Agenda 21 Commercial 11/8/2012

I recently saw this video and at first, I believed it was a video by Agenda 21 promoting population control and using the elderly as an example of how to control population by not providing care once they are deemed "useful". 

Others have said they think it's put out by Anti-Agenda 21 advocates as a parody of what to expect if we don't stop Agenda 21.

What do you think?

CONSTITUTIONAL SHERIFFS ON HOW THE FEDERAL GOVT IS STEALING OUR PROPERTY RIGHTS, OUR LIVELIHOODS AND OUR LAND

Sheriff Jon Lopey, Siskiyou County, CA, Trinity Sheriff's Panel on May 19, 2012 
   

This video is well worth watching. It's very enlightening when you hear how we are losing our property rights. Sheriff Jon Lopey has been at the forefront of this movement of Constitutional Sheriffs that are fighting back. He has witnessed, first hand, how the power of the Federal Govt and radical environmentalists have decimated some of the most prosperous areas of California.

SHERIFF GLENN PALMER URGES CITIZENS TO PROTECT THEIR RIGHTS  

http://SupportRuralAmerica.com - Sheriff Glenn Palmer of Grant County, OR delivers a Constitutional promise to the Citizens of the United States of America. To obtain knowledge and understand the assault currently affronted by proponents of Agenda 21, please visit these websites:
http://ModocIndependentTeaParty.com
http://PieNPolitics.com

http://ConstitutionalSheriffs.com

They came for the loggers ... but no one defended them.

            Now we buy lumber from Canada.

They came for the coal miners ... but no one defended them.

            Now we need more oil.

They came for the oil drillers ... but no one defended them.

            Now we buy it from the Middle East.

They came for the fishermen ... but no one defended them.

            Now we buy from countries with polluted waters.

They came for the clean hydro-power dams ... but no one defended them.

            Now electric rates are sky high.

They came for the miners ... but no one defended them.

            Now government controls the mineral rights.

They came for the ranchers ... but no one defended them. 

            Now the beef comes from foreign countries.

They came for the farmers ... but no one defended them.

            Now Americans must buy foreign food AND foreign oil. 

Then they came for me and my family ...

            But there was no one left to defend US!

MORE AGENDA 21 OVERREACH~Perspectives on Limits to Growth: Challenges to Building a Sustainable PlanetPerspectives on Limits to Growth: Challenges to Building a Sustainable Planet

Final Print Program for March 1 Perspectives on Limits to Growth
The Club of Rome and the Smithsonian Institution's Consortium for Understanding and Sustaining a Biodiverse Planet are hosting a symposium on March 1, 2012 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the launching of Limits to Growth, the first report to the Club of Rome published in 1972. This book was one of the earliest scholarly works to recognize that the world was fast approaching its sustainable limits. Forty years later, the planet continues to face many of the same economic, social, and environmental challenges as when the book was first published.
 
The morning session will start at 9:00 a.m. and will focus on the lessons of Limits to Growth. The afternoon session will begin at 1:45 p.m. and will address the difficult challenges of preserving biodiversity, adjusting to a changing climate, and solving the societal issues now facing the planet. The symposium will end with a thought-provoking panel discussion among the speakers on future steps for building a sustainable planet.

HUD TELLS WESTCHESTER COUNTY ZONING CODES EQUALS DISCRIMINATION-THE AMERICAN AWAKENING-STOPPING AGENDA 21

 UPDATE 6/2/13

Hud tells Westchester County NY Zoning Codes = Discrimination

Sorry no option to embed video:

Battle over affordable housing in New York county-VIDEO
Hud is trying to strong arm this community.  Everyone needs to pay attention to this because it is coming to your community, if it hasn't already. 

Westchester County Housing Settlement Letters from HUD:
Read the HUD letters and see for yourself how Westchester County is being bullied by the federal government.   Here are some of the key documents.
Westchester County website 

• May 13, 2011 letter:  HUD says Westchester must go "beyond the four corners of the settlement." 
• March 13, 2013 letter: HUD says real goal for affordable housing units is 10,768  -- not the 750 that was agreed to in the settlement.
• March 25, 2013 letter: HUD threatend to reallocate $7.4 million previously promised to Westchester and local communities.

