What We’re Reading 9/11/09

Sep 11th, 2009 12:42 PM UTC
By Chandler Smith

Reuters: U.S. must lead at G20 on climate, says group
The United States should show decisive leadership at the Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh this month and rally heads of state to prepare for the next global crisis — climate change. In a speech before the G20 meeting on September 24-25, Nancy Birdsall, president of the Washington-based Center for Global Development, said preparing for climate change was key because it was a new issue and because the world’s poor will be severely hurt by it.

The Economist: What next?
The Economist anticipates that the G20 will focus mostly on pay. The most controversial issue is bonuses. Germany and France have demanded a tough line whereas Britain and America have been less keen on hard rules. Still, for all the grandstanding, a consensus does seem to exist.

Reuters: Pneumonia bugs kill 1.2 million children – study
More than a million children die every year from two pneumonia-causing diseases easily prevented with vaccines, researchers reported on Thursday. Each year 1.2 million children under age 5 die from Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae B or Hib, they found.

Forbes.com: Getting Water To The World’s Poorest
Drinking unclean water is one of the primary causes of diarrhea, which is one of the principal causes of death for children under five, a new Unicef report says. Acumen Fund, a nonprofit global venture fund focused on alleviating poverty, has invested in a handful of water companies in India and became aware of the problems its entrepreneurs were facing. Design firm IDEO partnered with Acumen to work with water entrepreneurs in India and Kenya. They dubbed their project Ripple Effect and secured $2.6 million in funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

-Chandler Smith

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