"The threat of an environmental crisis will be the international disaster key that will unlock the New World Order." Mikhail Gorbachev, 1991
"The threat of an environmental crisis will be the international disaster key that will unlock the New World Order." Mikhail Gorbachev, 1991
"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." George H. Bush, 1992
"It is clear that current lifestyles and consumption patterns of the affluent middle class involving high meat intake, consumption of large amounts of frozen and convenience foods, use of fossil fuels, ownership of motor vehicles and small electrical appliances, home and workplace airconditioning, and suburban housing are not sustainable." Maurice Strong, Secretary General of the U.N. Earth Summit 1992.
"The real goal of the Earth Charter is that it will in fact become like the Ten Commandments." Maurice Strong
"Private land use decisions are often driven by strong economic incentives that result in several ecological and aesthetic consequences The key to overcoming it is through public policy." Report from the Presidents Council on Sustainable Development, page 112.
"Current lifestyles and consumption patterns of the affluent middle class involving high meat intake, use of fossil fuels, appliances, home and work air conditioning, and suburban housing are not sustainable." Maurice Strong, Secretary General of the UNs Earth Summit, 1992.
Agenda 21 proposes an array of actions which are intended to be implemented by EVERY person on Earth... It calls for specific changes in the activities of ALL people... Effective execution of Agenda 21 will REQUIRE a profound reorientation of ALL humans, unlike anything the world has ever experienced... Agenda 21: The Earth Summit Strategy to Save Our Planet (Earthpress, 1993). Emphases DR
"We need a new collaborative decision process that leads to better decisions, more rapid change, and more sensible use of human, natural and financial resources in achieving our goals." Report from the Presidents Council on Sustainable Development
"Individual rights will have to take a back seat to the collective." Harvey Ruvin, Vice Chairman, ICLEI. The Wildlands Project
Social equity implies fair access to livelihood, education, and resources; full participation in the political and cultural life of the community; and self-determination in meeting fundamental needs. As Martin Luther King observed, "Where there is injustice for one, there is injustice for all." Social equity is the cornerstone of society, which cannot be maintained for a few at the expense of the many. It focuses on equal outcomes versus equal opportunity.
Social Justice explains a principle that all persons are entitled to "basic human needs", regardless of superficial differences such as economic disparity, class, gender, race, ethnicity, citizenship, religion, age, sexual orientation, disability, or health. This includes the eradication of poverty and illiteracy, the establishment of sound environmental policy, and equality of opportunity for healthy personal and social development. Social justice is based on the concept of human rights and equality and involves a greater degree of economic egalitarianism through progressive taxation, income redistribution, or even property redistribution.
"Agenda 21 seeks to establish a mechanism for transferring wealth from the citizens of the United States to the Third World. Fear of environmental crises would be used to create a world government and U.N central direction." Dixy Lee Ray, former Washington State Governor and Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs.
"...Land cannot be treated as an ordinary asset, controlled by individuals and subject to the pressures and inefficiencies of the market. Private land ownership is also a principal instrument of accumulation and concentration of wealth, therefore contributes to social injustice." From the report from the 1976 UNs Habitat I Conference.
"Public/Private Partnerships (PPP) are special dealings between government and certain, chosen corporations which get tax breaks, grants and the governments power of Eminent Domain to implement sustainable policy. Public/Private Partnerships are Government-sanctioned monopolies."
"Participating in a UN advocated planning process would very likely bring out many of the conspiracy - fixated groups and individuals in our society... This segment of our society who fear 'one world government' and a UN invasion of the United States through which our individual freedom would be stripped away would actively work to defeat any elected official who joined -the conspiracy' by undertaking LA21. So we call our process something else, such as comprehensive planning, growth management or smart growth." J. Gary Lawrence, advisor to President Clintons Council on Sustainable Development.
"We must make this place an insecure and inhospitable place for Capitalists and their projects - we must reclaim the roads and plowed lands, halt dam construction, tear down existing dams, free shackled rivers and return to wilderness millions of tens of millions of acres or presently settled land." Dave Foreman, Earth First.
