“In the last several years, an obscure United
Nations accord called Agenda 21 has emerged
as something of a unified field theory for the
antigovernment movement. On its face, Agenda
21 does nothing but provide countries and
communities with a set of principles to grow
smartly --- a plan, in short, to fight
overpopulation, pollution, poverty and resource
depletion.” Southern Poverty law Center,
Intelligencer Report, Spring 2012, Issue # 145
“How such an arcane UN document that defines
the concept of ‘smart growth’ and
environmental sustainability became so
controversial, even though it gives the UN no
enforcement powers, has a lot to do with the
work of a tight cadre of antigovernment
“Patriot” activists whose fears are rooted in
right-wing lore about a New World Order, a kind
of authoritarian one-world government.”
Southern Poverty law Center, Intelligencer
Report, Spring 2012, Issue # 145
“Agenda 21 is a pretty innocuous 20 year old
document… pretty mild stuff, yet across
America, it, and the very word sustainability, are
under attack.” Lloyd Alter, Exposing the
Influence Behind the Anti-Agenda 21 Antisustainability Agenda. treehugger.com 5/8/13
“Robin Rather of Collective Strength… says ‘I
genuinely believe the Agenda 21 phenomenon is
highly manufactured. It’s not out there in the
mainstream… this isn’t organic and local, the
same talking points come up everywhere. They
are being played and used. The whole
campaign serves no interest to anyone who isn’t
trying to ensure that we keep burning as much
fossil fuel as we can for as long as possible.”
Lloyd Alter, Exposing the Influence Behind the
Anti-Agenda 21 Anti-sustainability Agenda.
treehugger.com 5/8/13
“One of the reasons that California’s Proposition 23
which would have suspended air pollution controls,
was defeated was that it became clear that the
whole thing was being funded by oil companies and
Koch Industries… Opponents of the measure
successfully painted Prop 23 as the handiwork of
out-of-state- oil companies bent on messing with
California’s laws… Bike lanes, transit and higher
density are evil because they give people
alternatives to cars, and that can never happen in
American.”
Lloyd Alter, Exposing the Influence Behind the
Anti-Agenda 21 Anti-sustainability Agenda.
treehugger.com 5/8/13
“Fundamentally, that is what is happening here.
Big Oil is paying… either directly or indirectly the
fight against Agenda 21:the Kochs are
promoting it like mad, right across the country.
Same big companies, same reason: to keep
America in its happy motoring ways, to make
any alternative just about impossible. And that is
how we have to paint them: not concerned
citizens worried about the United Nations, but
representatives of big oil out to preserve their
turf.” Lloyd Alter, Exposing the Influence Behind
the Anti-Agenda 21 Anti-sustainability Agenda.
treehugger.com 5/8/13
• New York Times (Sunday front page) “Activist
fight Green Projects, Seeing UN Plot.”
• Mother Jones Magazine “We Don’t Need
None of That Smart-Growth Communism.”
• Washington Post: “Virginia residents oppose
preparations for climate-related sea level
rise.”
• The Atlantic Magazine: “Is the UN Using Bike
Paths to Achieve World Domination”
• Several more from the Southern Poverty law
Center
• Carroll County, Maryland became the first in
the nation to end membership in ICLEI and
stop Sustainable Programs.
• Since then more than 150 cities have ended
their membership causing ICLEI to whine that
they can’t get more American cities to join.
• APA has organized Boot Camps to train their
people to counter our offensive. “
Glossary for the Public
March 19th American Planning Association:
“The Actions of Discontent” (A study to find a
way to deal with us)
“Less studied is the fierce opposition mounted by
Tea Party and property rights activists against
city and regional planning efforts. “
April 22, Natural Resources Defense Council,
“Agenda 21 Conspiracy Theorists Threaten Cities’
Sustainability Efforts”
“Agenda 21 is not a treaty. It has no force of law, no
enforcement mechanisms, no penalties, and no
significant funding. Zit is not even a top-down
recommendation, seeking instead to encourage
communities around the world to come up with
their own solutions to overpopulation, poverty and
resource depletion. It is a feel good guide that
cannot fore anyone, anywhere, to do anything art
all.”
April 23, Treehugger.com “Public Domain Urban
Planners at Work”
“All of this might be laughed off as the insane
fantasies of black helicopter conspiracy
theorists. However, the theory is the basis of
state legislation now getting serous
consideration in the South and Midwest aimed
at sopping local governments from promoting
environmental sustainability, usually paraded as
a bill to protect property rights.”
