“The
Earth has cancer
and the cancer is Man."
-
Club of Rome (1974)
Mankind at the
Turning Point
In my previous article, The
First Global Revolution, I described the two most
well-known reports published by the Club of Rome. In The Limits to
Growth (1972) they conclude that “the
earth is facing an imminent catastrophic collapse if human
civilization continues on its current trajectory.”
Twenty years later, in The First Global Revolution they state that
the situation is now so dire that drastic actions are required.
According to the CoR “democracy has
failed and new forms of governance are required” and
“a common enemy must be found, one
either real or invented, to unite humanity." They
then state that “in searching for a
new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the
threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would
fit the bill.”
These two reports have had a
profound influence on the modern green movement. However, the CoR has
produced many other reports that are just as provocative and
controversial including:
MANKIND AT THE TURNING POINT (1974)
RESHAPING THE INTERNATIONAL ORDER (1976)
GOALS FOR MANKIND (1977)
ENERGY: THE COUNTDOWN (1978)
ROAD MAPS TO THE FUTURE (1980)
THE FUTURE OF THE OCEANS (1986)
BEYOND THE LIMITS TO GROWTH (1989)
THE CAPACITY TO GOVERN (1994)
TAKING NATURE INTO ACCOUNT (1995)
GOVERNING THE SEAS (1998)
GLOBALIZATION AND CULTURE (2000)
HUMANITY AT THE CROSSROADS (2001)
WORLD ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL ORDER (2001)
GLOBALIZATION, GOVERNANCE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (2002)
LIMITS TO GROWTH – THE 30 YEAR UPDATE (2003)
A NEW WORLD ORDER WITHOUT IDEOLOGIES (2003)
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND GOVERNANCE (2004)
GLOBAL FORESIGHT (2004)
GLOBALIZATION AND CIVIL SOCIETY (2005)
RETHINKING CIVILIZATION (2006)
TOWARDS A GLOBAL ETHIC (2006)
In this article I will briefly discuss a few of
these reports and provide the reader with some interesting quotes and
excerpts. In their capacity as official consultants to the United
Nations the CoR has authored many other reports for UNEP, UNDP,
UNESCO etc and these can be tracked down at https://unp.un.org/.
Although aspects of my website may appear to fringe on the
realms on conspiracy theory, remember … they wrote these
reports, not me! When you read what they have actually written and
then see it being adopted as UN and Government policy it starts to
get a bit creepy. And bear in mind that this is no ordinary
‘think-tank’, these people are top UN officials and Heads
of State like Robert Muller, Maurice Strong, Bill Clinton, Javier
Solana, Al Gore, Tony Blair and Mikhail Gorbachev. They possess the
power to bring their vision to “transform
humanity into a sustainable global interdependent society,
based on respect and reverence for the Earth” into
reality.
Mankind At The Turning
Point
The second report produced by the CoR in 1974
was titled Mankind at the Turning Point. This report develops further
the concept on the World Problematique they introduced in The Limits
to Growth. They state that “the world
is facing an unprecedented set of interlocking global problems, such
as, over population, food shortages, non-renewable resource
depletion, environmental degradation and poor governance.”
Once again turning to ‘nature’ for an answer the
report states "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.”
“Such
an approach must start from and preserve the world's regional
diversity. Paths of development, region-specific rather than based on
narrow national interests, must be designed to lead to a sustainable
balance between the interdependent world-regions and to global
harmony - that is, to mankind's growth as an "organic
entity" from its present barely embryonic state."
"An analysis of problems and
crises as reported indicate that (1) a "horizontal"
restructuring of the world system is needed, i.e., a change in
relationships among nations and regions and (2) as far as the
"vertical" structure of the world system is concerned,
drastic changes in the norm stratum - that is, in the value
system and the goals of man - are necessary in order to solve energy,
food, and other crises, i.e., social changes and changes in
individual attitudes are needed if the transition to organic growth
is to take place."
"Cooperation
by definition connotes interdependence. Increasing interdependence
between nations and regions must then translate as a decrease in
independence. Nations cannot be interdependent without each of
them giving up some of, or at least acknowledging limits to, its own
independence."
"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. Ten or twenty
years from today it will probably be too late..."
So, the Club of Rome states that a ‘master plan’
must be developed to guide mankind through the plethora of ‘crises’
embodied in the World Problematique. It suggests that the world
system must be restructured drastically into a ‘horizontal
system’ which would involve interdependent ‘world
regions’. An extract from their report describing these regions in detail can be found here. In fact the report even includes a map illustrating
how the world can be divided into 10 regions:
The report, in a chapter called ‘The
Transition – A New Mankind’ then goes on to list
specific goals that must be achieved or humans are “as
good as doomed.”
“1)
A world consciousness must be developed through which every
individual realizes his role as a member of the world community... It
must become part of the consciousness of every individual that "the
basic unit of human cooperation and hence survival is moving from the
national to the global level."
