A Sustainable World

(This article originally ran in the April 1998 issue of the Citizen Review.  Now in May 2001, it's interesting to note how far "sustainability" has come. Editor)

The perfect world, as visualized by those who drive the UN's global agenda, is difficult to describe, and even more difficult to document, because it is a work in progress. The UN has now published enough literature, however, to draw a rough picture that suggests where the world is headed.

First, there would be no national boundaries. "Pollution doesn't stop at national borders," is the phrase that justifies program such as "Border 21", which is a first step toward dissolving the border between the United States and Mexico. The UN mission is no longer to provide services to its member states, but to provide "security for the people." It may be coincidental, but in the U.S. State Department's press briefing room, the decoration on the wall is a silhouette of the western hemisphere without any borders separating the countries.

In North America, instead of 48 contiguous states, there would be 21 "bioregions", if the Sierra Club proposal prevails. The bioregions would be defined by ecosystems and watersheds which do not respect the political boundaries of states or counties. Bioregions would be zoned to include core wilderness areas, buffer zones, and zones of cooperation in which sustainable communities would be located. The core wilderness areas, off limits to humans, would constitute "at least half" of the land area, and would be interconnected by "corridors of wilderness" constructed around "American Heritage Rivers" and closed "Scenic Byways." The Blue Ridge Parkway in western North Carolina has been proposed for such a corridor to connect wilderness areas throughout the Southern Appalachian Biosphere Reserve.

Buffer zones surround the core wilderness areas and are target areas for "restoration" of ecosystems to their pre- settlement condition in order to enlarge the wilderness areas. The balance of buffer zones are to be managed first, for " conservation objectives," but could also support some "sustainable agriculture" and managed forest and mineral harvesting.

The "zones of cooperation" which surround the buffer zones are to be "laboratories for learning" the virtues of sustainable living. It is here that "sustainable communities" are to be developed. Each sustainable community is to have its "visioning council" consisting of non-elected, carefully selected individuals from "civil society" who utilize the consensus process to create a vision of the future. Local government entities are to become the administrative authority to execute the policies of the visioning council. "Stakeholder" councils and "Watershed Councils" will perform similar functions in the areas outside sustainable communities and the buffer zones. From these various "civil society" councils will be selected the individuals to serve on the bioregion council, which will have responsibility for coordinating the activities within the bioregion.

Representatives from the bioregional councils around the world will be selected to participate in the recently announced " Assembly of the People," which will meet for the first time in the year 2000. A soon-to-be-created "Petitions Council" within the UN will receive "petitions" directly from the various councils at the bioregional and community level, for screening and referral to the appropriate UN agency for direct response by the UN, either from its own staff, or through the federal or local administrative units, formerly called local, state and federal government.

Sustainable communities will consist of ethnically-balanced, income-integrated, high-density, low-rise "living centers", some with community kitchens and laundry facilities. Transportation will be by foot, bicycle, or "light-rail" mass transportation systems. Food will be produced "organically" in community gardens or provided by "sustainable agricultural" operations in nearby buffer zones. Living centers will be constructed only from materials that bear the government-approved "green seal" and landscaping must be from native plants with a prescribed percentage of edible plants. Schools will be required to teach " sustainable living" with emphasis on the "good of the community" rather than on individual achievement. Life will center around what is good for the community and future generations as determined by the visioning council.

This picture of the perfect worlds comes in bits and pieces from such documents as Global Biodiversity Assessment, Our Common Future, Our Global Neighborhood, a variety of UN Treaties, a variety of documents from the U.S. Department of Interior, The Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Department of State. The future is arriving daily.

Editor's Note: Over the past six years, the Citizen Review has been bringing you unfolding news from the various sources related to in the preceding article. We can confirm all that Mr. Lamb reports in this article, as we watch it unfold in our own communities.