DECEMBER 8, 2010
ICLEI revisited
In my Sept. 15 column, "ICLEI is Just Icky," I wrote about the hidden dangers of the organization "International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives – Local Governments for Sustainability USA." The goal is to make communities, cities and counties more "sustainable." If you are not familiar with ICLEI, it's a sure bet you and your wallet and your lifestyle will run smack dab into it someday.
As previously noted, over 600 cities and counties in the U.S. have signed contracts with ICLEI, including Phoenix, Tucson and Flagstaff. Several weeks ago, the long-handled group held a Climate Resilient Communities program designed to "protect their communities from unavoidable climate change impacts" and prepare them so "they can thrive despite the change."
Martin Chavez is executive director of ICLEI USA. He warns that communities face serious climate change impacts, and participating local governments are laying the groundwork to withstand the effects. This pursuit of adaptation to global warming in addition to mitigation of it is a fairly new development. Previously, the global warming alarmists considered it a matter of conceding defeat and giving up the fight if they spoke of "adaptation" to climate change. Now, the phrase is out in the open and the subject of much discussion amongst those who would save us from ourselves.
So certain is this group of the disasters of global warming that they are busy as beavers. After all, they have to handle the rise in sea level in San Francisco Bay area, flooding in Boston, Cambridge and Miami-Dade, droughts in Tucson and Flagstaff, and heat waves in Grand Rapids, Michigan. These cities get extra help because they saw the light and were inaugural participants.
In an attempt to be topical, director Chavez tied his concern for learning to live in a world of hot flashes and floods to job creation (isn't everyone, these days?). He claimed that adding the pursuit of sustainability "fosters an improved economy, increased employment and a better climate for business." Let's see: Our nation is going to spend untold amounts of cash we don't have to try to stop a global warming problem we don't have by pushing green jobs that often are energy inefficient. Sounds like a winner to me. Maybe Chavez should visit Spain where their deep devotion to green jobs has cost their economy dearly.
You may think that all these feel-good words won't affect you. Think again. I repeat: ICLEI includes new mandates for high-density housing scams, open space where access is not allowed (even on your own property), increased fire hazards where clearing is forbidden, lack of water, and, of course, increased taxes, fees, and regulations to pay for it all.
Every now and then the truth escapes into the daylight. This time it came on the pages of Investor's Business Daily. In an article entitled, "The Climate Cash Cow," it quotes a biggy with the U.N.'s Panel on Climate Change. The man's name is Ottmar Edenhofer. He is a German economist and co-chair of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Working Group III on Mitigation of Climate Change and lead author of IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report.
Edenhofer admitted to a foreign reporter that the group's primary goal is the redistribution of wealth and not environmental protection or saving earth. Halleluiah! There you have it.
He went on to say that the "developed countries have basically expropriated the atmosphere of the world community" and so they must have their wealth expropriated and redistributed to the victims of their alleged crimes, the poor countries of the world. Forget the lack of science in his (now disproved) claim that the Himalayan glaciers would soon disappear and Bangladesh would be totally submerged. That's yesterday's fabrications.
You have to love a man who tells it like it is: We want to redistribute wealth. The crafty leaders at the U.N. want to impose a global climate reparations tax on everything from airline flights and international shipping to fuel and financial transactions. The article reports that this tax would bring in about $100 billion annually, but that amount, like our energy costs, is expected to skyrocket. Think trillions.
"We could soon see Americans taxed to fund a global scam – the ultimate form of taxation without representation," writes Investor's Business Daily. You thought the Tea Partiers were fizzed before. Just wait.
