Pennsylvania County Rejects Agenda 21
Written by Kelly Holt
The New American Magazine
24 March 2011 09:33
The Mercury, March 8, reported that Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, will be letting its membership in ICLEI (International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives), lapse due to constituent pressure and dislike for ICLEI’s message, Agenda 21.
Montgomery County commissioners learned what that meant at a recent meeting held in the county seat, Norristown, when local residents, Maggie Roddin and Ruth Miller charged the county commissioners with “being in league with the U.N. to promote that organization’s global warming agenda.”
Montgomery, and surrounding counties, including neighboring Philadelphia County, joined in 2007 for, like many other communities, “the purpose of buying software to calculate the county’s carbon footprint. ICLEI’s mission is to help local governments achieve ‘global sustainability,’ according to the organization’s charter.” Edmond, Oklahoma joined for the same reason but the city recently rejected its membership, partly because local residents learned that a city’s agreement to that same charter places the city under the jurisdiction of the ICLEI.
At the Norristown meeting, Commissioner Joseph Hoeffel, amused at Roddin’s and Miller’s allegations, said, “The only thing I laugh at is absurd allegations that the county has a treaty with the United Nations or a treaty with a foreign government.”
But across the country, in Edmond, a grassroots effort, Govern Edmond Locally (GEL) came up against the same denials from its city officials. GEL found it quite easy to connect ICLEI membership with the United Nations and has issued its “3 Click Challenge,” available on its website, to warn residents of the U.N. connection. Residents of other cities already embroiled with Agenda 21, or in those communities considering it, find the easy to understand Challenge a useful tool in combating the misinformation circulating about sustainability by making the connection in three mouse clicks.
In spite of Commissioner Hoeffel’s claims of no U.N. affiliation, the website of Montgomery County, which received $6.2 million in stimulus funds, reveals that
…the Greenprint plan found on the county’s website, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, formed by the U.N. in 1988 to study global climate change, “provides broad evidence that global climate change is a reality, and that human activity appears to be altering the climate by increasing atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases.
Sustainability sounds warm and fuzzy but when residents find that their cities are signing on to a U.N. scheme, they are successfully fighting back. Miller told the commissioners, “I am here today to be the voice of residents of Montgomery County, who I am certain are unaware that their county government has signed a treaty with the United Nations to reach global sustainability goals.”
The Mercury noted that the Roddin and Miller have spoken out at past meetings about the UN agenda to slowly erode property rights. Miller continued, “The United Nations is creating a global governance framework right under our noses and you, as County Commissioners are in a position to stop it.”
According to local activist Mark Affleck, “Maggie Roddin has a radio show and has been instrumental, if not responsible for, getting the word out about the dangers of ICLEI and Agenda 21. Her work, along with Ruth Miller’s, demonstrates what can happen if a few people get involved. There’s more to do, but these two have been pretty much alone in battling Agenda 21 in this area.”
County Policy Chief Steve Nelson said Wednesday that the membership had expired.
The New American has been leading the way in educating readers about Agenda 21 and sustainability. William F. Jasper authored Your Hometown & the United Nations’ Agenda 21 last month, about the dangers posed to local communities. Understanding of this issue is important to defending your city, and prompted Tom DeWeese, American Policy Center to pen an article about effective opposition, How To Fight Back Against Sustainable Development