 See other documents and press releases relating to the housing settlement. 

 The Battle Over Affordable Housing Heats Up in Westchester

Concerns about over development in Scarsdale could extend far beyond the shoehorning of oversized houses onto undersized lots or the destruction of heritage trees. If the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development has it their way, villages like Scarsdale and Bronxville could find their local zoning ordinances under attack. These zoning ordinances ensure the unique character of these towns as they define minimum lot sizes, maximum height and bulk, residential vs. commercial zones and the siting of single-family vs. multi-family homes. Without these ordinances, apartment houses and town houses could spring up on 2-acre lots in Murray Hill, clogging residential streets with parked cars and straining the local infrastructure and educational system.

County Executive Rob Astorino paid a visit to the Scarsdale Forum on Thursday night April 25 and presented his side of the county's battle with HUD to meet their obligations as stipulated in the 2009 Affordable Housing Settlement that Astorino inherited when he came into office. 

Among other remedies, the court mandated Westchester to build 750 units of affordable housing at a total cost of $51.6 million. Ironically the county is well ahead of schedule on construction of the units and plans to complete 305 by the end of 2013.

Building the required housing has not been the source of the clash between Astorino's office and the HUD Chair. Two additional requirements of the legislation have caused much consternation.

First, the settlement required Astorino to promote sources of income legislation that would bar landlords from discriminating against tenants who use Section 8 vouchers or other government income to pay their rent. Rather than advance this legislation, Astorino vetoed the bill when he came into office. After HUD threatened to penalize Westchester by reallocating $7.4 in Community Development Block Grants due to Westchester this month, Astorino has re-introduced legislation that bans discrimination against potential homeowners and renters based on their source of income and has vowed to sign it. Astorino has also appealed to Governor Cuomo to lobby for the HUD funds and administer them to Westchester.

However, he still faces another hurdle.

The most vexing portion of the settlement requires Westchester to submit a zoning analysis and a plan to overcome "exclusionary zoning practices." Specifically, the county was ordered to:

• Identify local zoning practices that have exclusionary impact or fail to take into account regional need


• Develop a process to notify municipalities of zoning issues that hinder the county's obligations and changes that must be made as well as consequences for failing to make them.


• Identify types of zoning practices that would, if not remedied by the municipality lead the county to pursue legal action.

In a letter to the county dated March 13, 2013 the Federal Monitor, James Johnson, asks the county to assess the impact of restrictive zoning practices including:

• Restrictions that limit or prohibit multifamily housing development;


• Limitations on the size of a development;


• Restrictions on lot size of density requirements that encourage single-family housing;


• Limitations on townhouse development;

and "the impact such practices have on racial and ethnic composition."

Westchester County has submitted three such zoning analyses and failed to identify exclusionary zoning practices. According to Astorino, "The County has supplied volumes of data as well as a thorough legal analysis showing Westchester's zoning is not exclusionary." In comments at the Scarsdale Forum meeting, Astorino charged HUD with refusing to accept the county's zoning analyses because they did not reach HUD's conclusions -- not because the data was invalid or deficient.

Does HUD have the right to force municipalities to change their zoning codes? Professor John Nolon of the Pace University Law Land Use Center, who consulted on the case said in June, 2012, "Only towns, villages and cities have zoning power in New York. There is no constitutional or statutory definition of exclusionary zoning in New York to determine the obligations that these communities have to zone for housing that can be made affordable by housing developers." He cited the "Berenson" cases in New York which ruled on issues of affordable housing and said though these cases require the county to consider "regional needs," they did not define what region needed consideration. Is it Westchester County? New York City? The Tri-State Region? Connecticut? He concluded by saying that though the region's Economic Development Council has been charged by the state with developing plans, none of its current plans establish regional housing needs or a methodology for estimating them.

How to get beyond this impasse?

After HUD turned down all three analyses, James Johnson, who is the Federal Monitor assigned to the case, has now undertaken his own zoning analysis and sent letters to each of the municipalities with a report card for each showing their progress on meeting targets for the number of affordable units. Though Scarsdale has passed a model zoning ordinance that requires developers to build one affordable unit with each group of 10 market-rate units, the report says that the ordinance "provides no zoning incentives for affordable housing." The report notes that "the few areas in which multifamily housing is allowed as-of-right are "fully built out" and recommends that the village "provide density or other incentives for affordable housing, mapping additional areas where multifamily house is permitted as-of-right, and permitting accessory housing in "faux" garages as well as quadraplexes and cottage-style housing." It shows that as of the 2000 census only .4 percent of total village acreage is zoned for multi-family housing and that 4 percent of the population is Hispanic or Black -- the only two minority groups considered in the settlement.

