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Warming up to an attack on capitalism
Santa Maria Times (CA) - Thursday, May 10, 2007
Author: Andy Caldwell/Commentary
Last week, I wrote of a plan I learned about in college, published by the Club of Rome, that outlined more than 30 years ago a goal to redistribute the world’s wealth from the industrialized countries of the northern hemisphere to the developing countries of the south.
The original plan, as outlined in that report from a think tank, called for a voluntary redistribution of wealth. The ostensible purpose of the plan was to avoid global hostilities between the industrialized northern-hemisphere countries and the Third-World and developing countries of the south.
But because nobody stepped forward to volunteer to give up their wealth and lower their standard of living, an impetus had to be created to encourage cooperation. That impetus is the modern-day environmental movement, as manifest in our current obsession with global warming.
Back in 1993, the late Dr. Dixie Lee Ray wrote a book called, “Environmental Overkill.” The accuracy with which this great woman pegged Al Gore then, and now, is just short of the magnitude of biblical prophecy.
What did she predict as a result of the pre-Kyoto Protocol summit, the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, held in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil? She singled out Gore’s unbridled enthusiasm and support for the U.N. plan, which called for the literal reduction of progress and economic growth in the industrialized countries of this world in order to save the planet.
Specifically, what are we talking about? The secretary general of the U.N. summit in Brazil was Maurice Strong . Ray quotes Strong as indicating his belief that “In this transition to a more secure and sustainable future, the industrialized countries must take the lead. They have developed and benefitted from the unsustainable patterns of production and consumption which have produced our present dilemma.
“And they primarily have the means and responsibility to change them ... 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 work air-conditioning, and suburban housing are not sustainable.”
Ray quotes the observations of Ron Bailey of Reason magazine who observed that the activists have a solution to the problem: “Let the government divest you of your excess goods, such as your carbon dioxide-emitting automobile; your alienating, too-big house or apartment; and foods imported from outside your ‘bioregion’ ... The assertion by many Third World representatives that ‘because you are rich, I am poor’ was never doubted in the discussions.”
As I indicated in last week’s column, the protocols being established by the U.N. don’t eliminate greenhouse gases. Instead, they simply redistribute the ability, means and permission to pollute from the industrialized countries to the developing nations.
So what is really going on here?
Maybe we should back up here for a moment before Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” becomes the all too convenient demise of the U.S. economy! Is our planet truly warming? Is global warming a bad thing? Does mankind significantly contribute to and affect the temperature of the planet? Can the temperature of the planet be controlled by man? Or, is the threat of global warming being used as a ruse to simply redistribute the world’s wealth?
Science and history tell us, in no uncertain terms, that global warming and cooling have been going on for as far back in time as we can measure. As Ray notes, the entire history of Earth is one of climatic change. The planet has had some 17 ice ages, which by definition were each preceded by global cooling and proceeded by global warming.
Nobody can explain the ice-age phenomenon! Science and history also indicate that within these larger cycles of emerging and retreating ice ages, there are smaller cycles of warming and cooling. Science also can serve to rate the production of greenhouse gases from man as compared to that which is produced by Mother Nature and the fact is natural production dwarfs that of man. The fact is, 98 percent of greenhouse warming comes from water!
The point here is that climate change occurs naturally and nobody to date has been able to explain what caused the ice ages to come and go, and yet now we think we can control them by giving up our air conditioners, frozen foods, SUVs and factories? Yet, that is not really the point, is it?
Consider these two quotes to get the real point in all of this. In 1991, many years after the publication of the initial report by the Club of Rome I read in college, Ray cites a new announcement to come forth from this same think tank: “In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine, and the like would fit the bill ... All these dangers are caused by human intervention. ... The real enemy, then, is humanity itself.”
And this, from Judi Bari of Earth First!: “I think if we don’t overthrow capitalism, we don’t have a chance of saving the world ecologically. I think it is possible to have an ecologically sound society under socialism. I don’t think it is possible under capitalism.”
Andy Caldwell is executive director of COLAB and a 39-year resident of the Central Coast. His column appears every Thursday. You may reach him at 929-3148, or on the web at
www.colabsbc.org.
May 10, 2007
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Ending progress to save planet?
Santa Maria Times (CA) - Thursday, May 3, 2007
Author: Andy Caldwell/Commentary
When I was in college in the late 1970s, I took a political science class that included an assignment to read a report published by a think tank called “The Club of Rome .”
The book outlined a plan and made an argument for the necessity to reshape world order. What I read shocked me and seemed to be unbelievable at the time, but I never could forget what I had read. Nowadays, I believe what I read, but I am not happy about it, and neither should you be.
In essence, the book outlined the fact that tensions in the world were historically marked by hostilities between the superpowers of the East and West. At the time the book was written, the superpower of the East was the empire of the Soviet Union, and the superpower of the West was the United States of America.
