Critics on Both Sides:
On the political Right, activists and critics widely denounced the Rio+20 agenda as a dangerous effort essentially to create a global socialist authority. One of the most prominent opponents of the UN agenda, U.S. Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the ranking member on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, appeared at the conference via video and blasted the worldwide “far-left” agenda to impose global carbon taxes and redistribute wealth. “Whatever happened to sovereignty?” he asked.
Others had even stronger criticism. “No matter the eco-cause — you can go back and look at overpopulation, you can go back and look at global cooling, global warming, species extinction, deforestation — all of these eco-scares, they all blame it on man, and the only way we can solve it is to give away our sovereignty and our freedom to the United Nations in the form of global governance,” Climate Depot editor Marc Morano told TNA, citing Czech Republic President Václav Klaus to point out that since the fall of the Soviet Union, “ambitious environmentalism” had become the greatest threat to freedom.
On what could be considered the other side of the political spectrum, well-known Indian activist Vandana Shiva told TNA she had a similarly negative view of the agenda behind Rio+20, albeit from a different perspective. “This whole green economy thing, interpreted as a planetary grab of the remaining resources, is not going to solve anything,” said Shiva, an author, physicist, and environmental champion. She said the elite class of the world was essentially seizing the planet for itself.
“They are seeing greed in the green economy, and that is why Rio+20 hasn’t addressed the crisis, it has deepened the crisis, and in every one of our countries, democratically, we will have to correct these errors,” she noted, saying the biggest corrections would have to be reversing the “corporate hijack of the planet’s resources and our democracy.”
“If that continues, there will be no freedom and no life,” she concluded. “The real agenda is privatizing the planet — that’s what they call the green economy…. For the one percent, as the occupy movement said it.” Had she used different terminology, more than a few American Tea Party members would probably agree.
On the Left more broadly, sincere opponents of the summit largely said that it was all actually a scheme by mega-capitalist elites to make even more profit at humanity’s expense. Countless NGOs and spokesmen for big government-minded environmental groups, for example, decried the alleged “corporate hijacking” of the summit to enrich the elite on the backs of the poor and the environment.
Both sides were angry for different reasons — at least on the surface. But in reality, the Rio+20 agenda was more likely something in between: an attempt by the elite of the world — super-capitalists using socialistic policies for their own benefit — to further solidify their control over the planet at the expense of the people’s freedom, national sovereignty, and prosperity. What was blatantly obvious, at the very least, was that saving the environment and the poor had little to do with the summit’s true purpose.
The Outcome:
As might be expected, despite no new binding agreements, the final document agreed to by world governments — dubbed “The Future We Want” — contained a broad range of controversial, unpopular, and even outright dangerous statements; all in accordance with the real agenda. A reference to “Mother Earth” made it in. Contraception and abortion, for example, were also key issues — especially because of the obsession among attendees with curbing the number of humans on the planet.
Moving forward with the implementation of past treaties — including more than a few which represent serious threats to property rights, liberty, and national sovereignty — was emphasized in the final agreement as well. Environmental problems and poverty, meanwhile, will only get worse; at least if the final agreement offers any sense of the future to come.
Continued on next page…
The real agenda behind the United Nations Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development was clear months before the summit began. It had little to do with solving poverty or legitimate environmental concerns. Instead, the UN was hoping to acquire vast new powers to re-shape the world and its people, as evidenced by multiple reports and documents it released ahead of the conference. Of course, the fact that Rio+20 Secretary General Sha Zukang was a Chinese Communist who openly loathes Americans was revealing, too.
Aside from the fairly transparent UN agenda, however, the conference itself offered a great deal of insight into the forces working together against national sovereignty, private property, individual liberty, and economic freedom. Big business was there — mostly begging for more government control and taxpayer money. A wide assortment of tax-funded “non-governmental organizations” — known as NGOs for short — was there, too. Unsurprisingly, they mostly demanded more government control.
Finally, no UN conference would be complete without member governments — a chance for Western powers to mingle with a gaggle of dictators and mass murderers styling themselves “presidents.” They found plenty to agree on. In fact, it seemed like all of the so-called “stakeholders” were essentially on the same page: more for them, less for you. The New American (TNA) was also at the summit to bring you the inside stories that the mainstream press largely ignored.
Police State, Green Hypocrisy, Secrecy, & Disorder
Rio+20 was originally touted as the biggest UN summit in history, but analysts later said that probably was not true. Some 50,000 people were supposed to participate, but nowhere near that number actually showed up — several observers even thought that less than 10,000 had attended. Many of the world’s most important heads of state and government — Obama, Angela Merkel of Germany, and the U.K.’s David Cameron, for example — also stayed away.
Immediately upon arrival, the most striking phenomenon in Rio was the overt nature of the police state. All over the city, attendees were greeted by armored personnel carriers and assault vehicles, dozens of military helicopters swarming overhead with turrets aimed downward, checkpoints manned by machine gun-wielding Brazilian troops, federal police dressed in futuristic costumes, and much more.
