"Effective
execution of Agenda 21 will require a profound reorientation of all
human society, unlike anything the world has ever experienced a major
shift in the priorities of both governments and individuals and an
unprecedented redeployment of human and financial resources. This
shift will demand that a concern for the environmental consequences
of every human action be integrated into individual and collective
decision-making at every level."
-
excerpt, UN Agenda 21
Agenda
21 – The UN Blueprint for the 21st Century
As described in
my previous article on Sustainable
Development,
Agenda 21 was the main outcome of the United
Nation's Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Agenda
21 outlines, in detail, the UN's vision for a centrally managed
global society. This contract binds governments around the world to
the United Nation's plan for controlling the way we live, eat, learn,
move and communicate - all under the noble banner of saving the
earth. If fully implemented, Agenda 21 would have the government
involved in every aspect of life of every human on earth.
Agenda
21 spreads it tentacles from Governments, to federal and local
authorities, and right down to community groups. 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 to formulate '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,
Chapter 28, sec 1.3
Interestingly,
in April 1991, fourteen months before Earth Summit, Prince Charles
held a private two day international conference aboard
the royal yacht Britannia, moored off the coast of Brazil. His goal
was to bring together key international figures in an attempt to
achieve a degree of harmony between the various countries that would
gather at the Summit. Al Gore was present, along with senior
officials from the United Nations and the World Bank.
At
the summit 179 nations officially signed Agenda 21 and many more have
followed since. Nearly 12,000 local and federal authorities have
legally committed themselves to the Agenda. In practice this means
that all their plans and policies must begin with an assessment of
how the plan or policy meets the requirements of Agenda 21, and no
plans or policies are allowed to contradict any part of the Agenda.
Local authorities are audited by UN inspectors and the results of the
audits are placed on the UN website. You can see how many local
authorities in your country were bound by Agenda 21 in 2001 here.
The number has increased significantly since then.
The
official opening ceremony was conducted by the Dalai Lama and
centered around a Viking long-ship that was constructed to celebrate
the summit and sailed to Rio from Norway. The ship was appropriately
named
Gaia. A huge
mural of a beauiful woman holding the earth within her hands adorned
the entrance to the summit. Al Gore lead the US delegation where he
was joined by 110 Heads of State, and representatives of more than
800 NGO’s.
Maurice Strong, Club of
Rome member, devout Bahai, founder and first Secretary General of
UNEP, has been the driving force behind the birth and imposition of
Agenda 21. While he chaired the Earth Summit, outside his wife Hanne
and 300 followers called the Wisdom-Keepers,
continuously beat drums, chanted prayers to Gaia, and trended scared
flames in order to “establish and hold
the energy field” for the duration of the summit.
You can view actual
footage of these ceremonies on YouTube. During
the opening speech Maurice Strong made the following
statements:
"The
concept of national sovereignty has been an immutable, indeed
sacred, principle of international relations. It is a principle which
will yield only slowly and reluctantly to the new imperatives of
global environmental cooperation. It is simply not feasible for
sovereignty to be exercised unilaterally by individual nation states,
however powerful. The global community must be assured of
environmental security." - Link
"It
is the responsibility of each human being today to choose between the
force of darkness and the force of light. We must therefore transform
our attitudes, and adopt a renewed respect for the superior laws
of Divine Nature."
- Link
"Current
lifestyles and consumption patterns of the affluent middle class -
involving high meat intake, use of fossil fuels, appliances,
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."
- Link
Among
other things, the agenda called for a Global
Biodiversity Assessment
of the State of the Earth. Prepared by the UN Environmental Programme
(UNEP), this 1140 page document armed UN leaders with the "ecological
basis, and moral authority" they needed to validate
their global management system. The GBA concludes on page 863 that
"the root causes of the loss of
biodiversity are embedded in the way societies use resources.
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." In other words Christians and
Moslems are to blame for the sorry state of the world because their
religions do not involve worshipping “sacred
nature.”
Following the Earth Summit Maurice
Strong was named Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations,
and was appointed to the position of Chief
Policy Advisor by Kofi Annan.
He was also a member of the UN's Commission
on Global Governance,
and the key architect of the Kyoto Protocol. Strong and his wife have
also established the Manitou
Foundation,
providing land in the Colorado to an eclectic mix of religious
groups, including the Crestone Mountain Zen Center, the Spiritual
Life Institute (a Catholic Carmelite monastery), the Haidakhandi
Universal Ashram, the Sri Aurobindo Learning Center, Mangala Shri
Bhuti (Tibetan Buddhists), and Karma Thegsum Tashi Gomang (Indian
mystics). The Strongs have located their spiritual centre in the
Colorado mountains because:"The Strongs
learned that since antiquity indigenous peoples had revered this
pristine wilderness as a place for conducting their vision quests and
receiving shamanic trainings. It is prophesied that the world's
religious traditions would gather here and help move theworld toward
globally conscious co-existence and co-creation."
