What’s at the top of Bill Clinton’s list of environmental issues facing the world? The manifestations of climate change. So said the former U.S. president in his visit to the University of California, San Diego from April 1 to 3 for a conference of the Clinton Global Initiative, an effort of the Clinton Foundation he founded in 2005. Thousands attended the event at UCSD, which also brought in familiar faces like singer Mandy Moore, actress Drew Barrymore and actor Sean Penn. The thought behind the initiative, Clinton said, is to “turn ideas into action.” He has also held conferences at universities in New Orleans, Texas and Miami. He came to La Jolla, he said, because of UCSD’s academic prestige and proximity to Mexico, in addition to it’s track record for community service and Washington Monthly’s No. 1 ranking of UCSD as in government research expenditures.. “This is also our first time on the West Coast,” Clinton said. Environmental issues and financing higher education were highly discussed at an opening press conference April 2 at UCSD’s Price Center. “Higher education is the key for us being successful. The decrease in graduates is a major problem with the cost of higher education,” Clinton said, adding that students must demand more courses that merge sciences such as biology and chemistry with modern social issues. For example, people should learn about the 99 percent of all humans’ genetic make-up that is identical, instead of worrying about the varying less-than-one percent that leads to issues of ethnic inequality. He also said he thinks the world will see major conflicts over water and food production shortages in the future. Natural disasters are also in the rise, he said, with payouts from insurance companies for losses tripling over the past decade. Clinton added that people needed to decentralize the provision of energy and change transportation methods to combat global warming. Clinton touched on the need for adherence to Kyoto requirements and glacial melting. “If the glacier melts,” he said, “will it block the Gulf Stream?” The conference focused on global issues based their importance, which the public ranked by vote on the initiative’s website. For voters, the top-ranking “commitment” was a project called “The School Fund” (www.theschoolfund.org). Developed by two students from Brown University who wanted to provide money to impoverished children in the developing world, the website allows users to pay school fees for students from Tanzania, Kenya and Haiti. The School Fund has raised about $20,000 so far.
