Ex-Trilateral Commissioner Bill Clinton Backs ICLEI On Climate Change Rebellion In Cities
Bill Clinton originally helped the UN-connected ICLEI get established in the U.S., and is leading the pack in pushing cities to personally adopt the Paris Climate Agreement in spite of Trump’s rejection. This divide and conquer strategy will further rip the Constitution. ⁃ TN Editor
Mayors are uniquely positioned to help the United States rise above divisive tribalism since the last global financial crisis that uprooted social and economic arrangements, former President Bill Clinton told the U.S. Conference of Mayors 85th annual meeting on Saturday.
Being closer to the people they represent means mayors are less likely to engage in political rhetoric, Clinton said, and more likely to understand immigrants are half as likely to commit crimes and Muslim Americans commit murder at one-third the national average.
City officials are also less likely to “stretch the limits of acceptable use of power,” he said.
“Diverse groups make better decisions than lone geniuses,” Clinton said, perhaps a subtle jab at President Trump, who’s called himself “a smart person” and tweeted “my I.Q. is one of the highest.”
Calling cities the “laboratories of democracy,” Clinton outlined several challenges they must face: the opioid epidemic, climate change, aging infrastructure and inequality.
Opioid abuse touches almost everyone, he said, and is unique in that addiction rates are higher in rural America. That it’s hit white Americans harder than African Americans or Latinos has earned the crisis national attention, as has the fact that the crisis has been blamed on doctors, pharmacists and drug manufacturers.
Drug treatment and mental health facilities remain unavailable in rural areas where the epidemic runs rampant.
“We have a chance to deal with this in a comprehensive way,” Clinton told the mayors. “And we’re not close.”
Clinton applauded efforts by many U.S. city halls to embrace the Paris climate agreement as Trump has abandoned it but cautioned words mean little without action because “the water’s going to keep rising.”
Pittsburgh has more than 13,000 clean energy jobs, and rooftop gardens are becoming a local industry in New York City—proving the transition to sustainable living is good economics.
“I think this is something mayors can talk about with facts, not rhetoric,” Clinton said.
Source: technocracy. News
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