Since Scarsdale is already fully developed, the only way for the village to expand its inventory of affordable housing would be to change the zoning code, an idea that is unpopular with residents who are already up in arms about development and absorbing big annual tax increases to pay for schools and services.

The biggest surprise in the "report card" was the assertion that Scarsdale is targeted to build 160 AFFH units -- a number pulled from "The unadopted Affordable Housing Allocation Plan produced in 2005 by the county's planning department." The letter states that "none of which have been built in the interim."

According to Astorino, this same 2005 report called for the construction of 10,678 units county-wide, far beyond the scope of the 750 units mandated in the 2009 settlement.

In an April 15, 2013 response to the Federal Monitor, the Scarsdale Board of Trustees told Johnson that "the village has fundamental disagreements with the position taken in your letter... Specifically we note that the village in not a party to the litigation and settlement agreement referred to in the "report card. " Further, the "unadopted Affordable Housing Allocation Plan does not impose any obligation on the Village."

Astorino says that these new targets "expand the agreement beyond the four quarters of the settlement," and that HUD has taken a very aggressive stance, claiming that any restriction is a restrictive zoning practice that must be abolished. Saying "there is no rhyme or reason" for HUD's demands, he called on residents to contact their congressmen and senators to voice their concerns about HUD's demands.

As it stands today, $7.4 million in grant money could be lost for Westchester if the county fails to comply. HUD is also calling for Westchester municipalities to make fundamental changes to their zoning codes that would radically alter the character of the 31 municipalities who, according to the outdated 2000 census numbers, do not house adequate numbers of black and Hispanic residents. The zoning code HUD is challenging includes lot size, stipulations for single family housing and structure bulk and density, which is common among suburban communities across the country.

Many in Scarsdale are shocked and offended that HUD is charging the village with exclusionary zoning and racism. The population is a diverse mix of whites, blacks, Hispanics, Indians, Asians, and others who live together in harmony. As one 40-year resident said, "anyone who says Scarsdale is racist simply doesn't know the community."

Can a federal agency force a locality to change their zoning code? That's the battle that could be in the offing.
Source: Huffington Post 

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While the following video and many of the links reference California, this is happening across this country.  Even in the great red state of Texas.  If it can happen in Texas, it can happen anywhere.  Do your research.  Understand what is going on behind the curtain.  It should frighten you.  Reach out to your family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors and help in educating those that are completely unaware of this insidious overreach of our government.  

Silence is Approval

Agenda 21 In California

Flash Gordon’s entry for the Alex Jones’ Infowars Reporter Contest covering Agenda 21
www.infowars.com - www.prisonplanet.com - www.prisonplanet.tv

References for the video

Agenda 21:
Document
http://www.freedomadvocates.org/images/pdf/Agenda21-Earth%20Summit-The%20Unit…
Who Funds Agenda 21
http://www.democratsagainstunagenda21.com/who-funds-un-agenda-21.html
More References
http://www.freedomadvocates.org/research_center/
Rosa Koire:
www.democratsagainstunagenda21.com
Full Video Presentation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDtCb45Lqt0
Interview with Alex Jones
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqgwf3p7gnc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cyujynj0UHU&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkwN-T-ZsLA&feature=relmfu
Vaccines for Population Control:
http://www.naturalnews.com/028887_vaccines_Bill_Gates.html
Presidents Council on Sustainable Development:
http://clinton2.nara.gov/PCSD/
American Planning Association:
http://www.planning.org/
http://www.planning.org/growingsmart/
One Bay Area
http://www.onebayarea.org/
Wall Street Journal- California Declares War on Suburbia
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303302504577323353434618474.html
World Future Society- World Future Forum in Toronto
http://www.wfs.org/content/register-worldfuture-2012

More links on Agenda 21:
AGENDA 21 COURSE: Understanding Sustainable Development and How It Affects You
American Policy Center 
John Birch Society-Stop Agenda 21

UPDATE 2/20/12

Tom DeWeese: Agenda 21 & International Redistribution of Wealth

Uploaded by CountySheriffProject on Feb 16, 2012

Tom DeWeese, the founder and director of the American Policy Center (http://www.AmericanPolicy.org) informs the sheriffs about the origins of Agenda 21, the central planning strategy that has grown out of the United Nations since 1987 to become soft law in the cities and counties across America to control all facets of the economy for an international redistribution of wealth.

