What is Agenda 21? It’s a program at the United Nations to work on economic development, sustainable development, environmental protection, resource conservation and economic policies. As with almost all UN programs, Agenda 21 pronouncements are wholly voluntary.
Several international programs create studies and make recommendations to nations — but unless they come from the World Bank or International Monetary Fund along with loans to help nations develop, such recommendations remain mostly academic: Nations follow them only to the extent that a nation’s policy-making groups (like Congress in the U.S.) are persuaded that the recommended policies benefit the nation.
For reasons unclear to me the wacky wing of the crazy right seized upon Agenda 21 as the symbol of most things evil in the world, especially since we don’t have the Soviet Union to blame stuff on any more.
Grist featured a graphic-novel-style explanation of Agenda 21, so you can follow the issues as they arise at the 2012 Republican Convention: Agenda 21: Everything you need to know about the secret U.N. plot, in one comic. Here is the entire post:
Agenda 21: It’s the biggest threat to your freedom, and unless you regularly attend yahoo-filled local planning and zoning meetings, you’ve probably never even heard of it. Until recently, this vast United Nations conspiracy to force us all to live “sustainably” was known only to stalwart defenders of Liberty and Freedom like the John Birch Society. But the underground resistance is about to go mainstream. GOP intellectual it boy Ted Cruz leads the counterstrike, and the Republican Party is even considering a public flambéing of Agenda 21in its official 2012 platform.
Looking to help break the siege of bike paths and high-quality education on our freedoms? Here’s what you’ll need to know.
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Tip of the old scrub brush to Grist, and Charles Nesci and especially Greg Hanscom, the cartoonist. Hanscom is a “senior editor at Grist. He tweets about cities, bikes, transportation, policy, and sustainability at @ghanscom.”
More (not a lot from sane sources on this topic):
- Agenda 21 Is Now the Official Conspiracy Theory of the GOP (motherboard.vice.com)
- The California GOP Has Officially Endorsed The UN AGENDA 21 Proposition 31 (themadjewess.com)
- Soil and Water Conservation merit badge, Boy Scouts of America; official site with resources from BSA
- Chesapeake Bay Program
- Natural Resources Conservation Service, USDA (formerly the Soil Conservation Service)
- Soil conservation in Israel, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
- Sheila Kennedy on silly opposition to Girl Scouts
- At MFB: “Crank history assault on Alabama Public Television”
- Update, October 10, 2012: Note the new website from the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio +20)
- Charlie Pierce gangs up on the Anti-Agenda 21 guys, using his cruel weapon of information, at his blog at Esquire
More, a sampling from sources without hinges (a small selection):
- Agenda 21 For Dummies (usapartisan.com)
- A Closer Look at Agenda 21 (usapartisan.com)
- Agenda 21 Propaganda Invades Hotels, Lectures Travelers (dprogram.net)
- Government Funded Bullet Trains Will Connect American Agenda 21 Megacities (zionistoutrage.com)
- Agenda 21 Propaganda Invades Hotels Lectures Travelers (conservativeread.com)
- United Nations Agenda 21 (jeenyuscorner.com)
- Texas GOP U.S. Senate candidate Ted Cruz on protecting golf courses from UN intervention (with Glenn Beck)
- Update October 10, 2012: New crackpot video on Agenda 21, extolled at NewAmerican
- Corporate Propaganda Antidote loses its hinges
- The sad slide of Dick Morris into complete, demented irrelevancy
- Freedom Outpost paints itself like a fire hydrant and invites the neighborhood dogs in
- Update: Rio Norte Line runs off the rails, even after the warnings.
Posted by Ed Darrell 
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