I found this report over at the Royal Society's web site called: People and the Planet Report. The purpose of the report is to emphasize the precariousness of the planet as it relates to population growth and the scarceness of resources and how badly the resources that do exist are poorly distributed. But the best part is their recommendations on how to avoid the looming catastrophe that awaits us (emphasis theirs):
Recommendation 1
The international community must bring the 1.3 billion people living on less than $1.25 per day out of absolute poverty, and reduce the inequality that persists in the world today. This will require focused efforts in key policy areas including economic development, education, family planning and health.
By 'international community' they mean the dysfunctional UN of course. But more importantly the 'reduce the inequality that persists in the world today' should give you the real purpose. You guessed it income redistribution on a global scale.
Recommendation 2
The most developed and the emerging economies must stabilise and then reduce material consumption levels through: dramatic improvements in resource use efficiency, including: reducing waste; investment in sustainable resources, technologies and infrastructures; and systematically decoupling economic activity from environmental impact.
'Investment in sustainable resources' read: the same pixie dust Obama and the greenies have been pandering for the last thirty years.
Recommendation 3
Reproductive health and voluntary family planning programmes urgently require political leadership and financial commitment, both nationally and internationally. This is needed to continue the downward trajectory of fertility rates, especially in countries where the unmet need for contraception is high.
Sandra Fluke would be so proud - international governments paying for other people to have sex without consequences!
Recommendation 4
Population and the environment should not be considered as two separate issues. Demographic changes, and the influences on them, should be factored into economic and environmental debate and planning at international meetings, such as the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development and subsequent meetings.
Sweeeet - gotta get the climate change nonsense in there!
Recommendation 5
Governments should realise the potential of urbanisation to reduce material consumption and environmental impact through efficiency measures. The well planned provision of water supply, waste disposal, power and other services will avoid slum conditions and increase the welfare of inhabitants.
This is nothing short of the collectivists' wettest of wet dreams. Gotta get everybody close together because it is so much easier to control them when they are in one place and all services will be provided by the omnipresent government.
Recommendation 6
In order to meet previously agreed goals for universal education, policy makers in countries with low school attendance need to work with international funders and organisations, such as UNESCO, UNFPA, UNICEF, IMF, World Bank and Education for All. Financial and non-financial barriers must be overcome to achieve high-quality primary and secondary education for all the world's young, ensuring equal opportunities for girls and boys.
By and large I could agree with this in principle, however, I do have a problem with the 'non-financial barrier'. And the greatest 'non-financial barrier' that exists are the varying types of governments around the world that they suggest we help and in many cases (North Korea, China, any one of the dysfunctional African countries) are run by tyrants/dictators who have no interest in educating the masses because it will only undermine their power.
Natural and social scientists need to increase their research efforts on the interactions between consumption, demographic change and environmental impact. They have a unique and vital role in developing a fuller picture of the problems, the uncertainties found in all such analyses, the efficacy of potential solutions, and providing an open, trusted source of information for policy makers and the public.
All encompassing recipe for complete control of every facet of our lives. Limit consumption and births all in the name of some theoretical impact it will have on mother Gaea.
Recommendation 8
National Governments should accelerate the development of comprehensive wealth measures. This should include reforms to the system of national accounts, and improvement in natural asset accounting.
And who do you think will be responsible for the rules and regulations concerning 'wealth measures'? Do you think it will be the governed or some international committee charged with 'equitably' redistributing wealth? My guess is the latter because us plebs are too stupid to make our own decisions.
Recommendation 9
Collaboration between National Governments is needed to develop socio-economic systems and institutions that are not dependent on continued material consumption growth. This will inform the development and implementation of policies that allow both people and the planet to flourish.
Every communist from Karl Marx to THugo Chavez has preached this nonsense. 'Material consumption growth' is their euphemism for free-market. Welcome to communism folks!
The bottom line is that the above nonsense recommendation asks us to effectively give up sovereignty over our lives to some unelected committee made up of an international coalition. I don't know about you but it seems to me that outside of the US there are some pretty bad characters out there. Do we really want to give up the American way of life, our freedom to these people?
But what strikes me is that nowhere in the report does it address the differences in Governance around the world. Why is Africa lagging behind the rest of the world? If you read the report it suggests that the reason is that they simply drew the short straw. Instead the experts here simply list suggestions that read like a collectivist's to-do list.
The only form of government where these 'recommendations' could possibly work of course communism. A government based on a free market/capitalist system would never sign on to this crap and rightfully so. These researches envision a world governed by autocratic committees whose only objective is to enslave the population all in the name of the planet. While in reality it's just another power grab by the left.
This is so much bull crap, I can't believe anybody takes these clowns seriously; but evidently some do.
ReplyDeleteShovel - I know but notice how benign their rhetoric is. Nothing they say is necessarily from the communist manifesto but if we followed all their recommendations we would be in the middle of Soviet Russia.
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