On January 30-31, 2012 over 100 county sheriffs and peace officers, from over 30 states, united to uphold their oaths of office, protect citizen liberty, and stop state and federal tyranny. Inspired and led by the example of former Graham County Arizona Sheriff Richard Mack, the meeting, which was held in Las Vegas, was funded by the generous donations of thousands of Americans from all fifty states, as well as the support of freedom loving sponsors.

The agenda included training on the Bill of Rights, Interposition, Nullification and the importance of Property Rights versus Privileges. Many sheriffs, a police chief and even a county commissioner shared their experiences, challenges and actions taken to uphold their oaths of office, directly with the sheriffs in attendance.

The videos of these presentations are shared here on the County Sheriff Project YouTube channel. We hope that you will share these videos with your own county sheriff and all the oath takers in your county. To read the meeting agenda, see the event sponsors, learn more and show your own support for helping back more constitutional county sheriffs, visit http://www.CountySheriffProject.org

Think outside the gun!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rosa Koire, of Democrats Against Agenda 21, has made it her mission to speak out against Agenda 21. While this is a long video, it is worth watching.  

SOUNDS LIKE SCIENCE FICTION...OR SOME CONSPIRACY THEORY...BUT IT ISN'T.
Have you wondered where these terms 'sustainability' and 'smart growth' and 'high density urban mixed use development' came from?

Doesn't it seem like about 10 years ago you'd never heard of them and now everything seems to include these concepts? Is that just a coincidence? That every town and county and state and nation in the world would be changing their land use/planning codes and government policies to align themselves with...what?
 
Click here for more: http://www.democratsagainstunagenda21.com/index.html

Who are we?
 
We are engaged in educating ourselves, our peers, and our country about UN Agenda 21, ICLEI, Sustainable Development, Smart Growth, Form-Based Zoning, Green Energy Mandates, Carbon Offsets, Cap and Trade, Redevelopment and other programs that restrict our land rights and civil rights.

This vitally important information transcends party lines and illuminates much of what we have witnessed over the past two decades.
 
This is not a left or right issue. It's an American issue. The information on these sites will help you to identify what is happening in your town and to stop it.

http://www.PostSustainabilityInstitute.org
http://www.DemocratsAgainstUNAgenda21.com
http://www.SantaRosaNeighborhoodCoalition.com
Need a DVD, submit a request at: http://teapartymedia.net/listen_live_/disk_request_.htm
We the People Radio interview: http://teapartymedia.net/20111218/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

REDEVELOPMENT-THE UNKNOWN GOVERNMENT

There is an unknown government taking over our country city by city. 

Unlike new counties, cities and school districts, it can be created without a vote of the citizens affected.

Unlike other governments, it can incur bonded indebtedness without voter approval. Unlike other governments, it may use the power of eminent domain to benefit private interests.

This unknown government provides no public services. It does not educate our children, maintain our streets, protect us from crime, nor stock our libraries. 

It claims to eliminate blight and promote economic development, yet there is no evidence it has done so in the half century since it was created.

Indeed, it has become a rapidly growing drain on this country's public resources, amassing enormous power with little public awareness or oversight.

This unknown government is Redevelopment.

It is time Americans knew more about it.

(This report was specifically put together for Californians but is relevant to every state. This AGENDA 21 farce has infested every state and is rapidly taking over our cities)

   Redevelopment: The Unknown Government - Norby by Paul Murphy

WHAT IF TREES COULD SUE? THE LEFT'S ATTACK ON CORPORATIONS AND CAPITALISM

 HOW THE LEFT IS GOING AFTER CORPORATIONS, CAPITALISM AND ENERGY PRODUCTION UNDER THE GUISE OF GRANTING 'EQUAL RIGHTS TO NATURE'

The left-wing organizations working on the erosion of our property rights in the United States have been actively pushing their agenda in North and South America.  

