"We
are close to a time when all of humankind will
envision a global
agenda that encompasses a kind of
Global Marshall Plan, if you
will, to address the causes of poverty
and suffering and
environmental destruction all over the earth."
-
Al Gore
The Green Web
In my previous article,
Gaia's
Gurus, I described
how many of the leaders of the modern green movement frequently refer
to the earth as a sentient super-organism called Gaia. While
researching the biographies of these environmental leaders I was very
surprised to discover that many of them are members of an
organization called the Club of Rome (CoR). I was even more surprised
to discover that the entire manifesto of the Global Green Agenda is
laid out in the reports and books published by this Club. They
believe that modern industrial society is “crucifying
Gaia” and “our only
hope is to transform humanity into an interdependent global
sustainable Earth Community, based on reverence and respect for
Gaia.” They refer to this transformation as the
First
Global Revolution.
In order to achieve this global transformation the members of
the CoR have established a network of interlinked organizations
focused on various aspects of their agenda. If you examine the
biographies of prominent CoR members and then look at the
organizations they have founded you will find they are stacked full
of other CoR members. Dozens of foundations, councils, societies, and
think-tanks state that their 'mission' is to consider new forms of
governance, sustainability and global consciousness, but when you
check their list of members they all contain the same core group of
people!
I attempted to construct a chart of all these
organizations and the members they have in common, but there were so
many lines linking each organization it became unreadable. Hence I
have called this network The Green Web. In this article I will list
various organizations founded by CoR members and highlight their
common membership. I suspect that some of these entities have
actually superceded the CoR in importance and influence.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As
discussed previously the CoR directly spawned two affiliated 'Clubs'
– the Club
of Budapest (CoB)
and the Club
of Madrid
(CoM). The purpose of these siblings is to “provide
spiritual, cultural and political context to the Club of Rome's
technical research.”
The
Club
of Budapest is
an offshoot of the CoR designed to promote the Global Green Agenda
though 'Art and Culture' - “The
idea of the Club of Budapest stems from discussions between its
founder and president Ervin Laszlo, and The Club of Rome founder
Aurelia Peccei in the late seventies. Peccei suggested that Laszlo, a
fellow founding member of the Club of Rome, should bring together
writers, artists and people of high spiritual qualifications to
complement abstract theoretical information about current and coming
global problems with the insight and creativity inherent in art,
literature, and various domains of the human spirit.”
However
the Club of Budapest seems to have little to do with the Arts and much
more to do with the usual themes. The Mission
of its WorldShift Network
is to address:
- The Governance of Nations
-
Education for Wisdom
- Public
Health Policy
- The Ethics of
Planetary Freedom
- Reverence for
Nature
- Approaching a modern
Subsistence Economy
The Club of Budapest has also
established the World
Wisdom Council.
It is jointly chaired by Mikhail Gorbachev and Robert Muller and
consists of almost exactly
the same people as
the World Commission on Global Consciousness and Spirituality
described below. In 1996 the Club of Budapest released THE
MANIFESTO ON THE SPIRIT OF PLANETARY CONSCIOUSNESS
which was signed by 16 global environmental leaders, 12 of which are
also CoR members!
The
Club
of Madrid
consists of 70 former Heads of State handpicked by the CoR to
consider “appropriate forms of
governance” and methods of “democratic
transition to a new global order.” The Club was
officially founded by Mikhail
Gorbachev and
Diego
Hidalgo. They
are both given as “executive members
of the Governing Council of the Club of Rome.” The
CoM is funded
by the Gorbachev Foundation and Hildalgo's organization FRIDE
(the European Council on Foreign Relations).
A quick
perusal of their membership
list reveals that
more than half are also members of CoR National Associations and
contain the usual suspects such as Bill
Clinton, Mikhail Gorbachev, Jimmy Carter, Tony Blair, Mary Robinson,
Vaclav Havel, Romano Prodi, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Javier Perez de
Cuellar, and Carl Bildt. They state that their top
priority is
“facilitating a global post-Kyoto
climate treaty.” The Club of Madrid, in a similar
fashion to the CoR, is an official consultant body to the UN and is
contracted by them to produce reports and technical advice.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Perhaps
the most interesting of all these organizations is the World
Commission on Global Consciousness and Spirituality.
