Local Agenda 21
The U.N. Plan for Your Community
"...current lifestyles and consumption patterns of the affluent middle class - involving high meat intake use of fossil fuels, appliances, home and work-place air-conditioning, and suburban housing - are not sustainable. A shift is necessary. which will require a vast strengthening of the multilateral system, including the United Nations..." 1
Maurice Strong , opening speech at the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development
To many well-meaning people Agenda 21 sounds good. This U.N. document, drafted for the purpose of creating "sustainable societies" and saving the earth from environmental catastrophes, has been welcomed by nations around the world. Political, cultural, and media leaders have embraced its alluring visions of social justice and a healthy planet. Relatively few are willing to consider the contrary facts and colossal costs.
After all, what could be wrong with preserving resources for the next generation? Why not limit consumption and reduce energy use? Why not abolish poverty and establish a global welfare system to train parents, monitor intolerance, and meet all our needs? Why not save the planet by trading cars for bikes, an open market for "self-sustaining communities," and single dwellings for dense "human settlements" (located on transit lines) where everyone would dialogue, share common ground, and be equal?
The answer is simple. Marxist economics has never worked. Socialism produces poverty, not prosperity. Collectivism creates oppression, not freedom. Trusting environmental "scientists" who depend on government funding and must produce politically useful "information" will lead to economic and social disaster. 3
Even so, local and national leaders around the world are following the UN blueprint for global management and "sustainable communities," and President Clinton is leading the way. A letter I received from The President's Council on Sustainable Development states that -
In April 1997, President Clinton asked the council to advise him on: next steps in building a new environmental management system for the 21st century... and policies that foster U.S. leadership on sustainable development internationally. The council was also charged to ensure that social equity issues are fully integrated ... (Emphasis added)
Many of our representatives are backing his plan. In a 1997 letter congratulating the Local Agenda 21 Advisory Board in Santa Cruz for completing their Action Plan, Congressman Sam Farr wrote,
The Local Agenda 21 Action Plan not only has local significance, it also will have regional and national impacts. As you know, the President's Council on Sustainable Development is beginning Phase III of its work with an emphasis on sustainable communities.4 (emphasis added)
This agenda may already be driving your communityís"development", so be alert to the clues. Notice buzzwords such as"visioning," "partners," and"stakeholders." Know how to resist the consensus process. Ask questions, but donít always trust the answers. Remember, political activists, like self-proclaimed education"change agents", have put expediency above integrity. As North Carolina school superintendent Jim Causby said at a 1994 international model school conference, "We have actually been given a course in how not to tell the truth.You've had that course in public relations where you learn to put the best spin on things."5
To recognize and resist this unconstitutional shadow government of laws and regulations being imposed on our nation without congressional approval, take a closer look at its history and nature.
Agenda 21
This global contract binds governments around the world to the UN plan for changing the ways we live, eat, learn, and communicate - all under the noble banner of saving the earth. Its regulations would severely limit water, electricity, and transportation - even deny human access to our most treasured wilderness areas. If implemented, it would manage and monitor all lands and people. No one would be free from the watchful eye of the new global tracking and information system
This agenda for the 21st Century was signed by 179 nations at the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Among other things, it called for a Global Biodiversity Assessment of the state of the planet. Prepared by the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP), this GBA armed UN leaders with the "information" and "science" they needed to validate their global management system. Its doomsday predictions were designed to excuse radical population reduction, oppressive lifestyle regulations, and a coercive return to earth-centered religions as the basis for environmental values and self-sustaining human settlements.
The GBA concluded on page 763 that "the root causes of the loss of biodiversity are embedded in the way societies use resources." The main culprit? Judeo-Christian values. Chapter 12.2.3 states that-
This world view is characteristic of large scale societies, heavily dependent on resources brought from considerable distances. It is a world view that is characterized by the denial of sacred attributes in nature, a characteristic that became firmly established about 2000 years ago with the Judeo-Christian-Islamic religious traditions.
Eastern cultures with religious traditions such as Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism did not depart as drastically from the perspective of humans as members of a community of beings including other living and non-living elements.6
Maurice Strong, who led the Rio conference, seems to agree. His ranch in Colorado is a gathering place for Buddhist, Bahai, Native American, and other earth-centered religions. Yet, while spearheading the restructuring of the United Nations (see"World Heritage Protection?"), he also helped design the blueprint for the transformation of our communities. And in his introduction to The Local Agenda 21 Planning Guide, he called local leaders around the world to "undertake a consultative process with their populations and achieve a consensus on 'Local Agenda 21' for their communities."
Achieving that consensus meant painting scary scenarios of a hurting, dying planet that frighten children, anger youth, and persuade adults to submit to the unthinkable regulations. (See "Saving the Earth") It means blaming climate change on human activities and ignoring the natural factors that have - throughout time - brought cyclical changes in climate, storm patterns, wildlife migration, and ozone thinning (there has never been a "hole").
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Natural factors you seldom hear about:
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Local Agenda 21.
Chapter 28 of Agenda 21 specifically calls for each community to formulate its own Local Agenda 21:
"Each local authority should enter into a dialogue with its citizens, local organizations, and private enterprises and adopt 'a local Agenda 21.' Through consultation and consensus-building, local authorities would learn from citizens and from local, civic, community, business and industrial organizations and acquire the information needed for formulating the best strategies." (Agenda 21, Chapt 28, sec 1,3.)
This tactic may sound reasonable until you realize that the dedicated "Stakeholder Group" that organizes and oversees local transformation is not elected by the public. And the people selected to represent the "citizens" in your community will not present your interests. The chosen "partners", professional staff, and working groups are implementing a new system of governance without asking your opinion.
