VOLUME 5 NUMBER 15 - DECEMBER 25, 2000

THE GREENING OF THE GDP

In this newsletter we will begin with the ACEI. In Jan Gov. Siegelman endorsed the efforts made by the State of Minnesota towards Sustainable Development. Within months of that endorsement he organized the ACEI and the Commission began planning Alabama's route to this new utopia. Minnesota is months ahead of us, and has printed a great deal of information that is available for the asking. The Committee obtained a copy of "From Policy to Reality: Model Ordinances for Sustainable Development" published by the Minnesota Planning Environmental Quality Board.

The Board is "staffed by Minnesota Planning, draws together five citizen members and the heads of 10 state agencies.... The board develops policy, creates long range plans and reviews proposed projects that would significantly influence Minnesota's environment. The Environmental Quality Board and Minnesota Planning coordinate the Minnesota Sustainable Development Initiative, a collaboration of business, government and civic interest to promote policies, institutions and actions that ensure Minnesota's long term environmental, economic and social well being."

On page 46 of the Growth Management section there is a flow chart of the process with which communities will have to comply. In fact, several communities have finished the first stage - "Comprehensive Plan or Plan Amendment with Land Protection Policies". Pleasant Grove, a bedroom community of Birmingham paid $25,000.00 to the Birmingham Regional Planning Commission for their "Comprehensive Plan". That plan includes the three aspects of Sustainable Development, environmental, economic and social. Pleasant Grove's plan states that "the rules and regulation will be written at a later date". The flow chart from Minnesota bears that statement out.

The next step is: "Zoning/Regulation Incentive Based Tools". The Tools are: "Land Acquisition, Conservation Easements, Transfer of Development Rights, Purchase of Development Rights".

The final step is: "Implementation Activities May Include: Education, Recruitment, Review, Application, Negotiation, Approval, Purchased/Donation/Transfer, Monitoring."

This three stage implementation process is going on all across this country. Minnesota has published the guidebook as an aid in the second stage. In the introduction on page 7 we find the following quote: "This guidebook assumes that a community has completed a comprehensive plan using a public participation process.... Principles that guided the design of the models were taken from the Smart Growth Initiative, the Minnesota Round Table on Sustainable Development, the Community Based Planning Act and the work of communities around the nation that have adopted sustainable development strategies and implemented the strategies through ordinances."

What kind of ordinances can Pleasant Grove and other Alabama communities expect?

Lets begin with page one of the Growth Management section. "The first tool presented is an urban growth boundary. It is used to establish a boundary between two areas. The placement of the urban growth boundary is determined by a community through a comprehensive planning process that accounts for population growth, and commercial and industrial growth within the long term vision [recall the Region 2020 visioning sessions?] of the community." Essentially urban growth boundaries are used to define limits beyond which an area will not be permitted to grow. Development within the boundary is encouraged with tax incentives, urban services and other measures; growth outside the boundary is discouraged through various penalties, fees and non-service provisions. The inner area is "to accommodate growth" and the outer is "where resources will be protected". Inside the Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) "Urban services will be provided to districts ....to promote dense development...." [US 280 is not dense enough according to a front page Birmingham News article published Aug. 22, 1999.] The number of people per square acre will be computed by the "planner". Density or carrying capacity (which is now defined in the encyclopedia - World Book and Britannic) is the number of species of plant, animal and man that can survive in a ecosystem. Moving people to the desired location will not be as difficult as you may think. The "planner" has many tools at his disposal. Turning off the utilities to the homes and business on the outside of the UGB is just one. "From Policy to Reality: Model Ordinances for Sustainable Development" makes this point very clear. On page two of the Growth Management section the book states: "A UGB is an established line beyond which urban services such as public sewer and water and transportation improvements will not occur."

If you are the unfortunate individual who's property is just over the UGB boundary and you decide to ask for a variance in the UGB line, your request will not be heard by your elected officials. Under the new system the "professional planner" is now in charge. His instructions are to make the request for a variance difficult to apply for and even more difficult to obtain. A description of the ordinance is found on page 5 of Growth Management: "...criteria for a minor modification, should be very clear and narrow in scope. The criteria are designed to discourage requests for changes in the UGB". The "minor modification" "....may be considered during the annual review of the comprehensive plan."

Proponents of the UGB claim that it will prevent sprawl and prevent the further distruction of farm land. This is a bogus argument. Under a free enterprise system where the individual has a right to his own property, he can sell his property to a developer, develop it himself or let it lie fallow. If land is developed and later farm land becomes more valuable the development can be torn down. The land is not destroyed because someone puts up a building. What is destroyed by the UGB is the property value. It should be clear that local government will use zoning ordinances, taxation laws and a ban on utilities to make some properties worthless while exaggerating the value of others. Which of us can see into the future to the extent we can predict the needs of tomorrow's citizenry? Who would have predicted the need for today's fossil fuels in the year 1900?