If someone asked you, "What if trees could sue because their rights are being violated?"  What would you have thought or said?  After the initial, 'yeah right,' I imagine you would have thought this was just a silly joke.  

Well, this is a reality.  We are seeing our country taken over by the UN Agenda 21 that has embedded itself throughout the country under the guise of 'sustainable growth.'  In fact, what it will do to your local governments is hand over controls of your rights to an unelected group of 'councils of governments' that will dictate land, water, and energy usage in your area. 

Not that long ago, I thought this was just a conspiracy.  Today, I realize it is a reality and am actually finding this cancer in my own back yard.  Our city has signed up for this garbage. I don't know if they understand what they are doing and are blindly going along or if they are oblivious as I was and don't understand.  Either way, our local Tea Party has been very active in bringing it to our local governments attention but it seems to be falling on deaf ears.  

We need to make more people aware so we have more standing in front of these facilitators of the destruction of our liberties.  I will be posting some information and videos about Agenda 21 and would encourage you to educate yourself and check your area to see if your local government has joined hands with this anti-American, unconstitutional, U.N. agenda. 

For now, I want to focus on the issue of the left's movement to grant nature constitutional rights.

What is  this movement?  

To understand what they are pushing, let's look at a failed attempt to pass The 'Community Bill of Rights' in 2009 in Spokane Washington. This would have required a change to their constitution. 
The following is taken from an article from Yes! Magazine Nov. 4, 2009. 

A Community Bill of Rights:

'In the spring of 2008, grassroots organizations, labor unions, neighborhood councils, and other groups across the city began meeting together as part of a coalition they called Envision Spokane. Over the spring and summer, they drafted a series of ideas for addressing the needs of residents, workers, neighborhoods, and the environment. These ideas formed a draft “Community Bill of Rights” for the city.

During the winter, Envision Spokane held a series of 12 Town Halls across the city to engage the community in a conversation about the proposed Bill of Rights.

Taking the community’s feedback, the board of Envision Spokane revised the Bill of Rights and, in March of 2009, began to collect signatures. Despite opposition from the Spokane City Council and a concerted effort by business interests to block the Bill of Rights from reaching the ballot, Envision Spokane collected over 5,000 signatures from voters, successfully qualifying the Community Bill of Rights for the November ballot.

The Community Bill of Rights proposed nine amendments, written to address some very real needs in Spokane, to the city's Home Rule Charter. By recognizing broad rights instead of proposing specific legislation, the amendments were written to change the fundamental structure of Spokane’s legal system so that it would prioritize the protection of the local environment, economy, neighborhoods and residents.

• First. Residents have the right to a locally-based economy. Recognizes the rights of residents to protect their local economy by denying permits to big-box and chain stores.
• Second. Residents have the right to affordable preventive health care. Creates a fee-for-service program for the thousands of Spokane residents who lack health insurance and currently rely on the emergency room for health care.
• Third. Residents have the right to affordable housing. In response to the loss of thousands of units of affordable housing in Spokane over the past few years, the city would have been obliged, through incentives or other measures, to ensure that an adequate supply of affordable housing is available for those most in need.
• Fourth. Residents have the right to affordable and renewable energy. Requires the city and local utilities to make renewable energy accessible to residents.
• Fifth. The natural environment has the right to exist and flourish. Under current law, nature has no legal standing—to prove environmental damage, a person has to prove that he or she has been harmed. The Fifth Amendment would have protected the Spokane River, one of the most polluted in the nation following years of mining and toxic dumping, would have been protected under the Bill of Rights.
• Sixth. Residents have the right to determine the future of their neighborhoods. Patty Norton and her neighbors—and other residents of Spokane—would have been able to enforce their decisions about what’s best for them. (The condominium complex hasn’t been built yet, but it is approved. The Sixth Amendment would have done what years of protesting haven’t been able to: allow the residents to say, “No.”)
• Seventh. Workers have the right to be paid the prevailing wage and to work as apprentices on certain construction projects. As skilled labor leaves Spokane, the Bill of Rights would have protected workers’ right to competitive wages and created apprenticeship opportunities so that young people could learn a trade and stay in the city.
• Eighth. Workers have the right to employer neutrality when unionizing, and the right to constitutional protections within the workplace. Workers would have been free from interference by employers when seeking to form a labor union, as well as from having to attend “captive audience” meetings.
• Ninth. Residents, workers, neighborhoods, neighborhood councils, and the city of Spokane shall have the right to enforce the Community Bill of Rights. For the first time, residents would have the legal authority to enforce their own                    decisions.

