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One of many "Sustainable Development" images available online

A simple search on Google for the term “sustainable development” with the “images” tab selected yields a veritable treasure trove of images, many of which are similar to the one above.  Of course the term “sustainable development” sounds so good – who doesn’t want development that is sustainable? BUT, I don’t know about anyone else, the skeptic in me kicks in when I see such a warm and fuzzy sounding phrase paired up with other phrases like “social progress” and “a fair world”. Some of the images one finds in the search also include the word “equity”.

Just what is “sustainable development”?

We have as of yet to tackle this subject much on our site. Of course some of this is a function of time, but in part it is due to the extent of the subject. I know that many people who visit here regularly are supportive of state sovereignty being exercised; it is absolutely true that the Federal government has increasingly been over-reaching it’s Constitutionally-enumerated powers. It’s true that our elected officials at the State level have abdicated much of Nebraska’s sovereignty to the Federal government in the interest of grabbing as much “free money” as possible.

But what is also true, is that there is another movement that has been under way that constitutes a threat to Nebraska’s sovereignty and the sovereignty of the country. The implementation of policies through the sustainable development movement constitutes a threat to sovereignty – and much of it is being carried out by local governments. It is yet another example of “the mischief” that has been going on while too many people have focused their attention on Washington, D.C. Cities, towns, counties, and regional authorities have been implementing the sustainable development agenda for years. Seemingly unrelated matters like water way management, Medicaid funding, bike paths, street light bulbs, and K-12 education have a common influence.

The first article we did on our site on this subject was “Big Brother in Your Trash Can: Crazy, Right? Wrong”. More recently we reported that Lincoln Mayor Chris Beutler made a bizarre announcement about plans to garner carbon tax credit income from the new methane gas recapture project at a local landfill. In our efforts to understand what in the world the Mayor could be talking about, we were reminded of the “Cleaner Greener Lincoln” project. It comes as no surprise at this point; “Cleaner Greener Lincoln” is sustainable development.

With the help of friends in Omaha and through researching seemingly unrelated issues, only some of which are listed above we’ve obtained a lot more information we intend to share with people, but considering the extent of the topic, it is rather like trying to eat an elephant. As the saying goes, an elephant is best eaten one bite at a time.

At the beginning of this month, I sat in as host on my friend Kaye Beach’s radio show. I chose to make Sovereignty the theme for the two hours and ended the evening by talking to Oklahomans for Sovereignty and Free Enterprise (OK-SAFE) Director Amanda Teegarden. I included Amanda because I know she’s been tracking the issue of sustainable development for quite some time.

(If you have not yet listened to the show, of course, I highly recommend you do so. You can read more about it by clicking HERE.)

For now, if you’d like to focus on the part of the show where Amanda talks about sustainable development, click HERE to access the show’s archive, pause the show when it starts to play and let it completely load up (the dark line will move from left to right as the file loads) and then move the slider about 2/3 – 3/4 of it’s full distance. Amanda begins with an excellent and basic explanation of Sovereignty and then moves to sustainable development.

She recommended the following websites which people can visit to learn more:

Freedom Advocates

Freedom 21

And of course, the OK-SAFE site has information and resources on it’s sustainable development page.

Since the show was quite full, my discussion with Amanda covered how sustainable development is marketed as being a great thing for the environment, but is actually a political agenda. Beyond the “big picture” goals, we also discussed the city planning aspect. At the very end, we began to talk about something that seems totally unrelated; an issue that popped up in the Nebraska Unicameral this year regarding Medicaid funding for prenatal care.

In my next article on this subject, I’ll explain how prenatal care funding and  LB1110, a bill introduced by Senator Kathy Campbell, could possibly be related to sustainable development.