"Building an environmentally sustainable future
requires nothing short of a REVOLUTION...
restructuring the GLOBAL ECONOMY,
dramatically changing human reproductive
behaviour and altering values and lifestyles."
- Lester Brown,
President of WorldWatch International


Sustainable Development – A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

On my Home Page the influential leaders who have been actively guiding the emergence of the environmental movement described their true beliefs and agenda in their own words. But how can they possibly bring about the global political, economic, social and religious transformation they desire? The tool employed must be so potent and pervasive that it reaches into every area of society, from local community groups to sovereign governments and multinational corporations. It must have the power to enforce binding international agreements, exert stringent controls over human activities and yet still be acceptable to the general population. It must become so entrenched in legislation and business practice that its necessity is barely questioned.

Such a tool exists. They have been carefully shaping and nurturing its progress for decades. It is known as the doctrine of Sustainable Development. We are all aware of need to address environmental problems such as water and air pollution, and dwindling natural resources, but Sustainable Development is exerting draconian controls and influence far beyond those required for effective environmental management.

The concept of 'environmental sustainability' was first brought to widespread public attention in 1972 by the Club of Rome in their book entitled The Limits to Growth. The official summary can be read here. The report basically concluded that the growth of the human population, and an increase in prosperity, would cause an ecological collapse within the fifty years. The book is considered to be the most successful environmental publication ever produced and propelled the Club of Rome to its current position of an environmental thought-leader and a major consultant to the United Nations.

It has been translated into more than forty languages and sold more than 15 million copies. Throughout the 1970s and 80s the concept that humanity was irreparably damaging the earth gained credence and facilitated the formation of mainstream and activist environmental groups. As discussed in a previous article the Club of Rome has been calling for “a Masterplan to guide world development” since its very inception.

In Nature organic growth proceeds according to a Master Plan, a Blueprint. According to this master plan diversification among cells is determined by the requirements of the various organs; the size and shape of the organs and, therefore, their growth processes are determined by their function, which in turn depends on the needs of the whole organism. Such a ‘master plan’ is missing from the process of growth and development of the world system. Now is the time to draw up a master plan for organic sustainable growth and world development based on global allocation of all finite resources and a new global economic system. ” - Mankind at the Turning Point, CoR, 1974

Interestingly, just prior to the birth of “Sustainable Development” a well-dressed, articulate man visited a small construction company in Georgia, USA, and announced that he wanted to build an edifice to transmit a message to mankind. He said that he represented a group of men who wanted to offer direction to humanity, but to date, more than two decades later, no one knows who he really was, or who he represented. The stranger gave the company very detailed design documents and stated the money was not an issue.

The “Georgia Guidestones” were completed six months later in 1980. As noted in the Wikipedia entry “The content of the message bears a remarkable resemblance to the so called Earth Charter, a statement of vision of the Earth Charter Initiative of Mikhail Gorbachev (Green Cross International) and Maurice Strong (Earth Summit).”

The monument stands high on a hilltop, and is almost twenty feet tall. It is made from five granite slabs that weigh more than 100 tons, with a capstone connecting the slabs. A message consisting of a set of ten guidelines or principles is engraved on the Georgia Guidestones in eight different languages, one language on each face of the four large upright stones. Moving clockwise around the monument from due north, these languages are: English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese and Russian. The message in English reads:

1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
2. Guide reproduction wisely - improving fitness and diversity.
3. Unite humanity with a living new language.
4. Rule passion - faith - tradition - and all things with tempered reason.
5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8. Balance personal rights with social duties.
9. Prize truth - beauty - love - seeking harmony with the infinite.
10. Be not a cancer on the earth - Leave room for nature.

A shorter message appears on the four vertical surfaces of the capstone, again in a different language and script on each face. The explanatory tablet near the Guidestones identifies these languages/scripts as Babylonian Cuneiform (north), Classical Greek (east), Sanskrit (south), and Egyptian Hieroglyphs (west), and provides what is presumably an English translation: "Let these be guidestones to an age of reason." The Guidestones have become famous as 'America's Stonehenge'. The origin of the Stones remains a mystery but the implications of these guidelines, especially the first two, are disturbing to say the least.

Sustainable Development is a doctrine devised by the former Prime Minister of Norway Gro Harlem Brundtland. The UN Secretary-General, Javier Perez de Cuellar, asked Mrs. Brundtland to chair a World Commission focusing on "long-term environmental strategies for achieving sustainable development by the year 2000 and beyond." She was asked "to help formulate a compelling call for political action on behalf of the environment”. Members of the 'Brundtland Commission' came from 21 nations, more than half in the developing world. After three years, including public hearings in the capitals of 15 countries, what now is often called simply the ‘Brundtland Commission’ published a report titled Our Common Future.

"Over the course of this century, the relationship between the human world and the planet that sustains it has undergone a profound change," said the report. "When the century began, neither human numbers or technology had the power radically to alter planetary systems. As the century closes, not only do vastly increased human numbers and their activities have that power, but major, unintended changes are occurring in the atmosphere, in soils, in water, among plants and animals, and in the relationships among all of these. The rate of change is outstripping the ability of scientific disciplines and our current capabilities to assess and advise."