While Spokane is the largest city to attempt these legal changes, and the first whose adoption would have meant a change to a city constitution, other communities have already succeeded in securing similar rights. Towns in Maine, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and Virginia have passed ordinances recognizing the rights of nature, prohibiting corporate mining and water extraction, and stripping corporations of constitutional protections and the right to contribute to political campaigns.'

The board of directors of Envision Spokane recognizes that fundamental change doesn’t come easily or quickly, and will be meeting in the next few weeks to discuss how to continue the work that they’ve started. Other communities are now reaching out to learn from Spokane about how they might do something similar.

 SOURCE: YES MAGAZINE

EXCUSE ME? WHAT DOES A CORPORATIONS CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTIONS OR CONTRIBUTING TO A POLITICAL CAMPAIGN HAVE TO DO WITH THIS?  OBVIOUSLY, THE AGENDA IS NOT PROTECTING ANYTHING  AT ALL.  IT'S ALL ABOUT TRYING TO DESTROY CORPORATIONS AND CAPITALISM.  IT'S ALSO ABOUT DESTROYING OUR ENERGY PRODUCTION.

 *****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*****

Now fast forward to today. Chalk one up as a win for this insane movement to grant nature rights that would surpass human rights.  

This is a real and present danger to our property and personal liberties that we need to be aware of in order to understand it when it comes to our area.  

It may be masked as "community bill of rights" or sustainability or even saving our planet, but it will really be an attack on our liberties.  

This movement is ultimately an attack on corporations and capitalism.  The parties behind this are well-known Communists, Marxists and Socialists...or better known as Progressives. Recently there were elections in our area that had to do with water conservation....it did not pass because we knew it was not TRULY for the betterment of our city...it was more of a power grab that we were able to thwart...for now.

BOLIVIA AND ECUADOR GRANT EQUAL RIGHTS TO NATURE: IS 'WILD LAW' A CLIMATE SOLUTION?

Published: Monday 21 November 2011
“Bolivians hope that this will give their country the power to hold mining companies accountable and force them to adhere to stricter environmental standards.”

The concept of “a wild law,” which grants equal rights to nature, is based on the idea that humans do not have an explicit right to destroy our natural environment. Under wild law, natural ecosystems’ rights supersede the interests of any one species (including humans). Obviously, this idea can be incredibly controversial. Even in Bolivia, where they’ve amended their constitution to give nature equal rights to people, they are still working out the details.

Bolivia amended its constitution after pressure from its large indigenous population who places the environment and the earth deity, Pachamama, at the center of all life. But what this means in practical terms, such as how to address the serious environmental problems caused by mining for raw materials in the Andean nation, is yet to be determined. Bolivians hope that this will give their country the power to hold mining companies accountable and force them to adhere to stricter environmental standards.


Research by glaciologist Edson Ramirez of San Andres University in the capital city, La Paz, suggests temperatures have been rising steadily for 60 years and started to accelerate in 1979. They are now on course to rise a further 3.5-4C over the next 100 years. This would turn much of Bolivia into a desert.


Most glaciers below 5,000m are expected to disappear completely within 20 years, leaving Bolivia with a much smaller ice cap. Scientists say this will lead to a crisis in farming and water shortages in cities such as La Paz and El Alto.



Ecuador, which has a large indigenous population, has also amended its constitution to grant rights to nature. But like in Bolivia, the law has not stopped oil companies from destroying their natural landscape.


Even though these laws are mostly abstract, their existence helps elevate a debate about the relationship between people and nature. Bolivia’s Foreign Minister, David Choquehuanca, puts it well:


“Our grandparents taught us that we belong to a big family of plants and animals. We believe that everything in the planet forms part of a big family. We indigenous people can contribute to solving the energy, climate, food and financial crises with our values.”