They probably don't even want you to know what they are doing until the regulatory framework is well under way. You may read in your local paper about "visioning", working groups, Total Quality Management, and partnership between churches, welfare and social service agencies, and other community groups. These are clues that, behind the scenes, the plan is moving forward.
The goals and strategies are outlined in Sustainable America, the report from our President's Council on Sustainable Development (PCSD). President Clinton's PCSD is merely one of about 150 similar councils established by nations around the world, all following guidelines from the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development.
The same steps and strategies are detailed in The Local Agenda 21 Planning Guide: An introduction to Sustainable Development. This "planning framework for sustainable development at the local level" was prepared by The International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) in partnership with the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and the International Development Research Centre of Canada. Remember, UNEP also prepared the GBA which supposedly proves the environmental "crisis." Could there be a conflict of interest here?
ICLEI's step-by-step plan for transforming communities was made available to reporters during the 1996 UN Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II). I started to read my bulky copy on the flight home from Istanbul. I soon learned how Stakeholders can broaden their working base and still maintain the original consensus: they simply seek partners who share their vision. After all, partners who challenge the Stakeholders' ideology would cause gridlock and slow progress. (Such gridlock is one of many criticism of the American political system voiced at various global conferences.)
The ICLEI Planning Guide suggests that Stakeholders select two kinds of people to serve their agenda: (1) ordinary people who don't have "a stake" in the old system and would expect to gain power by establishing a new political system, and (2) media, business, political, church, and education leaders who must be wooed and persuaded to promote the transformation within their sphere of influence. The following ICLEI list includes both:
A. Community Residents: women, youth, indigenous people, community leaders, teachers
B. Community-Based Organizations: churches, formal women's groups, traditional social groups, special interest groups
C. Independent Sector: Non-governmental organizations (NGO). academia, media
D. Private/Entrepreneurial Sector: environmental service agencies, small business/cooperatives, banks
E. Local Government and Associations: elected officials, management staff, regional associations
F. National/Regional Government: planning commission, utilities, service agencies, financial agencies.7
All participants must embrace the collective vision of a"sustainable community". They must commit to pursue the three Eís of"sustainable development": Environment, Economy and Equity ñ referring to the UN blueprint for environmental regulations, economic controls, and social equity.
ìSustainable development is a process of bringing these three development processes into balance with each other," states ICLEID's Agenda 21 Planning Guide on page 21. "The implementation of a sustainable development strategy therefore involves negotiation among the primary interest groups (stakeholders) involved in these development processes. Once an Action Plan for balancing these development processes is established, these stakeholders must each take responsibility and leadership to implement the plan."
Meanwhile, opposing voices must be silenced. "Implementing the 'sustainable agenda' requires marginalizing critics," says Craig Rucker, Executive Director of CFACT, a conservative public interest group in Washington, D.C. dealing with consumer and environmental issues. He explains,
Distinguished scientists who disagree with the globalist agenda are ridiculed and said to speak for conservative interests or industry (whether or not they receive industry funding) and their scientific arguments are never heard. Some of these marginalized critics are very distinguished scientists, like Dr. Frederic Seitz, former president of the National Academies of Science and a sharp critic of ozone depletion and global warming theories, Dr. S. Fred Singer, who help establish the satellite and balloon measuring devices to track global warming, and Dr. Edward Krug, who served on NAPAAP, among others. Some, like Dr. William Happer were even fired from their jobs questioning environmental dogma (in his case, on the issue of ozone depletion).8
Ignoring these facts, nearly two thousand communities around the world are following this UN blueprint for change with support from ICLEID - and subject to its tracking system
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1 Henry Lamb,"Meet Maurice Strong," Eco-Logic, November/December 1995.
2 Ibid. Maurice Strong was vice-president of Dome Petroleum (by age 25), first executive director of the UN Environmental Programme, founder of Planetary Citizens, director of the World Future Society, founder and co-chair of the World Economic Forum, member of the Club of Rome, trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation and Aspen Institute, and member of the UN Commission on Global Governance. He heads the Earth Council, which works with the UN to implement an Earth Charter-a global code of conduct based on earth-centered spirituality and globalist values. Its publication, Earth Ethics, suggests that apes, our "fellow animals", should be treated as "full members of the community of equals."
3 Much of the"peer reviewed" science which"proves" that human activity causes ozone holes and global warming is countered by award-winning non-politicized scientists who are appalled that their names are used to validate the hoax. See"The UN Plan for Global Control."
4 U.S. Congressman Sam Farr represents the 17th district in California. I have a copy of this letter written June 3, 1997 on Congressional stationary.
5 Cynthia Weatherly, "The Second Annual Model School Conference," The Christian Conscience (January 1995); 36.
6 Global Biodiversity Assessment, 837-838, 839. This information was provided by a friend who has a copy of the GBA but is traveling abroad at this time. She had copied many quotations from this report and gave them to me along with chapter and page numbers. I cannot personally verify these references at this time. If you have a copy of the GBA and discover a mistake in my references, please inform me so that I can make corrections. Thank you.
7 ICLEID, p. 21. A similar list is given in the PCSD report, Sustainable America.
8 From a personal note from Craig Rucker, January 20, 1998. To contact CFACT for scientific data refuting ozone holes and global warming theories, write CFACT, P.O. Box 65722, Washington, D.C. 20035.
9 Booklet titled The Seventh Meeting of the President's Council on Sustainable Development, The Presidio of San Francisco, April 27-28, 1995, p. 39.
10 Public Linkage, Dialogue, and Education (The President's Council on Sustainable Development) 1997, p.16.
11 Local Agenda 21--Santa Cruz, Education section, p. 21.
12. Raymond Houghton, To Nurture Humaneness: Commitment for the '70's
(The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development of the NEA,
1970).
Dave Hartley
http://www.Asheville-Computer.com
http://www.ioa.com/~davehart