The purpose of this 'Commission' appears to be to perpetuate the
spiritual aspects of the Global Green Agenda. It is basically just
old-fashioned paganism dressed up as a new eco-theology. I challenge
the reader to make sense of this
page! The commission
is composed mostly of CoR members including Gore and
Gorbachev.
::All the text
below is taken from their
website::
VISION
The
Commission seeks to inspire consciousness of
the wholeness of the human family and the sacred tapestry of
all life. This spirituality is the foundation of a global
consciousness that honors the wisdom found in the world's traditions,
cultures and disciplines.
AWAKENING
GLOBAL CONSCIOUSNESS
Perhaps the single
most powerful event facing humanity today is a great awakening on a
planetary scale that has been millennia in the making. We
humans are in the midst of a profound advance as a species to a
higher form of global consciousness that has been emerging across
cultures, religions and worldviews through the centuries. This
awakening of global consciousness is nothing less than a shift,
a maturation, from more egocentric patterns of life to a higher form
of integral and dialogic patterns of life. In this drama it is seen
that egocentric patterns of minding and living directly lead to
fragmentation, alienation and human pathologies at the individual and
collective level.
The awakening of global consciousness is a
new and monumental event in human evolution,
even though it has been emerging throughout our diverse spiritual
traditions through the ages. But this great event in the human drama
is not readily apparent because people tend to process reality from
their personalized perspectives, worldviews, narratives or cultural
lens. Whereas access to global consciousness comes only if and when
we are able to stand back and gain critical distance from our
particular localized perspectives and enter the more expansive space
of a global perspective in the awakening of the
global mind.
http://globalspirit.org/pages/mission.php
MEMBERS
(known CoR, CoB, CoM members highlighted
in red)
The
Dalai Lama
Former President Abdurrahman
Wahid (Indonesia)
Archbishop Desmond
Tutu
Seyyed H. Nasr
(Distinguished Professor of Islamic thought and culture)
Tu
Weiming (Harvard Professor and eminent voice for Chinese culture)
Hazel Henderson (Eminent Author,
Futurist, Ecology of Global Economics)
Wangari
Maathai (Nobel Peace Prize Laureat)
Robert
Thurman (Buddhist Tibetan Scholar, Columbia University,
Advisor to The Dalai Lama)
Sir Sigmund Sternberg (Winner of the
Templeton Prize, Inter-religious relations)
Rodrigo
Carazo (Elder Statesman, Leader, The University for Peace)
His Royal Highness El Hassan bin Talal of
Jordan (President, Club of Rome)
Barbara Marx Hubbard (Futurist,
President-Foundation for Conscious Evolution)
The Very Rev. James
Morton Parks (President, Interfaith Centre of New York)
Professor
Cornel West (Princeton U. Professor, Leading African-American voice)
Elizabet Sahtouris (Evolution
Biologist, Ecology, Voice for Indigenous People)
Dr. Riane
Eisler (Distinguished author, visionary leader for Partnership
Education)
Mary Evelyn Tucker
(Distinguished Scholar, leading voice for Religion & Ecology)
Jane Goodall (Distinguished
Primatologist, Voice for Wildlife Conservation)
Jim Kenney (Exec.
Director of Common Ground)
Jonathan Granoff (President, Global
Security Institute)
Angaangaq Lybert (Eskimo Inuk Elder &
Healer, Greenland)
Betty Williams (Nobel
Peace Prize Laureate)
Global
Councils
The Commission is now actively developing the
following Global Councils as a powerful way to carry forth our
mission on a planetary scale. These Councils may be seen as
"Sub-Commissions" - as direct extensions and outreach of
the Commission into diverse primary aspects of planetary cultural
life. As such each Council will have direct participation of
Commissioners who will report directly to the World Commission and
keep the Commission fully informed about developments.