This sentiment strongly echoes the Limits to Growth published by the Club of Rome nearly twenty years previously. It also surmised that "major, unintended changes are occurring in the atmosphere, in soils, in waters, among plants and animals. Nature is bountiful but it is also fragile and finely balanced. There are thresholds that cannot be crossed without endangering the basic integrity of the system. Today we are close to many of those thresholds."

In issuing a call for various actions, the report offered a now-famous definition of what it referred to as sustainable development: "A form of development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." The Brundtland Commission called for an international conference to be convened "within an appropriate period" after the presentation of its report to review progress and create a follow-up structure.

That conference, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, or Earth Summit, was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992. At the Rio 'Earth Summit', representatives of more than 170 nations, including the United States, agreed to work toward sustainable development of the planet. More specific agreements, most not legally binding, focused on topics of global significance such as climate change, loss of biodiversity, management of the earth’s forests and the responsibilities and rights of nations. A global plan of action developed in Rio was titled Agenda 21, referring to the 21st century.

At the opening session of the Rio Earth Summit Maurice Strong, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Secretary-General, bemoaned the world's "explosive increase in Population" and warned "we have been the most successful species ever; we are now a species out of control. Population must be stabilized and rapidly." His speech also stated that "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."

Mr Strong has since stated that “The United States is the greatest threat to the global environment. It is guilty of environmental aggression against the planet” and “Isn't the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn't it our responsiblity to bring that about?"

Sustainable Development, as outlined in Agenda 21 and the subsequent Earth Charter, is the driving force behind what Al Gore calls a "wrenching transformation" that society must endure to repair what he perceives as the damage of the 20th century's Industrial Revolution. It is the same Industrial Revolution that gave us modern transportation, medicine, indoor plumbing, healthy drinking water, central heating, air conditioning, and electric light. Sustainable Development is not about environmental clean up of rivers, air and litter. It is an all-encompassing socialist scheme to combine social welfare programs with government control of private business, socialized medicine, national zoning controls of private property and restructuring of school curriculum which serves to indoctrinate children into politically correct group think.

Immediately following the publication of Brundtland Commission report and the Earth Summit many governments swiftly enacted draconian legislation to empower the Sustainable Development doctrine. This followed a common formula of establishing regional or federal authorities that were given sweeping powers to control activities on private property. In Europe nearly every imaginable activity, no matter how benign, now requires and environmental impact assessment to be submitted to a committee which then imposes its own controls on the proposed activity. The UN regularly audits member countries and reports on their progress in implementing Agenda 21.

The primary tools used by the UN to force governments to implement its Sustainable Development agenda have been The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The World Bank states that Sustainable Development is its “global strategic priority” and all government loans are tagged with the requirement to introduce approved environmental legislation and strict monitoring. Even if repayments are met these loans can be foreclosed if the environmental targets are not met within the required timeframe.

In his book, Earth in the Balance, Al Gore insists "We must all become partners in a bold effort to change the very foundation of our civilization. We must make the rescue of the environment the central organizing principle for civilization." Sustainable Development advocates seek oppressive taxes to control and punish behavior of which they don't approve and there is much these advocates disapprove, including air conditioning, fast foods, suburban housing and automobiles. Every aspect of our lives is affected by Sustainable Development policies. It is top-down control from an all-powerful central government, specifically the United Nations which seeks to assert such control.

The philosophy behind Sustainable Development is to foster a mentality of guilt in people over the use of natural resources. Every time one starts their car... every time one turns on the tap... remember, be sustainable! Don't exceed your allotment of resources.... We all must learn to live the same, think the same and most importantly... be sustainable! We are encouraged to calculate our 'ecological footprint', or more recently, our 'carbon footprint'. Using a humble incandescent light bulb is now considered a crime against the planet by some. During the recent Earth Hour there were people in my city banging on their neighbours door telling them to switch off their lights. This collective guilt trip is being used to develop the global consciousness that I discussed in my previous article. Even back in 1974 the Club of Rome stated in Mankind at the Turning Point:

“A world consciousness must be developed through which every individual realizes his role as a member of the world community... If the human species is to survive, man must develop a sense of identification with future generations and be ready to trade benefits to the next generations for the benefits to himself. If each generation aims at maximum good for itself, Homo sapiens are as good as doomed “

The next revolution in the Sustainable Development saga appears to be the use of Global Warming hysteria to implement a global carbon tax or carbon credit trading system. This will give the United Nations, or whatever hierarchy oversees the system, complete control of the worlds economy. Fossil fuels are the life blood of any economy. One barrel of oil contains 23,000 hours of human work output. Controlling the amount of oil that can be consumed, and taxing its consumption, will complete the Sustainable Development agenda of controlling and reducing human activity in order to protect Mother Earth from her greatest enemy – humans!

"Humans on the Earth behave in some ways like a
pathogenic micro-organism, or like the cells of a tumor.“
- Sir James Lovelock,
Healing Gaia: Practical Medicine for the Planet