The clash at that time was, of course, a clash of civilizations distinguished and characterized in part by different political ideologies and the resultant economies of capitalism and communism.
Nobody at the time could have envisioned the future fall of the Soviet empire, as President Reagan would succeed in getting his Soviet counterpart to, indeed, “tear down that wall.”
But the book I read didn’t concern itself with the trivial competition and aggressions between East and West, because it envisioned a greater conflict ahead on a different geopolitical and economic plain. What “The Club of Rome “ envisioned was the coming clash between the Northern and Southern hemispheres, not necessarily due to different ideologies, but because of economic necessity.
What was true in the 1960s and 1970s, when the data for the report was being written, compiled, debated and presented, is truer today than it was then. The fact is, the report quite accurately characterized the Northern Hemisphere countries as have-countries, and the Southern Hemisphere countries as have-not-countries.
For the most part, wealth, quality of life, ample food supplies, quality health care were all abundant in the north then, and still hard to find in the south today. The report indicated that the folks in the south would eventually become bellicose with respect to the Northern Hemisphere countries, and that literal hostilities would surely and eventually ensue.
Whereas, these initial points could be considered believable, what was laughable to me at the time was that the book then called for a voluntary redistribution of world wealth. “The Club of Rome “ author wanted the Northern Hemisphere countries to artificially and voluntarily reduce their standard of living and somehow transfer their wealth to the south.
I thought that such a suggestion was not plausible at the time. I have now realized a Trojan horse could be created that would make the suggestion not only plausible, but actually make it sound like it was for our own good!
The Trojan horse I refer to is the environmental movement in general, and the prescriptions abounding concerning our responsibilities in dealing with the perceived threat of global warming in particular.
Generally speaking, it is believed we in the north produce and consume too much, and that this is a source of the inequality of wealth distribution in the world today. People believe we can only have this quality of wealth at the expense of others.
So, the goal of “The Club of Rome “ types was to have us give up the means to produce and consume, and shift the same to the Southern Hemisphere countries, in order to avoid hostilities and to be fair and equitable. The best method that eventually emerged, decades later, in order to accomplish this shift in a peaceful means, is the protocols being pushed today by the United Nations. All in the name of saving the planet!
Even though we share our planet, we are supposed to believe that shifting the permission and means to pollute to poor countries is somehow going to result in a healthier environment.
To put it another way, realize that what Americans and Europeans are being called upon to give up, in the way of manufacturing and industrial emissions, and quality of life, is not being asked of the Southern Hemisphere, the have-not-countries. It is the industrialized north that is being asked to sacrifice the means of creating wealth in order to save the planet, while the south will be able to pollute away.
China, for instance, is slated and permitted by the Kyoto Protocol, to build 2,200 coal-fired plants by 2030 in order to produce electricity. That is one plant constructed nearly every 10 days. Our country, during this same time frame, on the other hand, is supposed to try to end our dependence upon coal-generated electricity because of the effect of the same upon global warming.
The late Dixie Lee Ray warned us about all of this back in 1993 in her book, “Environmental Overkill.” She reported the following in a summary of what happened in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992 at the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development.
Specifically, Maurice Strong, the secretary general for the conference, spoke of “patterns of production and consumption in the industrialized world that are undermining Earth’s life support systems. ... To continue along this pathway could lead to the end of civilization. ... This conference must establish the foundation for effecting the transition to sustainable development. This can only be done through fundamental changes in our economic life and in international economic relations, particularly as between industrialized and developing countries ...”
As Lee observed, the principles guiding the U.N. conference were that “the only remedy is to reduce progress and economic growth in the industrialized world.”
Stay tuned for more “Gore-y” details!
Andy Caldwell is executive director of COLAB and a 39-year resident of the Central Coast. His column appears every Thursday. You may reach him at 929-3148, or on the web, at www.colabsbc.org.
May, 3, 2007
http://recyclewashington.wordpress.com/2010/04/29/unraveling-the-club-of-rome-part-1/
Some current members of the Club of Rome or its two siblings:
Al Gore – former VP of the USA, leading climate change campaigner, Nobel Peace Prize winner, Academy Award winner, Emmy winner. Gore lead the US delegations to the Rio Earth Summit and Kyoto Climate Change conference. He chaired a meeting of the full Club of Rome held in Washington DC in 1997.
Javier Solana – Secretary General of the Council of the European Union, High Representative for EU Foreign Policy.
Maurice Strong – former Head of the UN Environment Programme, Chief Policy Advisor to Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the Rio Earth Summit, co-author (with Gorbachev) of the Earth Charter, co-author of the Kyoto Protocol, founder of the Earth Council, devout Baha’i.
Mikhail Gorbachev – CoR executive member, former President of the Soviet Union, founder of Green Cross International and the Gorbachev Foundation, Nobel Peace Prize winner, co-founder (with Hidalgo) of the Club of Madrid, co-author (with Strong) of the Earth Charter.