Global Council on Personal & Planetary Security:
Jonathan Granoff, Mikhail Gorbachev,
Douglas Roche, James George
Global Council on Spiritual
Politics & Global Citizenship: Al Gore,
Dennis Kuccinich, Marianne
Williamson, Deepak Chopra, Cornel
West, Robert Thurman, Tu Weiming,
Barbara Bernstein
Global Council on Planetary Ethics and
Values: Steven Rockefeller, Ervin
Laszlo, Vaclav Havel, Mary
Robinson, Bette Williams, Oscar
Arias Sanchez, Hafsat Abiola, Hans Kung,
Diane Williams
Global Council
on Peace & Conflict Resolution: Desmond
Tutu, Arun Gandhi, John & Susan Marks, Rabbi
Michael Lerner, Elie Wiesel, Rama
Vernon
Global Council on Awakening Arts &
Entertainment: Bono,
Peter Gabriel, Steven Speilberg, Kit
Thomas, Michael Douglas, Susan Sarandon, Stephen Simon, Robert
Redford
Global Council on Islam & The West :
Dr. Seyyed Nasr, Dr. Riffat Hassan, Dr.
Akbar S. Ahmed, Dr. Michael Sells, Prince
Hassan of Jordan, Queen Noor of Jordan, Dr. Omid Safi, Dr.
Asghar Ali Engineer
http://globalspirit.org/pages/wc_councils.php
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Earth
Day Network is responsible for organizing and
promoting Earth Day, an event it describes as “the
largest environmental celebration on the planet, impacting
practically every community in the Western World.”
The event is held annually on the Spring Equinox, an extremely
important date on the pagan calendar when the Goddess
supposedly “brings forth new life.”
The Earth Day Network recently launched their Green
Generation campaign, which seeks to engage students,
churches, and communities in pressuring the world to adopt a new
global climate treaty. Moreover, this campaign is slated to
continue until 2010 when they state that the world will witness a
massive Earth celebration: the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.
The International
Council of the Earth Day Network is packed full of CoR
members including: Maurice Strong, Gro Harlem
Bruntland, Jonathon Lash, Wangari Maathai, Queen Noor, Jane Goodall
and other prominent green leaders such as Lester Brown, David
Suzuki, Robert Kennedy Jr, and Gus Sepeth.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The United Nations Foundation was created by prominent CoR member Ted Turner. He donated one billion dollars to support the environmental activites of the UN. A significant proportion of this money was designated for “programmes specifically addressing climate change” and funding the IPCC. The Foundation has also recently created the Global Security Institute to “propose far-reaching reforms of the international system.” As would be expected the Foundation's Board is full of the same old names including: Ted Turner, Timothy Wirth, Kofi Annan, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Emma Rothschild, and Muhammad Yunus.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Global Leadership for Climate Action is a joint initiative of the United Nations Foundation and the Club of Madrid which “aims to design a framework for a new enforceable international agreement on climate change.” The GLCA has editorial input into reports and assessments produced by the IPCC and provides “technical expertise on the implications and communication of climate change science.” By my count more than two-thirds of the GLCA members are also members of the CoR including: George Soros, Ted Turner, Timothy Wirth, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Mary Robinson, Sir Crispin Tickell, Kim Campbell, Wangari Maathai, Petre Roman and Richard Lagos. Now I have to wonder what qualifies George Soros and Ted Turner to provide technical advice on climate change science!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The
Gorbachev
Foundation was
created by Mikhail Gorbachev immediately after the collapse of the
Soviet Union. He described the Foundation “as
a think-tank whose purpose is to explore the path that global
governance should take as mankind progresses into an interdependent
global society.” The overall motto of the Gorbachev
Foundation is “Toward
a New Civilization”.
