NEW YORK – Former President Bill Clinton today warned of the growing devastation of the global economic downturn and said the dangers posed by natural disasters around the world had been increased by the effects of climate change.
The former president spoke in New York on the first day of the annual Clinton Global Initiative. The conference brings together leaders from government, business and philanthropy, who make financial commitments aimed at tackling poverty and disease around the world.
Clinton announced new financial commitments to help Haiti recover from the effects of a massive earthquake last January, and to Pakistan, where monsoon rains led to deadly flooding last summer. He also announced a new program to help Louisiana’s gulf coast, which is still recovering from the massive oil spill and the effects of Hurricane Katrina five years ago.
Clinton said the gulf region had been hit by “everything but a plague of locusts” and said climate change had made events like hurricanes and flooding more frequent and deadly.
“There is every reason to believe the incident of economically devastating natural disasters will accelerate around the world with he changing of the climate,” Clinton said, urging governments and world leaders to be better prepared for such events. (AP)