It’s hard to imagine such laws adopted en masse today — particularly in the U.S. But the concept has gained traction. In recent years, numerous conferences have been held on how to apply wild law to climate change mitigation efforts.


To hear more about the concept, watch the video below featuring Cormac Cullinan, an environmental lawyer and leading wild law intellectual, who recently addressed the World People’s Summit on Climate Change in Bolivia.


Wild Law - Cormac Cullinan speaks at the World People's Summit on Climate Change (Bolivia)

Environmental lawyer, Cormac Cullinan speaks at the World People's Summit on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba, Bolivia. The only way we can continue to live on this planet, Cullinan suggests, is by re-educating ourselves about our natural environment.


SOURCE: NATION OF CHANGE

*****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*****

Bolivia Grants Nature Historic "Bill of Rights"

Bolivia is set to pass the world's first laws granting all nature equal rights to humans. The Law of Mother Earth, now agreed on by politicians and grassroots social groups, redefines the country's rich mineral deposits as "blessings" and is expected to lead to radical new conservation and social measures to reduce pollution and control industry.


Read the full story here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/apr/10/bolivia-enshrines-natural-w...

*****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*****

Well, take a look behind the curtain and you will find the ususal suspects involved in this eco terrorist scam.

Former Obama Czar Van Jones Behind UN Push to Grant Mother Nature Same Rights as Humans…

By George Russell

Published April 25, 2011

FoxNews.com

Van Jones, the Obama administration's controversial former "green jobs czar," has found a new calling: helping to push for a new, global architecture of environmental law that would give Mother Nature the same rights status as humans.

The new movement is almost certain to be showcased at a U.N.-sponsored global summit on “sustainable development” to take place in Rio de Janeiro in May 2012, when similar issues of “global environmental governance” are a major focus of attention.

Jones is taking up the challenge as one of the newest board members of an obscure San Francisco New Age-style organization known as the Pachamama Alliance, which has been creating a global movement to make human rights for Mother Nature an international reality — complete with enforceable laws — by 2014. The Rio summit will create an important midpoint for that campaign.

Jones joined the alliance's board last December, shortly after the organization announced creation of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature to carry the concept around the world—and install it not only in international law but in the statutes of communities and municipalities across the U.S.

He resigned from the administration in September 2009 after making public apologies for some of his past actions, including the signing of a 2004 petition that questioned whether the Bush administration had deliberately allowed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to happen, and his previous affiliation with a self-described communist organization, the Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM).

The Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature “is working to build a movement of millions of educated and inspired individuals, with thousands of successful cases of enforceable Rights of Nature legislation having been enacted at local and national levels, by the end of 2014,” according to the Pachamama website.

The group also is running a parallel media campaign, called "Four Years. Go.," to build enthusiasm for the same rapid environmental change, using “personal communication, social media and a rich web presence to inspire a movement of people who recognize the urgency, and the opportunity, of this time and stand for using the next four years, through 2014, to literally change the course of history.”


Organizing and advocating just such a radical “green” restructuring of the U.S. economy is the skill set that brought Jones to the Obama White House staff as a “green jobs czar” in the first place.


Jones has continued to advocate those ideas since leaving the administration, as a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a think tank closely associated with financier George Soros, and at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson Center for International Affairs.


Now, his green community organizing skills apparently are going global, along with the Pachamama Alliance’s rights-for-nature campaign. Telephone calls and emails to Jones, his assistant and the institutions where he now works as a fellow, as well as to the San Francisco offices of the Pachamama Alliance, had not been returned before this article was published.

The movement that Jones has joined shares its goals with some of the more radical governments represented at the United Nations, notably Ecuador and Bolivia, both nations with substantial territories in the Amazon Basin, and both with close ties to the socialist government of Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez.

Bolivia last week sponsored an “interactive dialogue” on “Harmony With Nature” at the United Nations that included promotion of the same notion of a Universal Declaration of Human Rights for Mother Nature. By no coincidence, the U.N. debate was scheduled immediately prior to this year’s April 22 Earth Day celebrations—renamed “Mother Earth Day,” at the United Nations.


This year, the global celebrations also start an unofficial countdown to the U.N.-sponsored global summit in Rio de Janeiro next year.


