Posted on 09/09/2001 3:38:15 PM PDT by sarcasm
Former US President Bill Clinton warned Australia overnight that it faced a flood of refugees if global warming continued unabated.
Clinton, who was addressing a fundraiser for a children's hospital here late Saturday, also spoke of his regret at not being able to cement a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.
He said Australia's current debate over how to deal with a rising tide of asylum seekers would pale into insignificance as global warming triggered one of the greatest movements of people in history.
"The science is unassailable. If the world keeps growing for the next 50 years warmer as it has for the last decade you're going to see some of the small nations in the Pacific actually flooded," Clinton said.
"You're going to see huge disruptions in food production patterns in every continent, and tens of millions of refugees.
"If you're worried about 400 people, you just let the world keep warming up like this for the next 50 years and your grandchildren will be worried about 400,000 people."
Clinton was referring to the crisis sparked by the rescue of more than 430 asylum seekers by a Norwegian tanker, the Tampa, on August 26, and the subsequent refusal of Australia, Norway and Indonesia to accept them.
He also issued a statement of regret over continuing violence between Israel and the Palestinians, acknowledging his own role in failed peace talks.
"I regret I was not stronger or wiser or eloquent or persuasive enough to head it off," he told almost 1,000 listeners.
"I did everything I could and I just couldn't do it."
Clinton's address was designed to raise one million dollarsfor Westmead Children's Hospital, which ranks as one of Australia's most prestigeous paediatric facilities.
One guest was reputed to have paid 35,000 dollars (18,000 US) to have his picture taken with the former president, only to be topped by another who paid 100,000 dollars (52,000 US) to sit at the table of honour.
Hollwood actors Laurence Fishburne and Matrix star Carrie-Anne Moss attended, but Australian Prime Minister John Howard was en route to Washington for talks with Clinton's successor, George W. Bush.
Earlier Clinton toured the hospital's wards, meeting two-year-old Rithu Sabu, who is battling cancer.
Related thread: Clinton Warns on Global Warming (Associated Press)
I guess everything comes back to global warming...
It is a castrophe of gigantic proportions. Bubba tried to prepare us for this but we just wouldn't listen. It's all our fault. This vision came to the great poobaw when he was on the phone talking to Arafat while being serviced by Monica.
Josef Stalin tried to base agronomy on the Soviet theory of genetics--causing a monster famine in the steppes.
Clinton thinks he can make the oceans rise just because he wants to see a prediction of catastrophe come true.
He is still an evil and dangerous man, even out of office, because of who or what disease entity might curry his favor and use it to gain influence among the drooling masses who still believe in him
What irks me are the people who still believe the enviro's cause/effect theory. I'll hear someone say, "Anyone with half a brain knows this is really happening." I would inquire, "Have you studied either side of the debate?" --- "No. But anybody with half a brain....."
I remember being told in the '70s to warn everybody that if America is not shut-down immediately, the mean average temperature of the earth would be close to 1000 by the 1980's. I remember a lot of things we were warned about by the enviros.
The thing that may get me moving is if his wife is commander in chief.
Sudan may even look like a resort area when his legacy is done with us.
How is it a "table of honour" if you have to pay $52,000 to sit there?
What's got me though is how can you get anyone to pay $AU100k to sit at a "table of honour" that has klinton seated there too?
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