EARTH RECOVERY MOVEMENT

from Gregory Wilson 

The context in which we live, a brief summary:  Transnational corporations have Bill of rights protections from our Congressional legislative and regulatory processes. In other words the people are subjected to the will of corporations. Environmental degradation is intensifying and the people have little legal power to stop the offenders.  (Corporations have rights to destroy the environment and rights to poison your water, really they do!) Local communities are disempowered by state and federal government agencies which bend to the will of corporations. Many people in local communities believe working to limit the environmental destruction is an attack on their personal freedoms and property rights.   Failing to see poisoning water, air, land, sea, Lagoons, emptying aquifers, flushing toxins from industries into the public domain is the real violation of personal and property rights.

        Much of the opposition to sustainable planning has come to connect anything with these words or ideas, Sustainable existence, smart growth, wild-lands project, resilient cities, regional visioning projects, social justice, community rights, public/private partnerships, sustainable development, earth rights, mitigating climate disruption as an expression of the United Nations Agenda 21, which they fear is a takeover of the world and will take away their freedoms. This group recently defeated and caused the Port Saint Lucie County Commissioners to withdraw from a perfectly reasonable joint effort of seven counties working together to develop a long term plan, 50 years for the future of the area.   From Donald Brown, “the anti-Agenda 21 campaign has been remarkably successful in the last two years in preventing local communities from implementing plans necessary to achieve their democratically derived community aspirations to implement local sustainability programs.”  And further more, “The anti-Agenda 21 campaign has accomplished this by making preposterous claims including that local land-use planning is part of a plot to put the United Nations in control of local and regional planning decisions, rob individuals of their freedoms, and undermine property rights. As we shall see in a future entry in this series, the anti-Agenda 21 campaign that is making these claims has been funded, at least in part, by economic interests that profit from the absence of responsible land use planning and environmental regulation.”  Could it be that local citizens have been tricked by false prophets and are unwittingly supporting the Trans-Nation Corporate structure taking over our nations governing processes?  The very thing they fear they bring upon themselves, tyranny by a one world governing power, only it is an economic power. I suggest they read, Business As A System Of Power, by Robert A. Brady.  

     As a result of the foundational element of this anti sustainability movement is centered around the UN Agenda 21, represented as an effort to take over our government and take away our freedoms  and property rights I reviewed the actual document. What I discovered is that the UN Agenda 21 is structured around a policy of decentralization of power and empowering the local community. From local communities managing its own resources, (Nestles could not come in and legally take water and drain aquifers for bottling purposes, for example ), to open communications about all business and public intent of a local area. ( in other words no selective news provided by the media controlled by corporations). Below I have gleaned some of the more direct sections dealing with the local empowerment center pillar of the UN Agenda 21. 

Ideas on local community empowerment directly from the document UN Agenda 21:

·         Development patterns; participation of the general public, especially women and indigenous people;

·         involvement of youth; roles of the private sector, local organizations, non-governmental organizations and cooperatives;

·         decentralization responsibility and incentive systems; and dissemination of information and public relations

·         decentralization of decision-making, provision of infrastructural facilities and equipment, intersectoral coordination and an effective system of communication;

·         Adopt policies at the national level regarding a decentralized approach to land-resource management, delegating responsibility to rural organizations;

Management-related activities 12.57. Governments at the appropriate level, with the support of the relevant international and regional organizations, should: a. Adopt policies and establish administrative structures for more decentralized decisionmaking and implementation; b. Establish and utilize mechanisms for the consultation and involvement of land users and for enhancing capability at the grass-roots level to identify and/or contribute to the identification and planning of action; c. Define specific program/project objectives in cooperation with local communities; design local management plans to include such measures of progress, thereby providing a means of altering project design or changing management practices, as appropriate.

To strengthen and develop the management and the internal capacities of rural people's organizations and extension services and to decentralize decision-making to the lowest community level. Develop guidelines for decentralization policies for rural development through reorganization and strengthening of rural institutions.

Efforts will be needed to ensure that the necessary infrastructure facilities for research, extension and technology activities are available on a decentralized basis. Development and strengthening, as appropriate, of cooperation, including mechanisms where appropriate, at all levels concerned, namely:

At the lowest appropriate level, delegation of water resources management, generally, to such a level, in accordance with national legislation, including decentralization of government services to local authorities, private enterprises and communities.

32.4. The sustainable development of people in marginal and fragile ecosystems is also addressed in Agenda 21. The key to the successful implementation of these programs lies in the motivation and attitudes of individual farmers and government policies that would provide incentives to farmers to manage their natural resources efficiently and in a sustainable way. Farmers, particularly women, face a high degree of economic, legal and institutional uncertainties when investing in their land and other resources. The decentralization of decision-making towards local and community organizations is the key in changing people's behavior and implementing sustainable farming strategies. This program area deals with activities which can contribute to this end.

32.5. The following objectives are proposed:

 To encourage a decentralized decision-making process through the creation and strengthening of local and village organizations that would delegate power and responsibility to primary users of natural resources.

 It seems that UN Agenda 21 is a process that would protect local communities from Federal government influenced by multinational corporations from structuring and ruling over local communities. In this effort it is reminiscent of Jeffersonian Democracy. “The Jeffersonians believed in a republic, as form of government, and equality of political opportunity, with a priority for the "yeoman farmer", "planters" and the "plain folk."

To learn more,  come on out to the Treasure Coast Unitarian Universalist Church at 7.00 pm on December 16th 2014; 21 Central Parkway, Stuart.

Presenter Rev. Dr. Gregory Wilson