U.N.-Backed Agenda 21 Triggers Strong Reactions From Many in Texas
Where did a Lubbock County judge get the idea that the U.S. might cede sovereignty to the U.N.? In Texas, activists fearful of such a prospect have cited a 20-year-old resolution called Agenda 21.
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U.N.-Backed Agenda 21 Triggers Strong Reactions From Many in Texas
by Aman Batheja, The Texas Tribune
August 28, 2012
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A Lubbock County judge’s comments last week that President Obama mightcede U.S. sovereignty to the United Nations and spark a civil war have been widely ridiculed. But concerns about U.N. overreach are gaining ground, with the attacks mostly focused on a 20-year-old nonbinding U.N. resolution calledAgenda 21.
Texas critics of the resolution have seen their fears echoed by activists at city council meetings around the state and adopted by some of the state’s Republican leaders.
Agenda 21 was signed by more than 170 countries, including the U.S., in 1992 and aims to encourage governments to promote environmentally friendly development such as preserving open spaces and discouraging urban sprawl. A variety of organizations around the world promote similar principles.
Such issues have become of particular concern in fast-growing Texas. Many regions are struggling to integrate a steady stream of new residents while avoiding gridlocked roads and retaining communities’ character.
Critics of Agenda 21 view it as a sinister effort by an international organization to tell communities what to do and a blatant infringement on private property rights.
Dean Almy, director of the graduate program in urban design at the University of Texas at Austin, has taught classes on Agenda 21, and described the resolution’s 1992 adoption as an important moment in the history of urban design.
“It has to do with the way our cities are managed,” Almy said. “They’re basically saying things like, ‘It’s good to build more compactly. It’s more sustainable. It’s better ecologically. You use less cars, burn less fossil fuels.'”
Ted Cruz, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate who will speak at the Republican National Convention this week in Tampa, hasa page on his campaign website devoted to Agenda 21, describing the measure as an effort to abolish “golf courses, grazing pastures and paved roads.”
“It’s ostensibly to promote sustainable development and it manifests at the local level in all sorts of initiatives that seek to undermine property rights and undermine our economic liberty,” Cruz said on Glenn Beck’s radio show in January. He added later in the program, “More broadly, it’s about putting the tentacles of the United Nations into the very foundations of our government throughout this nation.”
The Republican National Committee adopted a resolution in January against Agenda 21 as “a comprehensive plan of extreme environmentalism, social engineering, and global political control.” The Texas Republican Party followed suit at its state convention in June, adding opposition to Agenda 21 to the party’s platform.
Almy said Agenda 21 has traditionally had greater sway in other countries, where some cities will explicitly cite the resolution in their development plans. Yet over the past year, he’s noticed it cited frequently by conservative activists and groups in Texas and other states amid protests on sustainability projects.
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