So
what exactly does Agenda 21 contain? It consists of 115 different and
very specific programs designed to facilitate, or to force, the
transition to Sustainable Development. The objective, clearly
enunciated by the leaders of the Earth Summit, is to bring about a
change in the present system of independent nations. The agenda is
broken up into 8 ‘programme areas for action’:
>>
Agriculture
>>
Biodiversity and Ecosystem
Management
>>
Education
>>
Energy and Housing
>>
Population
>>
Public Health
>>
Resources and recycling
>>
Transportation, Sustainable
Economic Development
As you can see Agenda 21 addresses
nearly every aspect of modern life. If you have a spare few days the
entire document can be read here.
I encourage the reader to at least read the Table of Contents in
order to understand the true scope of this ‘blueprint for the
21st century.’ I won’t torture the reader by going into
the document in too much depth but I will provide the first six
paragraphs so that you can understand the true intent of Agenda
21:
1.1.
Humanity stands at a
defining moment in history. We are confronted with a
perpetuation of disparities between and within nations, a worsening
of poverty, hunger, ill health and illiteracy, and the continuing
deterioration of the ecosystems on which we depend for our
well-being. However, integration of environment and development
concerns and greater attention to them will lead to the fulfilment of
basic needs, improved living standards for all, better protected and
managed ecosystems and a safer, more prosperous future. No nation can
achieve this on its own; but together we can - in
a global partnership for sustainable development.
1.2.
This global partnership must
build on the premises of General Assembly resolution 44/228 of 22
December 1989, which was adopted when the nations of the world called
for the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, and
on the acceptance of the need to take a balanced and integrated
approach to environment and development questions.
1.3.
Agenda 21 addresses the pressing problems of today
and also aims at preparing the world for the
challenges of the next century. It reflects a global
consensus and political commitment at the highest level on
development and environment cooperation. Its successful
implementation is first and foremost the responsibility of
Governments. National strategies, plans, policies and processes are
crucial in achieving this. International cooperation should support
and supplement such national efforts. In this context, the
United Nations system has a key role to play. Other
international, regional and subregional organizations are also called
upon to contribute to this effort. The broadest
public participation and the active involvement of the
non-governmental organizations and other groups should also be
encouraged.
1.4. The
developmental and environmental objectives of Agenda 21 will require
a substantial flow of new and additional
financial resources to developing countries, in order to cover
the incremental costs for the actions they have to undertake to deal
with global environmental problems and to accelerate sustainable
development. Financial resources are also required for strengthening
the capacity of international institutions for the implementation of
Agenda 21.
1.5. In the
implementation of the relevant programme areas identified in Agenda
21, special attention should be given to the particular circumstances
facing the economies in transition. It must also be recognized that
these countries are facing unprecedented challenges in transforming
their economies, in some cases in the midst of considerable social
and political tension.
1.6. The
programme areas that constitute Agenda 21 are described in terms of
the basis for action, objectives, activities and means of
implementation. Agenda 21 is a dynamic
programme. It will be carried out by the various actors according to
the different situations, capacities and priorities of countries and
regions in full respect of all the principles contained in the Rio
Declaration on Environment and Development. It could evolve
over time in the light of changing needs and circumstances. This
process marks the beginning of a new global partnership for
sustainable development.
Like many ‘green
movement initiatives’ Agenda 21 is a ‘wolf in sheep's
clothing’. As explained in my brief
biography I
have been actively involved in preparing Agenda 21 action plans and
monitoring compliance with environmental permits. All
the policies and plans we developed were required to begin with a
description of how they met the objectives of Agenda 21 and various
other UN agreements, and were audited too determine how they complied
with UN requirements. It was these experiences
that lead to my research into what was 'behind it all' and the
subsequent publication of this website.
Agenda 21 is not an
environmental management policy, but an attempt to impose a global
centrally planned quasi-government administered by the United
Nations. Under Agenda 21 all central government and local authority
signatories are required to conform strictly to a common prescribed
standard and hence this is just communism resurrected in a new guise.
Now that Agenda 21 has gained a stranglehold on global regulatory and
planning processes Maurice Strong and his Club of Rome colleagues
have moved on to the next phase of the Global Green Agenda.
In
association with fellow CoR member Mikhail Gorbachev, Strong
co-chaired the committee responsible for drafting the Earth Charter.
Compared to the 2500 pages that make up Agenda 21 and the BGA it is a
tiny document – only 4 pages long. But it is of far more
significance to the Global Green Agenda. The Earth Charter is a
“declaration of fundamental principles
for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society in the
21st century”. It is the constitution for a New
Green Order. You can read about it here.