On the first day of the official conference, it took the TNA team more than two hours to cover just a few miles and get into the conference — largely owing to the unimaginable traffic created by “security.” The fact that the troops occupying every street corner in the area demanding ID did not know what they were doing certainly did not help matters.
Once inside, the UN again revealed that its inability to run a proper conference — let alone the world — is surpassed only by its zealous ambition to assume ever-greater powers. There were not nearly enough desks for all of the journalists, leading to more than a few heated arguments. Internet cables were also in short supply, and the wireless Internet, when it was actually working, was pathetically slow.
Despite the summit being touted as an effort to increase “sustainability” — a vague term with hundreds of definitions generally understood to mean reduced consumption — the waste evident all throughout the conference was astounding. Every building was running the air-conditioning at full blast with the doors wide open, for example. In some rooms, the AC was so cold that journalists were moving out from under the vents.
Consuming less was apparently only a requirement for the ruled. The world’s rulers and their representatives stayed at five-star hotels and lived a lifestyle unimaginable to most of the world — not to mention the millions of destitute Brazilians living in squalor throughout Rio’s infamous favela slums. “Saving the world” from humanity at lavish conferences apparently costs a lot of money, and the “dignitaries” had every luxury at their disposal for the job. The total price tag of the summit remains a mystery.
Massive motorcades of gas-guzzling limos transported dictators and mass-murdering gangsters calling themselves “presidents,” as well as their oversized entourages, to and from the venue. Meanwhile, other “VVIPs” — the term used by the UN to identify top officials at the summit — landed in carbon dioxide-spewing helicopters.
Apparently some of the dignitary squads squandered even more taxpayer money buying “carbon credits” from their cronies to offset the emissions. But the unsustainable resource-gobbling spectacle was slammed by more than a few critics on both sides of the debate, not to mention poor Brazilians who spoke with TNA, as blatant “green” hypocrisy. Even true “sustainability” believers were shocked.
When the environmental dignitaries left, security did too. At that point, residents of the slums in the area began pouring into the venue to scavenge for the remaining scraps left behind, looting the food court as the few remaining security guards were overwhelmed. The TNA team witnessed part of the commotion before leaving as dozens of favelados, as they’re called, ran out from the food court carrying what they could.
The So-called “Stakeholders”
Governments:
Virtually every national government on Earth was represented at Rio+20. Delegates representing mass murderers, communist tyrants, genocidal maniacs, war criminals, Islamic theocracies, and more were all intermingling, supposedly defending the interests of their “citizens” while trying to hammer out an agreement to “save the world.” Of course, it does not take much knowledge about the world to understand that at least the vast majority of the regimes present at the table had ulterior motives.
Unlike past conferences, government delegates at Rio+20 were kept in isolation, hiding behind security personnel in their own special pavilion. Organizations and the media were kept out — unless, of course, they could find a government willing to let them in. Even then, they were supposed to take care of business with the delegation that invited them through security and then promptly get out.
Across from the main venue was another large area where governments and dictatorships set up booths to tout their own accomplishments. Seeking press coverage for a panel discussion hosted by the Islamic monarchy ruling Qatar, the TNA team was invited to attend and was picked up in a private car paid for by the regime.
The discussion — mostly on redefining the concept of rights to include things like food, rather than liberties — featured more than a few heavyweights, including UN boss Ban Ki-moon, a socialist former Spanish prime minister, heads of UN agencies, and many others. The AC was blasting there, too, in what was essentially an open-air tent. After chatting briefly with the Qatari ambassador to the UN who happens to be serving as the chief of the UN General Assembly, mostly about why and how he thought the global body should save the world, TNA decided to visit some of the other government booths.
The communist dictatorship ruling over China had a massive setup where interested parties could learn about its supposed leadership on “sustainability” issues, though the regime seems to have toned down its celebration of the reduced “carbon emissions” achieved through its barbaric “one-child” policy. Nobody was available for an interview with TNA, but we did get a “flash drive” containing documents.
The European Union had a big booth, too, where participants were debating the role of regional regimes in the new green-world order. At the American government’s booth, the first visible flyer was promoting population control, while another touted USAID programs to achieve global “sustainability.” U.S. taxpayers’ money also went to hand out coffee — presumably sustainably grown coffee — to anyone who stopped by. It was delicious.
Throughout the three-day summit, government representatives, including some prime ministers and presidents, offered long speeches about sustainability, what they were doing, what should be done, and more. Their faces were broadcast throughout the conference center on huge screens so people could see the dignitaries no matter where they went. But most people were not paying attention anyway.
The Cheerleading “Media”
When Rio+20 boss Zukang announced hundreds of “commitments” by governments and businesses on so-called “sustainability” worth more than half a trillion dollars, much of the audience — supposedly unbiased members of the media — applauded in delight. The bizarre scene offered extraordinary insight into why the one-sided international press coverage of such summits has become so routine.
