculosis. TB claims 1.7 million lives each year, and eliminating it will be a global challenge - but it's a challenge we must take on. When I am President, I will strengthen the health care infrastructure crucial to reducing the spread of tuberculosis and increase U.S. funding for the Global Fund - a partnership that's already saved millions of lives from HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB. We'll meet the Millennium Development Goals, which include halving the number of tuberculosis deaths. And we will live up to our commitment to the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The annual TED conference brings together great minds and leaders in a mission to advance the American idea. It's time you had a Washington that did its part. As President, I will live up to our commitment to fighting this epidemic, and together, we will make it clear that America is ready to lead again.

This was spurred by the work of James Nachtwey's powerful photographs and RESULTS.org.

Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy In Media wrote back on February 12, 2008 that Obama’s Global Tax Proposal [was] Up for Senate Vote. This article seems to be mostly referenced by conservative blogs or websites with a few exceptions. Despite that I found it informative and found little ("the U.N. plan to force the U.S. to pay 0.7 percent of GNP") to complain about. The only difference that, unlike most of Mr. Kincaid's readers, I support the bill.

It is good news that Obama and Biden support funding the Millennium Development Goals. Bad news they want a tax to do it, which means it might never happen in today's economic environment. Seems that my worry is justified, moderator Gwen Ifill asked each candidate what priorities and campaign promises his or her ticket would have to abandon due to the $700 billion rescue package. Palin did not answer the question directly, but Biden did. And, to be honest, his answer was somewhat disappointing. Biden (echoing what Obama told Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation last week) said that the Obama plan to double the amount of American foreign development aid (it is currently at $25 billion) would likely have to proceed slower than expected.

tags: politics, economics, development, obama, politics, economics, mdg, mdgs, millennium development goals

The "business" of delivering global health services

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The Millennium Development Goal No. 6. Combat HIV/AIDS and other diseases is a major logistical challenge even if the Millennium Project promises are kept.

I lean toward favoring systematic approaches to the challenge of achieving the Millennium Development Goals. A primary resource for creating both the systems and the personnel to run those systems is MIT. I have posted on this previously. MIT goes beyond the narrow focus of individual disciplines and combines them into effective change-agent entities . One combination is is the Sloan School of Business Management and Global Health Care.

GHD Blog » “MIT G-Lab: Global Health Delivery” to provide technical and counseling support to organizations in Africa

MIT Sloan School, GHD Project and MIT teams have made great progress in defining ways to work together to improve health care delivery, including training the cadre of leaders in the field.

The Global Entrepreneurship Lab: Global Health Delivery (G-Lab GHD), the new version of MIT Sloan’s flagship international course, epitomizes the value of this collaboration as it brings together the expertise of MIT faculty with GHD’s experience in implementation.

There is also the need to find creative ways to work with limited resources to make them go further. Below are two doctors, both featured in TED talks, telling of their experiences of dealing with health care issues in the developing countries. Dr. Ernest Madu, talking about the creative tactics he uses to bring good health care to poor communities in Jamaica.

Dr. Ernest Madu: Creative ways to bring health care to the poorest
Dr. Ernest Madu runs the Heart Institute of the Caribbean in Jamaica, where he proves that -- with smart design and creative technical choices -- it's possible to offer world-class health care in the developing world. And it takes nothing more than re-imagining the hospital. Watch this talk >>

#Dr. Seyi Oyesola: Rich hospital, poor hospital
Dr. Seyi Oyesola takes a searing look at health care in underdeveloped countries. His photo tour of a Nigerian teaching hospital -- all low-tech hacks and donated supplies -- drives home the challenge of doing basic health care in poor countries. Watch this talk >>

Diigo tags: glab, MIT, global health, mdg, millennium development goals entrepreneurship, MIT, global