The Foundation is deeply involved in many aspects of the modern green
movement. They provide advice and funding to many non-government
environmental orgaizations. The Board of the Foundation includes CoR
members: Mikhail Gorbachev, Robert Muller, Ted
Turner, Ruud Lubbers, Wangari Maathai, Sri Chinmoy, Robert Redford,
Vaclav Havel and Javier Peres de Cuellar. Who
would have thought Robert Redford was involved in all of this! In
a similar fashion to the CoR, the Gorbachev Foundation now has
several 'Gorbachev Foundation National Associations' each with their
own management structure.
The Foundation
works very closely with the CoR and the Club of Madrid and regularly
holds joint
conferences. These
conferences must be fairly easy to organise since they have so many
members in common. In order to carry out their 'mission' the
Foundation has created a number of susidiary organizations. Chief
among these is Green
Cross International.
From the Green
Cross Charter:
“Life
is sacred. All forms of life have their own intrinsic value
and share our planetary home in an interdependent community. All
parts of this community are essential to the functioning of the
whole. The beauty of the Earth and its life is food for the human
spirit, inspiring human consciousness with wonder, joy and
creativity. Human beings are not outside or above the community of
life. We have not woven the web of life, we are but a strand in it.
We depend on the whole for our very existence. For the first time in
history, human beings have the capacity to damage, knowingly or
unknowingly, the ecological balances on which all life depends. The
crisis is urgent.“
The GCI Board
contains the same familiar names: Mikhail
Gorbachev, Ted Turner, Basma Bin Talal, Jean Michel Cousteau, Ruud
Lubbers, Wangari Maathai, Javier Perez de Cuellar, Robert Redford,
Karan Singh, David Suzuki
Another Gorbachev Foundation
creation is Global
Green USA
which promotes sustainability and 'climate action'. Its motto
is “fostering a global shift towards a
sustainable future.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another organization
that is closely linked to the CoR is the United
Nations University of Peace.
The Chancellor (Robert Muller), Rector
(Konrad Osterwalder) and CEO (Martin
Lees) are all prominent CoR members. In fact Martin Lees has
just been appointed as the CoR
Secretary-General.
Dr Muller founded the UN's University of Peace on a mountain in Costa
Rica. Why did he choose this location? Because of this ancient
prophecy:
"Dear
children, the Great Spirit is in every animal, in every bird,
butterfly, flower, insect, leaf and grass you see. The
Great Spirit is also in you, the Creator's children. Please take care
of the wonderful nature created by God and some day, from this
mountain, you will see the birth of a civilization of peace spread to
the entire world."
The
'Board
of Honor' of the
University includes: Betty Williams, Desmond
Tutu, Elie Wiesel, the Dalai Lama Nelson Mandela, F. W. de Klerk and
David Trimble. The University is also home to Mikhail
Gorbachev and Maurice Strong's infamous Earth
Charter Initiative.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An excellent source of
information is the Kosmos
Journal, a
publication dedicated to the 'Global Awakening' and fostering a 'New
Human Civilisation'. Many of the articles are written by CoR members.
It actually makes me feel physically ill after spending a few hours
wading through their nonsense. The founding partners of this journal
include many of the organisations listed above and show how truly
interconnected they are:
Founding Partners:
Club
of Rome
Club of Budapest
World Wisdom Council
Gorbachev
Foundation
World Commission for Global Consciousness and
Spirituality
Goi Peace Foundation
Global Youth Network
The
Future 500
Institute of Noetic Studies
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These are just a few of
the influential 'environmental' organizations that were either
founded by, or are dominated by, CoR members. There are many more
that I have come across but it would take forever to describe them
all here. The leaders of the Global Green Agenda are deadly serious
about their intention to “transform
humanity into an interdependent global sustainable Earth Community,
based on reverence and respect for Gaia” and they
have been spreading their tentacles into every area of global
politics. Some other CoR initiated organizations you may wish to
research are:
Awakening
Mind
Alliance
for a New Humanity
Association
for Global New Thought
The
Ethical Globalization Initiative
Foundation
for Conscious Evolution
Great
Transition Initiative
The
Earth Council Alliance
The
World Future Council
The
Alliance of Civilizations
The
Global Marshall Plan