2) A new
ethic in the use of material resources must be developed which
will result in a style of life compatible with the oncoming age of
scarcity... One should be proud of saving and conserving rather than
of spending and discarding.
3) An attitude toward
nature must be developed based on harmony rather than conquest. Only
in this way can man apply in practice what is already accepted in
theory - that is, that man is an integral part of nature.
4) 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."
Now I don’t
know about you but this seems to be a blueprint for the whole rise of
Sustainable Development, Agenda 21 and the modern ‘environmental
ethic’ which now pervades our society. In their later report
The First Global Revolution they admit that Global Warming is being used as
a ‘the common enemy’ to develop a new world consciousness
and environmental ethic. Interestingly the apparent successor to the
CoR is called the World Council on Global Consciousness and
Spirituality. The report then goes on to say:
"Governments
and international organizations are currently too preoccupied with
military alliances and bloc politics. But this problem is becoming of
secondary importance... Therefore, barring suicide, mankind will face
the most awesome test in its history: the necessity of a change in
the man-nature relationship and the emergence of a new
perception of mankind as a living global system."
So, unless mankind renounces his destructive ways and returns
to his place as a simple part of the great Gaia Organism then he is
surely doomed. The report makes no attempt to hide it’s opinion
of humans, it states “The Earth has
cancer and the cancer is Man."
It also states:
“Being but a
part of nature, man has always affected and has always been affected
by his environment. However, due to the disproportionate increase
in numbers and due to increased sophistication in man's
intervention in natural processes, the interference of man is taking
on a completely new dimension with unpredictable and potentially
catastrophic consequences.”
"On
certain growth issues there would seem to exist universal agreement.
Consider, for example, the issue of population growth. Few would
quarrel with the position that the global population cannot and
should not be permitted to grow unchecked forever. That the
population must level off some time, i.e., that population growth
should stop, is the view gaining universal acceptance."
The report concludes:
“The
odds seem against man. Yet we are moderately hopeful. The winds of
change have begun to blow. A keen and anxious awareness is evolving
to suggest that fundamental changes will have to take place in the
world order and its power structures, in the distribution of
wealth and income, in our own outlook and behavior. Perhaps only a
new and enlightened humanism can permit mankind to negotiate
this transition without irreparable lacerations. In the UN, for
example, new concepts such as that of "world collective economic
security" as a necessary correlative to political security, and
an innovative "charter of duties and rights" of member
states is under consideration.”
So ‘Mankind at the Turning Point’
gives a clear insight into the world-view and goals of the Club of
Rome. Their words speak for themselves and little commentary seems
necessary.
Goals For Mankind
The
fourth report by the Club of Rome was published in 1976 and titled
Goals for Mankind - A report by the Club of
Rome on the new horizons of global community. The lead author
was the then President of the CoR, Ervin Laszlo. This very long
report basically expands on the concept first suggested in ‘Mankind
at the Turning Point’ of dividing the world into interdependent
super-regions.
A detailed computer model was developed (the
CoR seems to LOVE computer models, there is usually at least one in
each report) which assigned different ‘goals and
responsibilities’ to each region, e.g. North America was
responsible for 1: food production, 2: natural resources, 3: mid-tech
manufacturing; Japan – 1: high-tech manufacturing, 2:
fisheries, 3: mid-tech manufacturing; Europe – 1: financial
services, 2: high-tech manufacturing, China – low-tech
manufacturing; Africa and the Middle East – natural resources
etc.
The authors stated that “This
proposed new global system is highly interdependent as, in the same
manner that the human body assigns different tasks to its various
organs, each region is assigned specialized and specific tasks, and
is each is dependent on the others for their common survival.”
A large number of different scenarios were fed into the model which
concluded that the “resultant ideal
sustainable population is hence more than 500 million but less than
one billion.”
The report also explored
different scenarios by which these new global systems could be
successfully introduced and adopted. They state:
"Of
all possible scenarios for the solution of world problems, the
authors feel that the most hopeful scenario -- that group which is
most likely to lead world consciousness to an awareness of its
problems and to its solutions is contained in the 'religion
science-led scenario’. The greatest hope for the Earth lies in
the religionists and scientists uniting to awaken the world to its
near fatal predicament and then leading mankind out of the
bewildering maze of international crises into the future Utopia of
humanist hope…”
So they consider
that an alliance between scientists and ‘religionists’
(i.e. all Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus) would be the most
successful approach in leading humanity into a “Utopia
of humanist hope” (their words, not mine!). This
might explain the rapid rise of eco-spirituality and religious
movements such as Creation Care.
This article is getting a bit
long so I think I’ll leave it there for now. I encourage the
reader to track down and read some of the other CoR reports I
referenced. Very interesting! Also the reports published by the CoR’s
sister and sibling organisations listed in my article The
Green Web.