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Agenda 21
Some dare call it Conspiracy |
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What THEY don't want you to know! |
Sheeple wakers |
Agenda 21 is a set of hopeful guidelines for environmental action and social justice established by the United Nations in 1992 at a conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.[1] It sets out a variety of goals for public policy at all levels and for civic action by non-governmental organizations. These include fair trade practices, sustainable energy and urban development (i.e. more efficient zoning), and debt reduction for the developing world. Like most such sets of guidelines, it was happily agreed upon and happily ignored for many years, except for ne'er-do-wells like Sweden.[2]
Agenda 21 was frequently cited by conspiracy theorists, such as the John Birch Society, during the 1990s as a purported blueprint for implementing the New World Order and population control, then forgotten by them too.
In 2012, however, an "exposé" by former Fox News host Glenn Beck seized upon Agenda 21 as an attempt by radical Nazi communist internationalist homosexuals[note 1] to "put their fangs into our communities and suck all the blood out of it, we will not be able to survive."[3] This began an onslaught of paranoia that has continued ever since, with even such high-level American institutions as the Republican National Committee (RNC), the governing body of one of the two major American parties, officially condemning Agenda 21 as "a comprehensive plan of extreme environmentalism, social engineering, and global political control."[4] The general consensus among a certain segment of the American conservative movement seems to be that socialists and tree-huggers are using Agenda 21 as a template for an insidious contamination of all levels of society.[note 2] And our precious bodily fluids, no doubt.
The flaw with any vigorous opposition to Agenda 21 is that "the U.S. government and no state or local government is legally bound by the United Nations Agenda 21 treaty," as the RNC accurately asserts in their resolution.[4] Accordingly, it makes no sense to demand that it be repudiated: you can argue with it on the merits of what it recommends, but it's silly to savage a set of recommendations for merely daring to exist. It's tantamount to mounting a bombastic attack on the Food and Leisure section of your local paper just because you disagreed with a food critic's opinion of a restaurant: you might want a different columnist or different recommendations or even a different section editor, but attacking the section for its audacity in existing makes you seem like a raving lunatic.
Reaction to Agenda 21 outside the US
Outside the US, Agenda 21 is moderately known among "Green" types and there are even some local groups that want to implement Agenda 21 and pressure local and federal politics in that direction.[5] Apart from those groups and those dealing with them, basically nobody has ever heard about Agenda 21 nor cares about it.
Glenn Beck's Agenda 21 keyword list[6]
- Affordable housing
- Ballot Box Planning
- Benefit of all
- Benefits-Driven
- Buffer Zones
- Cap & Trade
- Choice
- Climate Change
- Common Core Curriculum
- Common good
- Community Protocol
- Comprehensive planning
- Consensus
- Conservation Easement
- Direct instruction
- Downzoning
- Endangered species
- Environment
- Environmental Impact Report (EIR)
- Environmental Justice
- Equity
- Facilitator
- Fair
- General Plan
- Global Warming
- Good Business Sense
- Grants
- Green House Gas (GHG) Emissions
- Greenways
- Growth management
- Habitat
- HEAL (Healthy Eating Active Living) Communities
- Healthy Communities Strategy
- High Speed Rail
- Historic preservation
- Housing Element
- Inclusive
- Inter-disciplinary
- International baccalaureate
- International Council on Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI)
- Invasive species
- Jobs-Housing Connection
- Land Use Policies
- Lifelong learning
- Livable communities
- Local
- Local Governments for Sustainability
- Metropolitan Planning Organizations
- Mixed Use Development
- Modeling
- Multi-Use Dwellings
- New Economy
- New Urbanism
- New World Order
- One planet communities
- Open Space
- Outcome based education
- Outcomes
- Parking Policy
- Precautionary approach
- Precautionary Principle
- Preserve
- Priority Conservation Areas
- Priority Development Areas (PDA)
- Prosperity Protect
- Public/Private partnerships
- Quality of life
- Redevelopment
- Regional
- Resilient Cities
- Responsible development
- Restoration
- Safe Routes to Schools
- Sanctuary
- Scenic views and vistas
- School to work
- Sensitive Lands
- Smart growth
- Smart Streets
- Social justice
- Stack and Pack Housing
- Stakeholder
- Sustainable Communities Initiative
- Sustainable communities partnership
- Sustainable communities strategies
- Sustainable development
- Sustainable Economic Development
- Sustainable medicine
- Three "E"s of Sustainablity-Equity, Economy, Environment
- Traffic calming
- Transit Oriented Development (TOD)
- Transportation Justice
- Triple bottom line
- Upzoning
- Urban Growth Boundary
- Urban revitalization
- Vehicle Mileage Traveled
- Tax
- Vibrant Neighborhoods
- Vision
- Visioning Meetings
- Walkable Communities
- Watershed
- Wetlands
- Wildlands
See also
External links
Notes
- ↑ Yes, you read that right. Next time life is beating you up, try imagining what a "radical Nazi Communist internationalist homosexual" would sound like giving a speech. It won't solve all your problems, but you're guaranteed a good therapeutic laugh.
- ↑ It actually provides a great litmus test on the wackiness of right-wing candidates.
References
- ↑ Agenda 21, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Division for Sustainable Development
- ↑ Växjö, Sweden: A Model of Sustainability, BuildingGreen
- ↑ Behind the Green Mask, Southern Poverty Law Center
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Winter Meeting 2012 Resolutions", Republican National Committee
- ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agenda_21#Local_level
- ↑ http://www.glennbeck.com/agenda21/agenda-21-word-list