Diego Hidalgo – CoR executive member, co-founder (with Gorbachev) of the Club of Madrid, founder and President of the European Council on Foreign Relations in association with George Soros.
Ervin Laszlo – founding member of the CoR, founder and President of the Club of Budapest, founder and Chairman of the World Wisdom Council.
Anne Ehrlich – Population Biologist. Married to Paul Ehrlich with whom she has authored many books on human overpopulation. Also aformer director of Friends of the Earth and the Sierra Club, and a member of the UN’s Global Roll of Honor.
Hassan bin Talal – President of the CoR, President of the Arab Thought Forum, founder of the World Future Council, recently named as the United Nations ‘Champion of the Earth‘.
Sir Crispin Tickell – former British Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Permanent Representative on the Security Council, Chairman of the ‘Gaia Society’, Chairman of the Board of the Climate Institute, leading British climate change campaigner.
Kofi Annan – former Secretary General of the United Nations. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.
Javier Perez de Cuellar – former Secretary General of the United Nations.
Gro Harlem Bruntland – United Nations Special Envoy for Climate Change, former President of Norway
Robert Muller – former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, founder and Chancellor of the UN University of Peace.
The Dalai Lama – The ‘Spiritual Leader’ of Tibet. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.
Father Berry Thomas – Catholic Priest who is one of the leading proponents of deep ecology, ecospirituality and global consciousness.
David Rockefeller – CoR executive member, former Chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank, founder of the Trilateral Commission, executive member of the World Economic Forum, donated land on which the United Nations stands.
Stephen Schneider – Stanford Professor of Biology and Global Change. Professor Schneider was among the earliest and most vocal proponents of man-made global warming and a lead author of many IPCC reports.
Bill Clinton – former President of the United States, founder of the Clinton Global Iniative.
Jimmy Carter – former President of the United States, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.
Bill Gates – founder of Microsoft, philanthropist
Garret Hardin – Professor of Human Ecology. Originator of the ‘Global Commons‘ concept. Has authored many controversial papers on human overpopulation and eugenics.
Other current influential members:
(these can be found on the membership lists of the COR (here, here, and here), Club of Budapest, Club of Madrid and/or CoR National Association membership pages)
Ted Turner – media mogul, philanthropist, founder of CNN
George Soros – multibillionare, major donor to the UN
Tony Blair – former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Deepak Chopra – New Age Guru
Desmond Tutu – South African Bishop and activist, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
Timothy Wirth – President of the United Nations Foundation
Henry Kissinger – former US Secretary of State
George Matthews – Chairman of the Gorbachev Foundation
Harlan Cleveland – former Assistant US Secretary of State and NATO Ambassador
Barbara Marx Hubbard – President of the Foundation for Conscious Evolution
Betty Williams – Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
Marianne Williamson – New Age ‘Spiritual Activist’
Robert Thurman – assistant to the Dalai Lama
Jane Goodall – Primatologist and Evolutionary Biologist
Juan Carlos I – King of Spain
Prince Philippe of Belgium
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands
Dona Sophia – Queen of Spain
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero – current Prime Minister of Spain
Karan Singh – Former Prime Minister of India, Chairman of the Temple of Understanding
Daisaku Ikeda – founder of the Soka Gakkai cult
Martin Lees – CoR Secretary General, Rector of the UN University of Peace
Ernesto Zedillo – Director of The Yale Center for the Study of Globalization
Frithjof Finkbeiner – Coordinator of the Global Marshall Plan
Franz Josef Radermacher – Founder of the Global Marshall Plan
Eduard Shevardnadze – former Soviet foreign minister and President of Georgia
Richard von Weizsacker – former President of Germany
Carl Bildt – former President of Sweden
Kim Campbell – former Prime Minister of Canada and Senior Fellow of the Gorbachev Foundation
Vincente Fox – former President of Mexico
Helmut Kohl – former Chancellor of Germany
Romano Prodi – former Prime Minister of Italy and President of the European Commission
Vaclav Havel – former President of the Czech Republic
Hans Kung – Founder of the Global Ethic Foundation
Ruud Lubbers – United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Mary Robinson – United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Jerome Binde – Director of Foresight, UNESCO
Koïchiro Matsuura – Current Director General of UNESCO
Federico Mayor – Former Director General of UNESCO
Tapio Kanninen – Director of Policy and Planning, United Nations
Konrad Osterwalder – Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations
Peter Johnston – Director General of European Commission
Jacques Delors – Former President of the European Commission
Domingo Jimenez-Beltran – Executive Director of the European Environment Agency
Thomas Homer-Dixon – Director of Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Toronto
Hazel Henderson – Futurist and ‘evoluntionary economist’
Emeka Anyaoku – former Commonwealth Secretary General, current President of the World Wildlife Fund
Wangari Maathai – Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, founder of the Green Belt Movement
and many more….