By Bill Kovarik
Occasionally, the Great Question of America’s august place in the global order is best elucidated in a location far, far from the glare of kleig lights and the stares of Washington wonks. We then see the wisdom lurking within statehouse committees and cracker barrel country stores and signs painted on the sides of tobacco barns.
And the message: Get the US out of the United Nations. Look out for blue helmets in black helicopters. Most of all, these days: Beware of Agenda 21.
According to an article Feb. 5 in the Des Moines Register, Iowa state Rep. Ralph Watts thinks that Agenda 21, which is a 20 year old UN proposal for sustainable development, is a lot like pornography.
Even for a rustic boob hibernating in the remote corners of the corn belt, this is pretty well beyond any realm of reason known to general civilization.
“What is Agenda 21? It’s kind of like defining pornography — I know it when I see it, but it’s hard to define,” Watts said.
According to the Register, Watts describes Agenda 21 as “an attempt to strip away individual property rights and to depopulate the countryside by forcing people to live in dense urban areas.” And he says: “They literally want to see people move off of rural areas into communities, kind of like the collectivism the Soviet Union has had for the last half-century.”
He added: “This is not tinfoil hat stuff.”
Oh?
A good rule of thumb is that any time a corn pone pol says it’s like porn, but it’s not time to put on the tinfoil hats, go ahead and reach for the Reynolds wrap.
To begin with, of course, “collectivism” collapsed 75 years ago and the “Soviet Union” has not even existed for the past 22 years. It’s called Russia now.
Here’s another news flash. This thing we call the United Nations has institutions that help us achieve goals “collectively” that we couldn’t attain on our own.
Examples:
- Keeing track of disease through the World Health Organization.
- Keeping track of criminals through Interpol.
- Creating international standards for photos through the Joint Photographic Experts Group. (Ever hear of a JPEG?)
- Creating international standards for movies through the Motion Picture Experts Group. (Ever hear of an MPEG?)
Why should a farmbelt fop fear the fuzz from Frankfurt, or Farafangana, or Faskrudsfjordur, or Fuzhou?
Good question. Asked about actual evidence of the influence of Agenda 21 in Iowa, Watts apparently pointed out that the “Tomorrow Plan” is a regional land use and transportation initiative that includes long term sustainability goals.
Obviously, the “Tomorrow Plan” is more speculative than, say, the “Yesterday Plan” or the “Live for Today Plan.”
But where is the evil, the lurking menace of collectivism and the ghost of Joseph Stalin or Chairman Mao?
Maybe we’d see it better if we put on one of those shiny hats Mr. Watts is wearing.
Jacques Cousteau, the 20th century’s best-known advocate for marine environmental protection, was born on this day in 1910.
Cousteau was known for producing 115 documentary films and television programs about the ocean environment and adventures on the research ship the Calypso. He was also the co-inventor of the Aqua-Lung or “scuba” tank.
Cousteau’s international fame came with his role as narrator and star of the television series “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau.” Among his many awards and honors were three Oscars and ten Emmy Awards for his films and television programs and the International Environmental Prize of the United Nations for 1977.
Cousteau trained as a pilot at the French naval academy but an auto accident in 1933 kept him out of the sky. Shortly afterwards, a pair of watertight goggles introduced him to the undersea world. He became obsessed with developing snorkels, body suits and other diving gear and in the early 1940s he worked with a Parisian engineer to invent a regulator for a compressed air tank to allow free movement and breathing under water. It was known as “scuba” diving (for self-contained underwater breathing apparatus).
Scuba was a great improvement over the heavy diving suits used at the time. Cousteau used scuba to help the French resistance in World War II and was awarded the Légion d'Honneur for his service. After the war, Cousteau developed scuba diving as part of a French Naval research group. He wanted, also to challenge age-old superstitions and open the underwater realm to scientific exploration.
Cousteau was initially known for his 1953 bestselling book “The Silent World.” A film by the same title won a 1957 Academy Award for best documentary. Cousteau became director of the Oceanographic Institute of Monaco and, in that position, led a successful campaign to stop nuclear waste dumping in the Mediterranean. He also set up experiments in deep undersea living on the continental shelf called Conshelf I, II and III, The experiments were documented in Cousteau’s films, as were his many oceanic adventures in a converted French minesweeper named the Calypso. Much of his environmental work was carried on by an organization he founded in 1973, the Cousteau Society.
Overall, Cousteau produced 115 films including three full-length theatrical feature films: The Silent World, World Without Sun and Voyage to the Edge of the World. He also wrote, in collaboration with various co-authors, more than 100 books including Jacques Cousteau's Amazon Journey (1984), and Jacques Cousteau / Whales (1988); in French, Les Iles du Pacifique(1990), L'Ile des esprits (1995), Le Monde des Dauphins (1995) and the posthumously published L'homme, le pieuvre et l'orchidée (The Man, the Octopus and the Orchid).
World Day Against Child Labour 
Environmental Action Archive
The hats that created bird sanctuaries 
Pollution regs saved lives
¶ A giant tree's death
¶ Dymaxion car 