Tom DeWeese Testimony on Agenda 21

By Tom DeWeese
President, American Policy Center
P.O. Box 3598, Warrenton, VA 20188
Testimony on HB 1634

Agenda 21, and its policy of Sustainable Development, was first introduced to the world at the 1992 United Nations-sponsored Earth Summit where more than 178 nations adopted Agenda 21 as official policy. President George H.W. Bush was the signatory for the United States.

Here’s how the United Nations described Agenda 21: “Agenda 21 proposes an array of actions which are intended to be implemented by EVERY person on Earth…it calls for specific changes in the activities of ALL people…Effective execution of Agenda 21 will REQUIRE a profound reorientation of ALL humans, unlike ANYTHING the world has ever experienced.” (article, The Earth Summit Strategy to Save our Planet, 1993).

Sustainable Development is not about conservation or environmental protection, as many believe, rather it is a new form of government that focuses on redistribution of wealth and social justice. Its structure is a planned central economy that features severe land use controls, controls on energy, transportation, industry, food production, development, water and population. The threat of Global Warming is the driving force behind draconian policies to curtail human development, resource and energy use.

Agenda 21 was created by hundreds of non-governmental organizations (officially UN sanctioned NGOs) operating inside the UN structure. One of the UN-sanctioned NGO groups instrumental in creating Agenda 21 was the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI). The group changed its name recently and is now known simple as ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability.

After the Earth Summit, ICLEI’s mission became the implementation of Agenda 21 goals world-wide. It now operates in more than 1200 cities around the world, including approximately 600 American cities. These cities become ICLEI members, paying dues to the group. ICLEI converges on a community government, bringing a wide array of tools, including software products and associated training; access to a network of “experts,” training conferences, tools kits, case studies fact sheets, policy and practice manuals. All of these materials are used to indoctrinate the staffs of community government to toe the line and consider only Agenda 21 guidelines when making policy.

One of the tools used by ICLEI is the comprehensive development plan, which redefines use of land and resources in the community under strict controls imposed by non-elected boards and regional government agencies. Local government representation for constituents becomes threatened as these non-elected power centers adhere to the strict guidelines of Agenda 21 policy, ignoring the will of the people.

In the past year, ICLEI’s power over local community policy has become so powerful and damaging to the American principles of limited government that 54 communities have now dropped their memberships in ICLEI and are looking at ways to roll back ICLEI-influenced policy. Two states, Wisconsin and Florida have passed or may pass legislation to roll-back or repeal ICLEI influenced legislation. Most recently, on January 13th, 2012, The Republican National Committee (RNC) dramatically expressed its acknowledgement of the Agenda 21/ICLEI threat by unanimously passing an anti-Agenda 21 Resolution as official policy of the Republican Party.

While many proponents of Sustainable Development claim that it is just local policy and has nothing to do with United Nations policy, the ICLEI connection between the UN and local development policy is the smoking gun to that deception. Agenda 21 and ICLEI are a threat to local representative government, personal private property ownership and our Constitutional Republic.

I have been personally fighting against the implementation of Agenda 21 policies for more that 18 years and I believe that passage of HB 1634 will give the citizens of New Hampshire a vital safeguard from this international threat.