I received this information from a client of mine yesterday. I feel sufficiently strongly about it to post it here.

Dear All

Just back from New York after being at President Bill Clinton’s, Clinton Global Initiative. Lots of you have asked to have an update so here is:

The Clinton Global Initiative was a life changing, jam packed 3 days and evenings in New York, with the highest calibre Heads of State, Politicians, Business Leaders, NGO’s, Scholars & Celebrities you would ever possibly witness in one room. To say it was a powerful room is the understatement of the century. There were 52 current and former world leaders there alone (32 current), around 20 Billionaires & the richest man on the planet. It was very humbling & profound to be there & an absolute privilege to hear first hand from the cream of world experts what’s happening on a global perspective on Climate Change, Education, Poverty Alleviation, Global Health. All were discussed from numerous perspectives, with how to make change through business dominating. The calibre of the speakers & panels were outstanding with many thought provoking, eye opening topics.

Climate Change dominated the entire event. Much of what I heard was very, very, very sobering; the alarming pace at which temperatures are rising, the predicted C02 emission levels in the coming 20 years due to China and India’s new economies. To be totally blunt, we are all going to be screwed if we cannot reduce carbon levels drastically in the next 2 decades. I heard the words “planetary catastrophe” too many times to make anyone feel comfortable about using any C02 at all. The time frame for this was 23 years.

To cut to the chase here, in the next 20 years the planet will output more C02 (if we all don’t make enormous changes in our habits) than it has in the entire history of the planet, temperatures are currently rising so fast there will be NO polar icecaps left in 23 years & sea levels will rise 10 metres globally. That’s a lot of our current world under water! You don’t need much imagination to work out that this could become a period of little more than survival. Carbon is killing the planet through manmade actions.

The positive things were that there are major commitments being made to change things. Ironically the public are driving business to change, business changes are driving political changes & the majority of politicians are catching up with everyone else. However President George Bush and, if you’re in Australia, Prime Minister John Howard, are what can only be called total idiots. They are both still in denial of the looming crisis. Personally I’d lock them in a room together & throw away the key.

Now you’re probably asking ‘but what if anything can I do?’ Well you can do lots. Start with your own home, changing light bulbs, being more energy efficient etc. Look at what you’re driving, should you change to a Hybrid? Get your communities involved, get your kids involved, get your fellow workers involved. Contact your local politicians. Act now – Act fast, every single one of us needs to, every day, in every way possible. Please don’t see this as just another fad that is going to pass, this needs MAJOR action from everyone of us.

Now that I’m back I’m considering what I intend to do in a wider community, global context. As part of CGI all members have to undertake a major commitment, myself included. I will keep you posted. Let me know if you want to be kept up to speed with what I decide to do that may require yours & everyone you knows involvement.

Below are a list of Clinton Global Initiative members that were present and are well known in their fields (in no particular order).

• President Bill Clinton
• Senator Hilary Clinton
• Chelsea Clinton
• Former Prime Minister Tony Blair
• Honorable Al Gore
• Sergey Brin - Google co-founder
• Chad Hurley and Steve Chen- founders of YouTube
• Former President of Ireland Mary Robinson
• King Albert of Monaco
• Carlos Slim Helu (now the richest man in the world, having overtaken Bill Gates last week)
• Ted Turner –CNN founder
• Rupert Murdoch
• Anne McKevitt
• Archbishop Desmond Tutu
• Steve Bing -Billionaire
• Gerry Adams
• Brad Pitt (Ladies, I spent 3 hours with Brad P, there were only 2 seats between us at the table!)
• Angelina Jolie (gents, yes she’s as gorgeous in real life)
• H. Lee Scott- CEO WalMart
• Jane Goodall - inspiration behind ‘Gorilla’s in the Mist’
• Donna Karan
• Robert Zoellick-President of the World Bank
• Michael Eisner-former CEO Disney
• Charles Crist - Governor of Florida
• Theodore Roosevelt IV
• Rev Jesse Jackson
• Morgan Freeman
• Andre Agassi
• Shakira
• Bianca Jagger
• Former President of Norway
• President of Columbia
• President of Iceland
• President of Ethiopia
• President of Afghanistan
• President of Philippines
• President of Argentina
• Prime Minister of Turkey
• Sultan Ahamed Al Jaber-Abu Dhabi
• Eduardo Braga -Governor of State of Amazonas, Brazil
• Honorable Hank Paulson-Secretary to the Treasury current Bush Adminstration
• Fareed Zakaria-Editor of Newsweek
• President of Dominican Republic
• Judy McGrath -CEO MTV
• Indra Nooyi-CEO Pepsi Co
• Tony Bennet
• Barbara Streisand
• J Craig Venter-man that broke the Genode Code