As a county commissioner I am often in regional planning meetings where I continually hear the word “sustainable” or “sustainable development.” If you begin to pay attention, you will hear it too, or read it in news articles and reports generated by government planning entities. What does the word mean and why is it used so frequently? It sounds good, but is it? In an effort to educate myself on the subject, I attended a conference in Tulsa to hear Rosa Koire, a recognized
spokesperson on the topic. I found what she had to say troubling. Here is some of what she said and encouraged us to share with others….
“Sustainable Development was created and defined by the United Nations in 1987, and the action plan to implement it was signed onto in 1992 by President Bush and 178 other nations. It was called Agenda 21, the Agenda for the 21st century. Considered unsustainable under this plan are middle class lifestyles, single family homes, private vehicles,
meat-eating, air conditioning, appliances, dams and farming.
President Clinton began to implement it in the US in 1993 by giving the American Planning Association a multi-million dollar grant to write a land use legislative blueprint for every municipality in the US. It is called the “Growing Smart Legislative Guidebook with Model Statutes for Planning and the Management of Change.” This was completed in 2002 and is being used to train planners in universities, colleges and government planning offices throughout the nation.
“Growing Smart” is sometimes referred to as Smart Growth.
“Growing Smart” is in planning departments and its principles are in city and regional plans right now. In addition, there is “The Local Agenda 21 Planning Guide” put out by the United Nations and the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI). Urban areas are being consolidated and rural areas emptied of people through restrictive land use policies, gasoline costs, loss of rural road maintenance, closure of rural schools, closure of rural post offices, water well monitoring, smart meters and regionalization pressures. “Smart Growth” is not just the preferred building style for UN Agenda 21/Sustainable Development; it is the ideology. Moving people into centralized urban areas in high density housing creates the perfect opportunity for domestic surveillance. This ideology is being used as the justification to radically change every city in the US and to impose regulations dictated by unelected regional boards and commissions. It is remaking government. This affects private property rights and extends to every facet of our lives: education, energy, food, housing and transportation.”
As a county commissioner, I can assure you that I have seen efforts underway to implement “sustainability.” It is occurring at various levels of government. On Friday, May 24, 9:30 am to 4:00 pm, Kevin St. Jacques, part of the National Complete Streets Speakers Bureau will be in Guthrie to present a workshop which I believe is related to this
issue. A public form is scheduled the same day at 6:00 pm at Guthrie City Hall Council Chambers. Specific information about this event is posted at www.commissiondistrict1.com. Additional information about “sustainability” is available at http://americanpolicy.org/agenda21/. I encourage you to research this topic for yourself in order to
understand how it may affect your life.
The Commissioner may be technically correct, but if there is a better word to describe improving our rural communities in a lasting way let’s use it. Frankly aging infrasturcture is a rural problem, and housing is a bigger problem. No one wants to live in the big city in the projects. My question to all of the commissioners is what are you doing to save USDA Rural Development Housing Programs in Oklahoma and the country? These are programs just for rural areas that are being budget cut into nonexsistance. I have not heard a single voice from our County Commissioners about saving these programs while the State (OFHA) says we are moving more toward multi-family projects. Really?
Sustainability is code for Agenda 21 which is take the land from individuals and give it to the people. This may sound good to some of you but it has far reaching tentacles that give our lands to the people of the planet so if someone in Africa or Asia does not benefit from our use as much as we do you can not have it. It gives our lands to the UN to do with what they want and the UN does not like people.
We must look at these things long term. We are giving up our rights very quickly. And once gone we will not be able to get them back.
Good Lord, at least use the dictionary for the definition. Is this your conspiracy theory? What in the heck does the UN have to do with streets?
The UN has everything to do with streets. One would need to read UN Agenda 21 before you can try and argue against it. It is online, if you know where to look. The UN took down their links once the nation began understanding what UN Agenda 21 really is. It is a 40 chapter documents that is being implemented to control our entire lives, from housing, RURAL, ‘human settlements’, transportation, food supplies, farming, water, energy, there is nothing not covered. It is a means to do away with our property rights, including RURAL america. Sustainability is just the buzz word that gets everyone stirred up so that they implement the ‘agenda for the 21st century’. Not my words- it is the United Nations words, so No conspiracy theory involved, just facts.
I have read and understand UN Agenda 21. My efforts are to get the attention of local Government to open their eyes to the needs of the people that elected them. We live in the here and now! I have visited your web-site, I understand your agenda as well. We are blessed to live in a country where we can fight a good fight for what we believe in. That said, let’s take the word “sustainability” out of the discussion for a minute and use the words improve and maintain, which is a small Oklahoma Health Department’s agenda. What remains is that an elected official of a small County in the middle of Oklahoma chose to use the “S” word to bring forth an agenda that is not relevant to this workshop. Check out the web pages for “Get Fit Oklahoma” – “Get Fit Guthrie” -etc.
So it looks like we can agree on this point….sustainability is just a buzz word that gets everyone stirred up. We can change the words we use to improve our community and our health, it will be more difficult to understand why the commissioner used this venue to make his point.