Free Republic

Four communities have rejected “Sustainability” since the first of the year. More will surely follow. To confront sustainability in your community you should learn everything you can about it. More than 600 American communities have entered into agreements with ICLEI (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives), an international non-government organization created by the United Nations. ICLEI-USA was formed in 1995. ICLEI is a tool of both the U.N. and the federal government, used to transform American cities into “Sustainable Communities.” What is, and is not, sustainable is defined in Agenda 21, a 40-chapter document adopted in 1992 by the United...

California is the unfortunate testbed for almost every new lunatic idea promulgated by the radical left—which is to say, every idea they offer—the complete explanation for why the state is such a train wreck. One of the worst examples is California’s oppressive environmental statutes. In combination with these, Agenda 21 has spread like cancer throughout California. Today I received some explicit examples of how this is playing out in Ventura County. The county Board of Supervisors is attempting to impose, almost word-for-word, the Wildland Project’s despotic edicts that will turn wide swaths of rural private property into complete wastelands. A...

..that local Sustainability offices, under the auspices of the ICLEI’s Local Governments for Sustainability, are the tiny, visible tip of the monstrous Agenda 21 sustainable development iceberg, the ultimate goal of which is to transform American society from the bottom up into a socialist ward of UN global governance. As of today, there are approximately 600 local governments in the US who have signed on to this Trojan Horse, under the guise of "smart growth, sustainability" and planned by the United Nations... Minus one. All the commissioners are to be commended for this bold decision. Predictably, the left is up...

In March 2010, Nor-Cal Produce, a family-owned produce business in West Sacramento, was fined $32,500 by the California Air Resources Board (ARB, or CARB). The company was not charged with, or even accused of, illegal emissions; like many other businesses, it had merely failed to notice a new regulation posted by CARB requiring all semi-trailers, shipping containers, vans, and rail cars with diesel-powered refrigerators to file a report with the agency. “We had no knowledge of the law,” Nor-Cal’s Chief Financial Officer Todd Achando told CalWatchDog, a news blog that monitors California government. “My operations manager happened to see it...

ICLEI USA issues the following statement from Mayor Patrick Hays, City of North Little Rock, AR, Corporate President and Chair of Board of Directors Jan 26, 2011 Washington, D.C.- President Obama made some significant announcements during his State of the Union Address to the nation, chief among them; 80 percent of America’s electricity should come from clean energy by 2035; America should have one million electric vehicles on the road by 2015; and 80% of Americans should have access to high-speed rail within 25 years. “President Obama called on the nation to drastically curb its dependence on energy from fossil...

The Carroll County Board of Commissioners has made it clear it believes there is a distinction between "sustainability" and "environmentalism." On Jan. 12, the new, five-member board unanimously voted to terminate its membership with the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, an organization that provides technical consulting, training and information services to support local government in the implementation of sustainable development at the local level. Board President Doug Howard, R-District 5, said the definition of sustainability has changed over time to no longer just focus on protecting and preserving the environment, which is now environmentalism. Sustainability, Howard said, now includes...

MEXICO CITY, Nov. 21, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Mayors from around the world today signed an agreement to address climate change at the World Mayors Summit on Climate, hosted by the Government of Mexico City and Marcelo Ebrard, mayor of Mexico City and chair of the World Mayors Council on Climate. During the summit, representatives from 135 global cities signed the Mexico City Pact, which establishes a monitoring and verification mechanism for cities to address climate change. The Mexico City Pact will be presented to the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) when it meets later this month in...

Over the past several months, the American Policy Center (APC) has mailed more than 100,000 “Remove ICLEI, Restore the Republic Survey” to Americans across the nation. The mail package contained not only the Survey, but also a detailed report on Sustainable Development and how ICLEI (International Council on Local Environmental Initiatives) is being paid dues by local communities to impose this UN Agenda 21 policy. ICLEI is now operating in more than 600 American cities—mostly in relative secrecy. More cities are being pressured to give ICLEI control of development policy making. In most cases that includes creating non-elected boards, councils...

Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes is warning voters that Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper's policies, particularly his efforts to boost bike riding, are "converting Denver into a United Nations community." "This is all very well-disguised, but it will be exposed," Maes told about 50 supporters who showed up at a campaign rally last week in Centennial. Maes said in a later interview that he once thought the mayor's efforts to promote cycling and other environmental initiatives were harmless and well-meaning. Now he realizes "that's exactly the attitude they want you to have." "This is bigger than it looks like on the...

The Cambridge, Massachusetts Climate Emergency Congress (CEC) is more than a grassroots group of out-of-touch leftists. Rather, it is a casebook study of a new movement of "climate community activism" that pushes sustainability issues in municipal governments. It is a worldwide movement that bears watching. The largest player in this movement was founded in 1990 to fight ozone pollution under the name "International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives." It is now known as the ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability. ICLEI is a global organization of 1,124 municipalities and regional organizations. The Clinton Foundation's Climate Initiative is also a major force in...

Cap & Tax for North Little Rock Some more video of the North Little Rock Council Meeting and the decision of Ward 3.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPPfNzmangk _________________________________ On January 11th, the North Little Rock City Council approved R10-01, the Integrated Resource Plan to be implemented immediately. A presentation was made by Mike Russ of the North Little Rock Electric Department. The presentation was made quickly and had no handouts for the public, but there were slides of their plan shown at the meeting. The plan involves creating a "smart grid" adding "smart meters" "programs to control powerload", and ways NLR can "reduce it's...

Having begun on August 26 and continuing on through September 4, the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South Africa is what may be the largest confab the United Nations has ever sponsored. WSSD commemorates the ten-year anniversary of the adoption of Agenda 21 at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil back in 1992. Over 100 world leaders, thousands of delegates, CEOs, representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and other dignitaries and elites – over 20,000 people in all – have descended on the Sandton Convention Center in South Africa’s largest city. Moreover, as WSSD has approached...