Lets review:

• Government establishes an Urban Growth Boundary (UGB)

• Planners decide how many people can live inside the UGB, and how the population will be distributed across the population zone.

• Utilities will not be allowed outside of the UGB

• Property on the outside of the UGB is rendered worthless

• No longer can you complain to local government - a "professional planner" is now your overseer.

• Request for a "minor modification" to the UGB will be reviewed once a year.

Inside the UGB - what kind of life can one look for?

Currency and the goods and services that it will purchase are just a few of the concepts that will pass by the wayside in the new society. In 1993 the United Nations published "Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting". "Ultimately, integrated environmental and economic accounting is intended to support integrated social, economic and environmental policy by means of an integrated information system." (p- iv)

"Human beings should accept the fact that they are part of nature and should act so as not to upset the natural balances. Their intellectual power should be used to create living conditions that minimize their impacts on the environment of other living organisms." (p-2)

"An accounting framework should ....assist in identifying strategies of sustainable development that balance the satisfaction of human needs with the long term maintenance of environmental functions."

That was 1993. Since then much progress has been made toward identifying just how the three components of sustainable development (social, environmental and economic) will have to be modified to make the "framework" "balance". The work in progress is generally called the "greening of the GDP (gross domestic product)."

A plan created by a group of architects from Washington State University in Pullman, Washington was submitted to the 1996 Habitat II conference held in Istanbul, Turkey. That plan won one of three gold metal awards. This road map to sustainable development entitled "Community Sustainability - A comprehensive Urban Regenerative Process" provides insight to our final destination - total enslavement of the population within specific "ecosystem" compounds. Quote: "....a sustainable community is one which provides all of its own needs of air, water, land (or food and fiber), and energy resources within the confines of its own site.... As emphasized, indicators of sustainability are based on the careful balancing of on-site human and environmental systems. Once modeled, the indicators can define a 'program' for sustainability. The method, once used, demonstrates the interaction of each system and that 40-70% conservation is required to place each resource exchange in a sustainable balance. Also, the method conveys an invisible surprise, that air represented by carbon dioxide to oxygen exchange achieved through photosynthesis is one of the most overlooked yet fundamentally critical and representative of all the systems."

http://www.arch.wsu.edu/information/sustain/defnsust.htm

To connect the next set of dots, notice in the above quote "provides all of its own needs" and "Once modeled". Each population zone within each ecosystem must provide everything for its own consumption with no waste. The process begins with a database of information regarding the resources in each ecosystem. This is the starting point for the Birmingham Regional Planning Commission and an organization apparently created for the purpose - "Trees for Alabama". The Birmingham News published several articles in section E of the Nov. 28, 2000 issue. One article quotes Stan Palla, "Birmingham's urban forester". "We hope to get funding soon for an ecosystem analysis of our tree cover, how many trees we have and where they are. This should show us how forest loss affects issues like air quality and storm water runoff." In a companion article (same page) " Trees for Alabama rooted to conserve" defines the area to be affected by this set of "professional planners" as Bibb, Blount, Calhoun, Chilton, Cullman, Etowah, Jefferson, Shelby, St. Clair, Talladega, Tuscaloosa and Walker counties.

The next dot relates to the above "storm water runoff".

Every landowner (under age 65 in Alabama) across the country is paying a fee (added to his property tax statement) for a permit to allow uncertified water to legally run off of his property. The government has taken the position that because we exist, we pollute. Therefore an illegal action must be made legal through a permitting process. It is the Mustard Seed's opinion that because no one has contested the requirement since the program began in 1997, a legal precedent has been set. The Storm Water Management Authority includes Jefferson county and 22 cities. All local governments have agreed to comply with regulations that the Authority writes. According to the Authorities quarterly newsletter Volume 3 Issue 1, January 2000, that "ordinance requires everyone to get a permit for disturbing the land". The Authority has been collecting five dollars from everyone that owns an average lot 100 X 150. The more land you own the larger your fee. Since 1997, the Authority has been drilling and drawing samples - creating a database of information. All of this is under Phase I. We are interning Phase II, which will, of course, include higher fees and more regulations. Anyone with a septic tank will be looked at very closely. Pleasant Grove is one community that depends on septic tanks. In all probability they will be charged with nonsource point pollution. The fines may be so high that residents will be forced to move or to install a sewer system.

Residents not willing to comply will face charges in the Environmental Justice System. The Post Herald published a short article in their November 22, 2000 edition describing Birmingham's Environmental Court. The city has appropriated $500,000.00 for the courts startup and will hire "code enforcement officers". Organizations such as the ACEI are busily writing codes for the enforcement officers.

