Spokane7
39°
April 15, 2010 in City
Group wants anti-U.N. item on ballot
Spokane Patriots also targets climate policies
Spokane leaders would have to revoke the city’s memberships and relationships with the United Nations and other groups “undermining United States sovereignty” under a proposal that supporters hope will make the November ballot.
That charter amendment and another that were submitted last week would also prevent the city from “adopting any regulations, taxation or other policies which would be targeted specifically towards modifying greenhouse gas emissions.” The proposals were submitted last week by former City Council candidate Mike Fagan on behalf of the Spokane Patriots.
The Spokane Patriots is a group formed earlier this year and is an offshoot of the Tea Party of Spokane. Fagan, a member, ran for City Council last year and works for anti-tax activist Tim Eyman.
The Patriots’ U.N. proposal also would prevent the city from belonging to ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability, a group focused on climate change policy. ICLEI is an acronym of the group’s former title, the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives.
City leaders were puzzled by the assertion that the city has membership or relations with the United Nations. It doesn’t. And they say they don’t desire one. ICLEI, they said, is a membership organization the city joined much like other government-based organizations that many cities belong to.
Meg Doherty, spokeswoman for the Spokane Patriots, said regulations pushed by ICLEI will control where and how people live.
“The goal is top-down control of everybody’s life on the planet,” Doherty said. “Our concern is that once the United Nations gets a foothold … that means that we have local city policies guided by the United Nations.”
To make the November ballot this year, the Patriots will need to collect about 9,000 valid signatures.
Don Knapp, an ICLEI spokesman, said although the nonprofit group was founded in the early 1990s at a U.N. conference of local governments, it never has been an arm of the U.N. He said more than half of ICLEI’s 1,100 members are in the United States.
“ICLEI has no control whatsoever over what our members do,” Knapp said. “They tell us what their needs are.”
Lloyd Brewer, Spokane’s environmental program manager, said the city joined ICLEI in 2006 and pays $2,250 a year for membership. He said one of the main benefits to members is the right to use ICLEI software to help the city examine levels of greenhouse gases.
The proposal questions the science that indicates that human activity is at least partially responsible for climate change.
“Taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize costly policy decisions based on junk science and the erroneous proposition that carbon dioxide is harmful to our environment,” the proposal says.
Eric Steig, a University of Washington earth and space sciences professor who studies climate, said scientific claims made in the proposal are false or based on half-truths. He added that the overwhelming majority of climate scientists continue to say that the data points to human activity being a significant contributor to climate change.
“You wouldn’t want a group that believes smoking doesn’t cause cancer to hold sway over public policy on smoking,” he said.
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JBlim on April 15 at 6:48 a.m.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sdd9_nXVL38
chump on April 15 at 9:51 a.m.
Vigorous applause! Wonderful!
Just as the creeping steps of the one-worlders ( please visit the World Federalist Movement site to learn more about them http://www.wfm.org ) have pushed their way into the sovereign states through emotive cliches, so too much we push them back out!
Amazing that Spokane taxpayers are suffering armed men plundering their resource ( even if just $2,250 ) to an arm of the global government.
Eric Steig, at the laughable University of Washington (still enjoying more plundered resource of the neighbors’ families) could likely be one of the paid “academics” who colluded to falsify the data as evidenced by Climate-Gate http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBQYlIikLBM
Might I remind all that to make war, collude, or subjugate the sovereignty of the usa (ie- the Constitution) could be construed to be at the least sedition, and the worst- Treason.
Anyone want to take a gander what a grand-jury would find if the case was brought before them that World Federalists were running amok within the union?
Don_Knapp_ICLEI on April 15 at 5:36 p.m.
This is Don Knapp, ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability USA’s spokesperson, and I’d like to add some more information to help clear up the misconceptions about ICLEI.
As the article stated, we are not a part of the United Nations. ICLEI does not mandate, impose, or enforce any national or international policies or initiatives, and has no authority over its local government members. ICLEI works at the request of government staff and elected officials to help them define and reach their own goals depending on their local circumstances, interests, and abilities.
We are a transparent organization, and I encourage anyone to visit our website to learn more about us, at http://www.icleiusa.org. A few more Q&As:
What is ICLEI and what does it have to do with Spokane?
ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability is an international, nonprofit membership association of local governments committed to climate protection, clean energy solutions, and sustainability. More than 630 local governments in the United States are active members, with more than 1,200 worldwide. These members range from big cities (New York and Atlanta) to small towns and heartland communities (Homer, Alaska and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma).
What these diverse local governments share is a broad desire to make their communities better places to live by making them greener, more efficient, and healthier, and by taking action against climate change—because its impacts will be felt most tangibly at the local level. ICLEI’s mission is to support these efforts and empower local governments with the tools, resources, and technical support they need.
Why are so many local governments joining ICLEI?
Local governments are motivated to join ICLEI because the benefits of climate, sustainability, and energy actions are so numerous. Some local governments seek ICLEI’s tools and support to help them slash energy costs and save thousands or millions of taxpayer dollars; others are motivated to reduce harmful greenhouse gas pollution, create clean energy jobs, enhance public health, improve transportation systems—the list goes on.
riverlaw on April 16 at 2:29 p.m.
How about we stop giving money to GSI? They have far more influence on City government then ICLEI.
ChefGus/ John Olsen on May 09 at 7:46 a.m.
Thank you mr Knapp for the information on this what would seem laughable group of uneducated and non thinking persons that exist in our society. There is an apparent lack of social responsibility and compassion in them, and complete avoidance of ethical responsibility for the mess that mother earth is having foisted upon her.
It IS about us as human beings and how each one of us chooses each day to live our lives in response to the great gifts that we have been gifted and charged with stewardship for. John