According to its authors, the objective of sustainable development is to integrate economic, social and environmental policies in order to achieve reduced consumption, social equity, and the preservation and restoration of biodiversity. Sustainablists insist that every societal decision be based on environmental impact, focusing on three components; global land use, global education, and global population control and reduction.
The 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro defined biodiversity as the variability among living organisms from all sources, including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems, and the ecological complexes of which they are part: this includes diversity within species, between species, and of ecosystems. This is, in fact, the closest thing to a single, legally accepted definition of biodiversity, since it is the definition adopted by the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. The parties to this convention include almost all nations.
There are varied definitions for the term biodiversity. One definition is variation of life at all levels of biological organization (Gaston and Spicer 2004). Biodiversity is also viewed as a measure of the relative diversity among organisms present in different ecosystems. In this definition, diversity includes variation within species and among species, and comparative diversity among ecosystems.
Biodiversity may also be defined as the totality of genes, species, and ecosystems of a region. An advantage of this definition is that it seems to describe most instances of its use, and one possibly unified view of the traditional three levels at which biodiversity has been identified: Intraspecific diversity within dog genetic diversity,diversity of genes within a species. There is a genetic variability among the populations and the individuals of the same species species diversity,diversity among species ecosystem diversity,diversity at a higher level of organization, the ecosystem
Ski runs, grazing of livestock, plowing of soil, building fences, industry, single family homes, paves and tarred roads, logging activities, dams and reservoirs, power line construction, and economic systems that fail to set proper value on the environment. UN's Biodiversity Assessment Report.
Sustainable energy sources are most often regarded as including all renewable energy sources, such as hydroelectricity, solar energy, wind energy, wave power, geothermal energy, bioenergy, and tidal power
Smart Growth, Wildlands Project, Resilient Cities, Regional Visioning Projects, STAR Sustainable Communities, Green jobs, Green Building Codes, Going Green, Alternative Energy, Local Visioning, facilitators, regional planning, historic preservation, conservation easements, development rights, sustainable farming, comprehensive planning, growth management, consensus.
The term Sustainable Development was first introduced to the world in the pages a 1987 report (Our Common Future) produced by the United Nations World Commission on Environmental and Development, authored by Gro Harlem Brundtland, VP of the World Socialist Party. The term was first offered as official UN policy in 1992, in a document called UN Sustainable Development Agenda 21, issued at the UN's Earth Summit, today referred to simply as Agenda 21.
More than 178 nations adopted Agenda 21 as official policy during a signing ceremony at the Earth Summit. US president George H.W. Bush signed the document for the US. In signing, each nation pledge to adopt the goals of Agenda 21. In 1995, President Bill Clinton, in compliance with Agenda 21, signed Executive Order #12858 to create the Presidents Council on Sustainable Development in order to harmonize US environmental policy with UN directives as outlined in Agenda 21. The EO directed all agencies of the Federal Government to work with state and local community governments in a joint effort reinvent government using the guidelines outlined in Agenda 21. As a result, with the assistance of groups like ICLEI, Sustainable Development is now emerging as government policy in every town, county and state in the nation.
ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability), formally the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives. Communities pay ICLEI dues to provide local community plans, software, training, etc. Addition groups include American Planning Council, The Renaissance Planning Group, International City/ County Management Group, aided by US Mayors Conference, National Governors Association, National League of Cities, National Association of County Administrators and many more private organizations and official government agencies. Foundation and government grants drive the process.
It's Urgent to implement, but we dont know what it is!
The realities of life on our planet dictate that continued economic development as we know it cannot be sustained, Sustainable development, therefore is a program of action for local and global economic reform a program that has yet to be fully defined. The Local Agenda 21 Planning Guide, published by ICLEI, 1996.
No one fully understands how or even, if, sustainable development can be achieved; however, there is growing consensus that it must be accomplished at the local level if it is ever to be achieved on a global basis. The Local Agenda 21 Planning Guide, published by ICLEI, 1996.