Gro Brundtland to the Rescue (of the Planet)

Posted on | May 16, 2007 | Comments Off on Gro Brundtland to the Rescue (of the Planet)

Back in 1998, as head of the WHO, Gro Harlem Brundtland, a physician and public servant from Norway, spoke with confidence from her global platform and saw her message being amplified by the exploding Internet. She repositioned health as part goodness and part fairness, emphasizing science, training and technologic discovery in equal measures with equity, justice and access for all. She was a remarkable voice and a model for many physician leaders over the following decade.

Now she returns as the UN‘s Special Envoy for Environmental Issues in the post U.S.-rejection-of-Kyoto period, but also in the post Gore-gets-the-Academy-Award era.

Our excuses for ignoring global warming in the U.S. have gone stale. And still, for all the new and earnest “talk,” we’ve yet to see anything that looks like true, national leadership. Instead, we’re hearing whining excuses that reference China’s coal-fired plants, etc.

In a recent interview by Andrew Revkin, in the May 8, 2007, New York Times, Dr. Brundtland says:

“We were very clear in 1987 that the responsibility for dealing with these problems building up in the atmosphere, the responsibility belongs to the industrialized world. We have to clean up our problems, and at the same time, we have to help the developing world have new technologies to make it possible for them to jump over the polluting stages that we have been through…. Somehow, you have to reach out your hand to these countries that really need investment support to avoid the coal-fired plants that come up every week in China with no cleaning technology. This cannot continue…. (Countries continue to look at this in competitive terms) … What kind of a world is it if we think in traditional terms about competitive advantage, or being overrun by countries that are developing and competing with each of us, and at the same time we lose the future of our children due to our lack of action in a situation that is irreversible? I think now ..more people understand that there is no way around this…We have no time to lose. The data are now clearly presented and have very high confidence levels. There is no question anymore about scientific disagreement…Unless we start immediately fulfilling the Kyoto Protocol and then continuing with a broader basis with all countries involved, this is going to get completely out of control…It’s a drama playing itself out in front of us … a very dangerous scenario…”

And I’m not the only one hoping and praying that the U.S. steps up to the plate on this issue and demonstrates true leadership. Others are concerned. That is why the Health Politics piece on global warming up at YouTube has been downloaded nearly 103,000 times. It seems to be a good starting point for many, so consider spreading it around, especially to our leaders on every level.