As America begins a six-day state funeral for former President Jimmy Carter, co-founder/philanthropist of Microsoft Bill Gates shared “my fondest memory“this week. “He and Rosalynn were some of my first and most inspiring role models in global health.”
They played quite a major role within the early days of the Gates Foundation. I’m especially grateful that they introduced this to us Dr. Bill Foegewho once helped eradicate smallpox and was a key advisor in our global health efforts.
Jimmy and Rosalynn were also good friends of my dad’s. One of my favorite photos of all time is of Jimmy Carter, Nelson Mandela and my dad in South Africa holding babies in a medical clinic. I remember my dad coming back from that trip with an entire recent appreciation for Jimmy’s passion for helping individuals with HIV. At the time, then-President Thabo Mbeki was refusing treatment to individuals with HIV, and my dad saw Jimmy almost get right into a fight with Mbeki over it. As Jimmy said in a 2012 interview on the Gates Foundation hosted by my dad, “He claimed that there was no connection between HIV and AIDS and that the drugs we were sending, the antiretroviral drugs, were a white man’s plot to help kill black children.” At a time when 1 / 4 of all South Africans were HIV positive, Jimmy simply couldn’t accept Mbeki’s obstructionism.
reported that it was also Jimmy Carter saved the US space shuttle program.
And Carter installed solar panels on the roof of the White House (which “were later removed by his successor, Ronald Reagan”, According to environmental bulletin from the Los Angeles Times:
He he tried and largely failed block the development of greater than a dozen costly, environmentally destructive water infrastructure projects comparable to dams, canals and reservoirs. He also tried to scale back U.S. dependence on foreign oil by implementing the primary vehicle fuel efficiency standards task for researchers by lowering the associated fee of solar panels – an effort that he predicted could possibly be “a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people…” And while his important thought was learn how to free Americans from the geopolitical crises that might wreak devastation on oil supplies and gasoline prices, he also had in mind heat-trapping greenhouse gases… Final report of the White House Council on Environmental Quality he warned that burning fossil fuels could cause “widespread and pervasive changes in global climate, economic, social and agricultural patterns.” To avoid such risks, it recommends limiting global temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, a goal that just about 200 countries eventually agreed to 35 years later.
Even if Carter’s actions were aimed more at cutting oil imports than at curbing planet-warming pollution – he was willing to extend domestic coal production if it meant less dependence on foreign oil – the political battles he fought, especially those he lost, may draw conclusions of those of us who care concerning the climate today. For example, historian Kai Bird notes that after struggling to impose a tax on gas-guzzling cars, Carter wrote in his diary: “The influence of the oil and gas industry is incredible and it is impossible to persuade the public to protect it.” Indeed, oil and gas corporations still have enormous influence. There are SUVs more popular than ever.
The bulletin proves that Carter’s life story might be an inspiration because Carter saw many changes in his 100 years.
“To survive, we need to see more change. May we all be as lucky as Carter.”
