Agenda 21 is a 40-chapter document spelling out how all activities on the planet are to be brought under the control of the United Nations to create a “sustainable” future for all, forever. George H. W. Bush signed on to this agreement at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. A year later, Bill Clinton issued an executive order that erected a governmental structure to implement Agenda 21 throughout America.
Have you ever heard of U.N. Agenda 21? You probably have not because it is being implemented under the guise of sustainability.
Many cities, including Oklahoma City, Edmond, Norman and Tulsa, have signed on to Agenda 21 through an organization called the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives. Go to www. iclei.com where you can find the full text of Agenda 21. ICLEI exists to push Agenda 21 down to the local level. I invite you to read a few sections and imagine what it will be like to live in a hyper-controlled Agenda 21 world.
Our Constitution defines a system designed to maximize the freedom experienced by every individual. Each individual is to pursue his or her own happiness. The real danger from any U.N. governance agenda is to individual rights and liberties. All elected officials take an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution. Read a few sections and decide for yourself if an elected official can simultaneously serve the Constitution and Agenda 21.
Your city officials will tell you that the way they intend to do sustainability is not like I perceive it. They only intend to convert city vehicles to natural gas, build a few windmills and be more energy efficient. I have supported such efforts at the individual and government levels most of my adult life. Why, though, would a city need the U.N. or ICLEI to accomplish those sorts of projects?
Santa Cruz, Calif., is ground zero of the sustainability movement in this country. Unelected sustainability committee members attempt to pass ordinances that prohibit their citizens from walking on their own private land when the long-toed salamander is mating, close public land to keep humans off of it and force unwanted development plans on this community. In other words, individuals in Santa Cruz are no longer free to pursue their happiness at will. Sustainability is not about the environment — it is about control!
Since most of Agenda 21 is implemented incrementally through your city planning department, you will experience a gradual encroachment of your private property rights, all under the watchful eye of ICLEI.
Being a member of ICLEI may be a factor in receiving the crack cocaine of federal money, which makes your city beholden to the federal government. When the federal government takes our tax dollars and then uses them to promote a U.N. agenda to our cities, something seems very wrong to me. When Agenda 21 is embedded in your city, will that serve your interests?
Decide for yourself if you need to be controlled by unelected officials working through an internationalist agenda.
Semands is an Edmond resident and geophysicist.
Opinions expressed on the commentary page, in letters to the editor and elsewhere in this newspaper are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of ownership or management.