Just a comment before we contuinue with the dot connecting. Justice is justice just as Americans are Americans. We can see that dividing our populations into segments has caused our society great harm. Dividing our justice system into different components can do no less.

The Environmental Justice dot can be connected to many places across the country. Just type in Environment Justice and punch enter, depending on you web search engine you will likely pull up Washtenaw county, Michigan. Washtenaw county has devoted a great deal of web space to the United Nations agenda 21 Sustainable Development program. All societies enact laws that draw on the majorities belief of what is right and wrong. Washtenaw county is in the process of trying to change the citizens' concept of what is right and wrong concerning the environment. The county has chosen to adopt the "Principles of Environmental Justice". Their web page http://www.co.washtenaw.mi.us/DEPTS/EIS/EISEJ.HTM states:

"The Environmental Justice/Community Outreach Program focuses on providing minority and low-income communities with access to environmentally-related information and resources, building partnerships between the County and these communities, promoting environmentally-conscious behavior and education, and involving the community in County decision-making processes."

What does "promoting environmentally conscious behavior and education" mean? Education is no longer just to teach children how to think, but has become the tool that government uses to instruct the young in what is acceptable behavior. In this case, what is acceptable environmental behavior. According to the Washtenaw County the ethical underpinning of this education tool is "Principles of Environmental Justice". Their website provides a link to these "Principles". We quote the first principle: "Environmental justice affirms the sacredness of Mother Earth, ecological unity and the interdependence of all species, and the right to be free from ecological destruction."

Lincoln once said: "What is taught in the classroom today is the politics of tomorrow." If such is the case our justice system is in deep trouble. Can't you just see the field day the lawyers will have bringing charges against you for cutting down a tree without first getting a permit, or for putting up a fence to keep your garden from the animals that want to share it?

The "low income communities" are the target groups in this program. What about the economically advantaged? Not to worry, all segments of society will receive ample training. Sustainable development, the United Nations version of democracy has been incorporated into the county's school system. May 27, 1998 the freshman class of Pioneer High School "partnered with officials from Washtenaw County, MI to present these projects at a public forum on sustainable development...."

What progress has the change agents had on this county? The programs first presentation was the Gross Domestic Product. The caption under a picture of a girl holding a signs reads:

"The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is all smiles about environmental disasters such as oil spills. In a humorous skit, students demonstrated how environmentally- and socially negative activities (such as clear cutting and crime) count as positive economic growth in the eyes of the GDP.

"After the skit, students showed a graph from Redefining Progress to demonstrate that when social and environmental factors are figured into the GDP, the genuine progress of the country has been dropping even as the GDP has been rising. Students then made the case that measuring success in a sustainable society requires new indicators that account for the social, environmental, and economic impacts of activities.

"Excerpt from student report about the GDP: 'Imagine if we subtracted the costs of environmental degradation and social decay from the Gross Domestic Product. What would it look like then? Would we still seem to be making progress and headed in the right direction?'"

Notice that the first paragraph equates clear cutting with crimes. There is no mention of individual property rights, which is an inalienable right that has helped to make this county what it is. If children are taught improper ideas of what is right and wrong, correcting those misconceptions as adults will be extremely difficult.

. In the coming New Economy individuals, communities, counties, and states will have a balance sheet, with positive and negative sustainable indicators. If your balance sheet shows a plus then you may draw from the scared earth's store house of resources. No currency will be needed, just electronic blips.

The most creative skit on the agenda: "Sustainability: the Dance of Life"

"Dancers from Ann Arbor Pioneer High School choreographed and performed a four-movement dance reflecting four stages of economic history: pre-agriculture, agriculture, industry, and the current transition to sustainability. The dance was accompanied by music written and performed by an off-stage student musician from Ann Arbor Community High School. The in-class support and assessment tools provided to teachers through the Sustainability Education Project enables students to demonstrate learning in ways that reflect their individual talents and learning styles."

The greening of the GDP takes a step further with the analysis of the cost of driving:

"On the Real Cost of Driving Students researched the external costs of cars -- costs not reflected in the market price -- and showed how the public subsidizes these hidden costs. Their figures, based on research from the organization Redefining Progress, appear below:

Accidents: $77.5 billion

Loss of Farm Land: $80.5 billion

Depletion of non-renewable resources: $793.5 billion

Ozone: $213.8 billion

Air pollution: $34.6 billion"

On December 5, the Alabama Commission on Environmental Initiatives (ACEI) issued their findings from a 15 day public comment period. Every item that has been discussed in this newsletter, and more, are on the Commission's agenda. The agenda will be presented to the Governor and the Legislature for approval. With major backing from groups which have unknowingly helped to move the agenda along, such as the Alabama Baptist asking for tax reform, to efforts by major industry, utility companies and labor unions, the chances for implementation do not bode well for freedom-loving citizens.