May Issue Newsweek magazine
“So it goes with the endless loop of conspiracy
theories. They can’t be corrected, they can’t be
killed. Anyone who attempts to disprove some
feverish thought must be involved in the plot.
Indeed, most of the experts interviewed for this
article agreed on one fact: Once it was
published, Newsweek would be accused of being
part of the conspiracy.”
• “Regionalism must precede globalism. We
foresee a seamless system of governance from
local communities, individual states, regional
unions and up through the United Nations
itself.” UN Commission on Global
Governance
• Three E’s:
• Earth Summit
Exhibit one: 1995 HUD document:
“THE INTERGRATIVE COMPONENT OF ACTION
or... Community Design (planning) whereby
design means the active intention to integrate
these…three: The social, economic, and
environmental. Design involves all three. It takes
design, or intent, to weave these complexities
into a viable, sustainable whole.”
Exhibit two: 1997 USA report to UN:
• “The US Government remains committed to
promoting sustainable development consistent
with UNCED’s outcomes. U.S. efforts since UNCED
have included the following: UN Commission on
Sustainable Development (CSD). The U.S. strongly
supported the establishment of the CSD, as called
for in Agenda 21. The U.S. believes that the CSD
should continue to serve as a focal point for
monitoring the implementation of Agenda 21 for
local, regional and international levels.”
In its “Agenda 21 Myths and Facts” section of its
website, the American Planning Association
says:
“None of APA’s programs, products or services…
are linked to Agenda 21”
• American Planning Association Definition:
“Community planning is a process that seeks
to engage all members of a community to
create more prosperous, convenient,
equitable, healthy and attractive places for
present and future generations.
• UN Definition of sustainable development:
“Sustainable communities encourage people
to work together to create healthy
communities where natural resources and
historic resources are preserved, jobs are
available, sprawl is contained, neighborhoods
are secure, education is lifelong,
transportation and health care is accessible,
and all citizens have opportunities to improve
the quality of their lives.”
• Exhibit Four: 1994 Newsletter: “Vice President
Gore’s book, Earth in the Balance addressed many
of the general issues of sustainability. Within the
past year, the President’s Council on Sustainable
Development has been organized to develop
recommendations for incorporating sustainability
into the federal government. Also, various groups
have been formed to implement Agenda 21, a
comprehensive blueprint for sustainable
development that was adopted at the recent
UNCED conference in Rio de Janeiro (the “Earth
Summit.”)
A visit to the website of PlannersNetwork.org,
of which the APA is a member, will find in its
Statement of Principles this quote:
• “We believe planning should be a tool for
allocating resources…and eliminating the
great inequalities of wealth and power in our
society … because the free market has proven
incapable of doing this.”
Exhibit Six: APA Policy Guide 2000:
“Planners of human development – physical, social,
and economic – affect sustainability at the local and
the global level. City and regional planning is
integrally related to defining how, where, and
w3hen human development occurs, which affects
resource use. Planners can therefore play a crucial
role in improving the sustainability of communities
and the resources that support them.
American Planning Association, “Policy Guide on
Planning for Sustainability” Ratified by APA Board
of Directors, April 17, 2000
• Source materials: “United Nations Conference
on Environment and Development,
AGENDA21: Program of Action for Sustainable
Development, Rio de Janeiro, 1992” American
Planning Association, “Policy Guide on
Planning for Sustainability” Ratified by APA
Board of Directors, April 17, 2000
Exhibit Seven: EPA Challenge Grant Program:
“The Sustainable Development Challenge Grant
program is also a step in implementing ‘Agenda
21, the Global Plan for Action on Sustainable
Development…” 1998 Federal Register report on
the EPA’s “Sustainable Development Challenge
Grant Program.”
Future webinars
• In three sessions I’m going to take apart the “Three Es:” Equity, Economics
and Environment.
• These will cover social justice, Public/Private partnerships and the lack of
scientific consensus on Global Warming. And I will have some great expert
guests to join me.
• The Planners, who they are and how they are funded
• Regional Government
• Conservation Easements (The Voluntary Land Grab)
• Sustainability Marxism
• Common Core
• Healthcare (Sustainable Medicine)
• The threat of Biometrics in the creation of a Sustainable Surveillance
Society
• How to fight back and stop Agenda 21
– In your local communities
– In the legislatures
• Legislative ideas on reigning in county governments-how to make them
personally responsible for their tyrannical overreach
• Next month’s program “Attack of the NGOs!”
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The UN Organization Structure
ICLEI
Federal Agencies Involved
Charter for Global Democracy
Millennium Summit
The Roots of Agenda 21