AFF Sentinel Vol.6#40

Some of the most encouraging trends in 2009 regarded the climate change issue. Persistent work has convinced many previously trusting souls that man-made global warming may not even be a possibility, much less an established fact.

A lesson we hope animal agriculture absorbs: this hand-to-hand combat on the edge of a cliff could have been avoided. Honestly now, did the word "Copenhagen" put fear in your heart one year ago? Knowing what you know now, should it have?

We had very explicit warnings, not only long before Copenhagen, not only before Kyoto, but even before Rio (Rio??). Yes, Rio. Perusing my brother's library recently, I perused a book I'd forgotten -- Dixie Lee Ray's 1993 book, "Environmental Overkill - Whatever Happened to Common Sense." With warnings like this, were we not paying attention, too dismissive or just trustingly stupid?

Everything was there for the world to see in 1987! Early planning for the Rio Earth Summit was published from a Stockholm conference in 1987 via the report, "Our Common Future." Ray describes that report as "a green internationalist manifesto that brings the political philosophy of socialism into the environmental movement." Not coincidentally, the chairwoman at Stockholm was Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Bruntland, the vice president of the International Socialist Party.

In later agenda planning in 1991 for Rio, the chairman for the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), as the umbrella conference for Rio's 1992 Earth Summit was called, set the tone. Maurice Strong said the industrialized nations "have developed and benefited from the unsustainable patterns of production and consumption which have produced our present dilemma," Ray's book notes. "It is clear that current lifestyles and consumption patterns of the affluent middle class - involving high meat intake, consumption of large amounts of frozen and convenience foods, use of fossil fuels, ownership of motor vehicles and small electrical appliances, home and workplace air conditioning and suburban housing - are not sustainable," Strong said.

Reporting from the Rio summit, Ron Bailey of Reason magazine, noted that the assertion by many Third World representatives charging the developed countries that, `because you are rich, I am poor' was never doubted in the discussions, Ray noted.

Bruntland, who served as vice chairman at Rio, in opening remarks spoke of "the burden they [industrial nations] impose on the carrying capacity of the Earth's ecosystems by the unsustainable consumption and production patterns."

Incredibly, questioned by a Brazilian reporter, Ray said Bruntland "freely acknowledged that the Earth Summit agenda was based upon the International Socialist Party's platform." With 7,000 journalists attending, Ray said this admission went largely unreported.

Strong, in his Rio opening remarks, said the conference must establish the foundation for the "transition to sustainable development. This can only be done through fundamental changes in our economic life and in international economic relations, particularly as between industrialized and developing countries."

Ray noted two underlyingprinciples to the Rio summit. One, nature had been irreparably damaged by industrialized countries and the only remedy was to reduce progress and economic growth in the industrialized world. Guess what country was singled out as the worst culprit? Us.

The second principle was the industrialized nations must pay for all the problems they caused by transferring large sums of money and technical know-how to the Third World -- while simultaneously lowering our living standards and slowing our economic growth.

Not everyone was convinced. Some 250 scientists signed the Heidelberg Appeal in 1992, which noted, "We are worried, at the dawn of the 21st century, at the emergence of an irrational ideology which is opposed to scientific and industrial progress and impedes economic and social development. The greatest evils which stalk our Earth are ignorance and oppression and not Science, Technology and Industry ... [which] are indispensable tools ... overcoming problems like overpopulation, starvation and worldwide diseases."

Granted, the philosophy, methodology and goals laid out 18-20 years ago sounded far fetched to normal people then. But as the mantra was continually repeated, we should have fought back. After thousands of repetitions, Western climate guilt became global "Conventional Wisdom." Now we've a monstrous battle to explain these leftist philosophies and slick scams for the developing world to use in fleecing the West, that they are not demonstrable scientific fact.

Those who depend on animal agriculture for a livelihood, after 2009, should understand we must be proactive and defensive. AFF is proud to help keep you warned and informed of the issues threatening the fabulous strengths and talents animal agriculture offers the world.

Happy New Year!

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