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"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.

The Agenda

Global
Revolution

The Turning
Point

Gaia's Gurus

The Green Web

Global
Consciousness

The Great
Shift

Green Governance

Sustainable
Development

Agenda 21

The Earth
Charter

A United
World

Green Religion

The Gaia
Hypothesis

Deep
Ecology

The
Spiritual UN

A United
Faith

Global Warming

Settled
Science?

What about
Greenland?

The Carbon
Currency

A New
Economy

Links

The Watchman's Post

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