Rather than asking hard questions about the alleged science or the true agenda, the vast majority of reports being churned out of the Rio+20 media room largely parroted UN claims as if they were gospel. The “significant” UN announcement at the final major summit press conference included few details about the actual agreements or their implications. For the most part, Zukang and other conference speakers simply offered vague generalities about building a “sustainable” world for a “better future,” saying governments and businesses around the world had agreed to undertake massive “sustainability” efforts.
“From the very beginning, we have said Rio+20 is about implementation. It is about concrete action. And the commitments that we share with you today demonstrate that governments, the UN system and the nine major groups are committed and serious about implementation,” said Zukang, the communist who also heads the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. “The total figure is now 692 registered commitments. Ladies and Gentlemen, this brings the estimated total value of commitments to $513 billion.”
That’s when most of the supposed journalists at the official press conference applauded and smiled upon hearing Zukang’s news. According to critics of the media reaction, they were behaving more like cheerleaders than objective reporters. But unlike past major international environmental summits, most of the press was kept in the dark about the negotiations throughout the final days of the summit — making the applause even more bizarre.
As members of the press celebrated the vague announcements, one Japanese reporter called the behavior “ridiculous.” Later on, more than a few analysts blasted the cheering, too. Critics of the shadowy negotiating process itself had even harsher words, slamming the global body’s secrecy and the journalists’ complacency about it.
The media applause continued after each speaker at the press conference — statements by politicians, bureaucrats, business leaders, and more all received a very warm reception from hundreds of journalists in attendance. When a non-profit foundation leader on the panel announced mandatory “sustainability education” for all Brazilian children enforceable by law, as well as the inclusion of “sustainable development” themes on national standardized tests, the reporters exhibited special delight.
Later that night, when the Rio+20 plenary session finally voted to adopt the highly controversial UN document known as “The Future We Want,” the media section at the conference center erupted with applause, cheering, and whistling as if a goal had been scored in a soccer game. When asked on camera by TNA why they were celebrating, some refused to talk, others said they were happy because the summit was over, and still more claimed not to know.
Media outlets known to be especially reliable and relatively effective UN lapdogs — the state-funded BBC, for example — were given special, private areas to work in. They also obtained much greater access to the “VVIPs” in attendance, scoring exclusive interviews to ask soft-ball questions about why even more wasn’t being done to save the world.
But despite the VIP treatment for select “media” outlets — in the United States, at least — the lack of press coverage about the summit was deafening. The day after the conference ended, neither the New York Times nor the Washington Post included front-page headlines mentioning the conclusion of Rio+20. “It seems the conference did not end as the editors wished,” noted Ken Haapala, executive vice president of the Science and Environmental Policy Project.
Of course, most of the journalists celebrating Zukang’s announcement at the press conference were almost certainly not aware at the time that no officially “binding” commitments had been foisted on populations by their governments. If they had known, based on discussions TNA had with reporters throughout the summit, they probably would not have been applauding.
Even with the cheerleading media, however, more than a few analysts and critics who spoke with TNA said the world was waking up to the UN’s schemes and its failed science — especially in the United States, where opposition to the global agenda is building while the public largely rejects the alarmism being hyped to push it. Scientists, meanwhile, including many who have been affiliated with the UN, are jumping ship in growing numbers as well. And those trends, especially with the rise of the Internet and the alternative media, are likely to continue accelerating.
NGOs Demand Anti-liberty Global “Solutions”
As the summit got started on June 20, a 17-year-old NGO activist gave a speech to the national delegates about how it was their duty to decide the fate of her future and the future of her children. It was a dramatic opening — official dignitaries seemed impressed. Strong agreements and global measures were needed to save the world, she insisted.
Countless so-called NGOs were in attendance, supposedly representing “civil society.” Much of the funding for the groups comes from taxpayers, so, unsurprisingly, most of them loudly called for more and more government to stop poverty, environmental problems, gender inequality, class inequality, and innumerable other real and perceived issues affecting the planet.
The Brazilian government helped them along, spending millions of taxpayer dollars to create a “People’s Summit.” Immediately upon arrival, this reporter was approached by a man wearing a giant condom suit handing out taxpayer-funded condoms from the “Ministry of Health” to the taxpayer-funded activists at the taxpayer-funded “People’s Summit.” Military helicopters were swarming overhead the whole time.
The TNA team spent several hours perusing the whole area. We spoke to socialists of various persuasions ranging from a representative of the Movement for Socialism, who did not think Latin America’s socialist despots were radical enough, to a spokesperson for the “Movement to End Capitalism,” who said the group desired reform that was impossible to achieve through politics and that money should be abolished. When asked how it might be accomplished without the existing political system, however, they offered few details.
Many of the “People” at the “People’s” summit, despite their overt government backing, saw themselves as rebels. There were dozens — probably hundreds — of natives from the Amazon, too. Most of them were selling trinkets or chanting, but they made for good photo opportunities for the NGOs seeking to advance various causes.
Continued on next page…
