Discussion THE WAR WE DON’T REALIZE WE’RE IN

An open letter to the Left, the Right, the Greens, Indigenous peoples, the 2SLGBTQI+ community, and every human being who still believes our future should belong to us.​

Connie Shields

What If We’ve All Been Played?​

I am going to ask you to do something that may make you uncomfortable.

• Put down your political flag for a few minutes.
• Set aside the labels. Left. Right. Woke. Conservative. Liberal. Environmentalist. Freedom fighter. Indigenous activist. 2SLGBTQI+ advocate.
• Forget who you voted for.
• Forget who you have been told to hate.

And ask yourself one question.

What if the causes we have spent decades fighting over are distracting us from decisions being made about the future of humanity itself?​

I am not asking you to abandon your beliefs.

I am asking you to examine who benefits from them, who funds the organizations that claim to represent them, and who ultimately gains power from the policies implemented in their name.

Because I believe we are in a struggle far more consequential than another election, another protest, or another political argument.

It is a struggle over human sovereignty.​

Over our land, our food, our water, our energy, our money, our bodies, and increasingly, our biological identity. And while we fight one another, an extraordinary transformation of society is underway.

Two things can be true at the same time.

• You can believe passionately in a cause and still be manipulated by those claiming to champion it.
• You can support environmental protection and question the policies being sold as sustainability.
• You can defend minority rights and question the political organizations claiming to speak for entire communities.
• You can believe in reconciliation and question whether government programs genuinely advance Indigenous self-determination.
• You can embrace technological innovation and reject a future in which technology becomes a means of controlling human beings.

These are not contradictions.

They are the foundations of critical thinking.​

This Did Not Begin Yesterday​

In 1972, the Club of Rome commissioned The Limits to Growth, a study examining population, industrial growth, resource depletion, food production, and pollution.

In 1991, the Club of Rome published The First Global Revolution, discussing global threats, environmental challenges, and the need for international cooperation.

In 1992, the United Nations adopted Agenda 21 at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

Agenda 21 addressed population dynamics, human settlements, agriculture, land management, environmental protection, education, and the roles of governments and community organizations.

In 1994 Agenda 21 Moves Into Municipal Government

Just two years after the Rio Earth Summit, Canada had a municipal implementation guide. Dated January 26, 1994, A Municipal Primer on the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development was prepared for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment.

The primer was reportedly circulated to municipalities across Canada, providing guidance on bringing sustainable development into local strategic planning.

And Canada was not alone.

In 1994, Australia and New Zealand published local-government sustainability guides. European municipalities adopted the Aalborg Charter, launching a coordinated sustainable-cities initiative. The United Kingdom, Finland, and other countries were also developing municipal Agenda 21 processes.

By 1996, an international planning guide published by ICLEI, Canada’s International Development Research Centre, and the United Nations Environment Programme documented Local Agenda 21 initiatives across numerous countries.

Think about that. Agenda 21 was not simply a document sitting on a shelf at the United Nations. Within a few years, international objectives were being translated into planning methods for municipalities around the world.

And that raises a question every man and woman should be asking:

How many people understood that their local municipal policies were increasingly being developed within an international sustainable-development framework?

Then, in 2015, came Agenda 2030. Seventeen Sustainable Development Goals. One hundred and sixty-nine targets.

• Poverty.
• Hunger.
• Health. Education.
• Gender equality.
• Energy. Infrastructure.
• Cities.
• Consumption.
• Climate.
• Institutions.
• Partnerships.

Read those categories again.

They touch almost every major aspect of organized human life.

Of course, protecting the environment, reducing poverty, and improving health are worthwhile goals.

But:

• who decides how those goals are achieved?
• Who measures compliance?
• Who pays?
• Who profits?
• And who can say no?

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• THE WAR WE DON’T REALIZE WE’RE IN