The summit, known in U.N. shorthand as Rio + 20, is intended as a 20th anniversary successor to the famous Earth Summit of 1992, which gave enormous stimulus and legitimacy to the global environmental movement. This time, its aim is to produce new efforts at “global environmental governance,” meaning a strengthened international regulatory framework for environmental issues, and to provide new momentum for a global “green economy.”

Next year’s summit may also offer the “Rights of Nature” movement a chance to unveil at least a draft version of such a universal declaration, a prospect welcomed by the Bolivian sponsors of the April 20 debate at the U.N.

“Rio + 20 is a good opportunity to have that step forward,” said Pablo Salon, Bolivia’s ambassador to the U.N. “It would be like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”


Salon sees such a declaration as the kickoff to a longer-term campaign to create legislative reinforcing the new Nature rights, and he noted in an interview with Fox News that the Bolivian government asserts it is the first country to give the rights of nature equal status with human rights in its legal system. Bolivian President Evo Morales has frequently said that “the central enemy of Mother Earth is capitalism.”


Salon also told Fox News that his country is working with an offshoot of the Pachamama Alliance, known as the Pachamama Foundation, on its nature rights campaign, but emphasized that the Pachamama group is “one of many networks” Bolivia is working with on the issue.


Among other things, the Pachamama Alliance claims that through the Pachamama Foundation—a “sister organization” it created in 1997 among native peoples of the Amazon Basin -- it was instrumental in helping to install the same “fundamental rights for nature” it espouses into the constitution of Ecuador in 2008.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/04/25/obama-adviser-van-jones-helping-push-rights-mother-nature/#ixzz1eTOwqNpO

*****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*****

Communities Take Power

The Citizens of Barnstead, New Hampshire, Used Local Law to Keep Corporate Giants Out of Their Water 

by Doug Pibel

posted Jul 29, 2007

The environmental movement, with its army of professional advocates, lawyers, grassroots campaigners, and dedicated funders, has been around for decades. Yet nearly every biological indicator shows a planet in crisis—and poised to unravel faster as climate change disrupts already-shaky ecosystem functions.


Mari Margil, associate director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) believes it's time for different tactics. The nonprofit agency used to work within the body of existing environmental law—helping impacted residents file lawsuits or appeal corporate permits—to protect communities from environmental damage. But a series of blocked efforts, often made worse by the very agencies meant to protect the environment, convinced the group that more fundamental changes were necessary.


"Our system of environmental laws and regulations don't actually protect the environment," says CLEDF's Mari Margil. "At best, they merely slow the rate of its destruction ... We weren't helping anyone protect anything."


The organization has since changed its goals, working with citizens from all over North and South America to literally rewrite local laws in ways that allow people to speak up for their communities, watersheds, forests, and air.


According to Margil, anemic environmental laws spring from the fact that nature has no constitutional rights. CLEDF has taken a local approach to reversing this structural blind spot, drafting ordinances for townships from New England to Pennsylvania to Washington State that:

• Give communities legal authority to say "No" to unwanted corporate activities;
• Recognize the rights of nature;
• Strip corporations of their constitutional rights.

In one landmark victory, the town of Barnstead, New Hampshire, voted 135 to 1 to ban the privatization of their freshwater by encroaching corporate interests—the first community in the nation to do so. Other towns have followed, stripping corporations of the rights of personhood and recognizing the rights of communities to self-govern. In 2008, with legal advice from CELDF, Ecuador recognized the right of nature to exist and persist in its national constitution.


PART 1



PART2

PART 3

This video was produced by Bioneers, a nonprofit organization that provides a forum and hub for social and scientific innovators.


Related Stories:


U.N. Will Spend Wednesday Debating Whether “Mother Earth” Deserves Human Rights Status…
Tree Huggers Rejoice! UN Treaty Will Give “Mother Earth” Same Rights as Humans…
The Obama File-Cass Sunstein 
Giving Nature Its Constitutional Rights
What if Trees Could Sue?

RELATED LINKS:
GIVING NATURE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS???
COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENTAL LEGAL DEFENSE FUND
COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENTAL LEGAL DEFENSE FUND BLOG
PLANETIZEN
DRAFTING NATURE'S CONSTITUTION
BIONEERS