1992 was a very good year for Al Gore. He
published Earth in the Balance. He won the
(vice) Presidency. He publicly ridiculed George
Bush into attending Earth Summit II in Rio de
Janeiro to sign the Framework Convention on
Climate Change. He saw the adoption of Agenda
21, and the presentation of the Convention on
Biological Diversity. He saw the publication of
The Wildlands Project. He saw the formation of
the Commission on Global Governance and the
launching of the Global Biodiversity Assessment.
It was a very good year, indeed, for Al Gore; it
was the year the world began, in earnest, to
reorganize civilization around the central principle
of rescuing the environment -- without bothering
to determine whether or not the environment
needed to be rescued.
Nevertheless, much of what is happening on earth today is the direct result of what happened in 1992. Al Gore has used his position and political power to transform federal agencies into instruments for reorganizing American society to fulfill his mission to "rescue the environment." Throughout the land, his mission is marching forward on two primary battle fields: in the wilderness and in the cities. In the wilderness, the campaign to reorganize society is best described by the various efforts to implement The Wildlands Project, though those efforts are camouflaged by a wide variety of names that include: ecosystem management; park expansion; American Heritage Rivers; Scenic Byways; Natural National Landmarks; Historic & Cultural Heritage Areas; forest management plans; coordinated resource management plans; Biosphere Reserves; World Heritage Sites; bioregions and wildlife migration corridors.
The other battlefield is "sustainable communities," which, with increasing frequency, are being disguised as the
"Blueprint for the new American City," as in Kansas City, or an Economic Renewal Initiative, or a Salem Betterment Plan, or some other noble-sounding title that obscures the common principles that are the common denominator of the sustainable communities initiative -- regardless of what they are called.
The mission of The Wildlands Project is to restore "at least half" of the land area of the lower 48 states -- to wilderness -- off limits to humans, and to insure that "most of the remainder" is managed for conservation objectives in strictly controlled buffer zones. Sustainable communities are where people are supposed to live, which are described by Science Magazine as "islands of human habitat surrounded by wilderness."
Al Gore's mission to reorganize society is not limited to the United States. It is a global mission. Al Gore is the most visible, if not the most powerful, American General in the global environmental army. What's happening in America is the implementation of a battle plan devised elsewhere. From Gland and Geneva Switzerland, through Nairobi Kenya -- and dozens of other mysterious and intriguing places around the world -- the plan to reorganize society has been evolving for more than two decades. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit II) was the event that brought the various components of the global plan into a single document -- Agenda 21. Since Agenda 21 was adopted by the delegates from 178 nations in Rio, national governments have been busy implementing the various components of the plan. In America, the President's Council on Sustainable Development is the front-group for transforming cities and towns into sustainable communities. The Department of Interior and other resource management agencies of the federal government -- in collaboration with hundreds of NGOs (non-governmental organizations) -- are transforming the American landscape into The Wildlands Project.
Most communities have witnessed an acceleration of "planning" activities in their communities. "Visioning, and stakeholder councils" are popping up everywhere. Resource providers are experiencing an ever-tightening noose around their ability to provide natural resources. Yet, few individuals recognize these events as related to Agenda 21. The federal government itself disavows any connection between their accelerated regulatory activity and the UN mandate issued through Agenda 21. The media scoffs at the idea that there could be UN forces behind land use planning activity in America. Consequently, American citizens are being rounded up, to be corralled in sustainable communities, where people can be managed in order to rescue the environment.