Residents of Sarasota County, FL: Don’t be misled by the claims of self-appointed experts speaking at the UN-sponsored World Environmental Day

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The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) has selected Sarasota County as the North American Host Community for World Environmental Day (WED) 2014.  The June 5th, 2014 WED Sarasota forum will focus on environmental challenges facing coastal communities and “climate change research.”

Among the topics to be addressed at the forum are sea level rise, climate change, developing a “sustainable” business platform for ecotourism in Southwest Florida, and “green” buildings.  Behind each one of these and related themes lies an political agenda that cynically uses trumped-up environmental fears to impose restrictions on homeowners and local businesses and redirects taxpayer money to politically favored “green” projects and products.

Here are a few facts to keep in mind:

  •  Sea Level Rise:  Attendees at the forum can expect to be told that coastal Sarasota is threatened by sea level rise resulting from man-made climate change. In truth, sea levels have been rising globally for millennia, or since the melting of giant ice sheets signaled the end of the last Ice Age.  During that time, sea levels have risen about 400 feet at a fairly constant rate of 7 inches a year.  The rate remained constant even during the Little Ice Age (1400-1850).  Sea level rise shows no association with man-made greenhouse-gas emissions.   See: www.americanthinker.com/2013/06/could-global-warming-slow-sea-level-rise.html
  • Climate Change:  The politically fashionable, but scientifically unproven, notion of human-induced climate change will receive plenty of attention at the WED forum.  Global temperatures have now failed to rise for 17 years despite what alarmists, including those at UNEP, confidently predicted. Severe weather events, including hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires etc, have not been increasing in frequency, but these facts have not kept alarmists, well represented at the WED Sarasota forum, from continuing to spread fear and advocate new restrictions and regulations on energy, transportation, land use, and countless other everyday activities.  See: http://www.climatedepot.com/2014/05/29/scientist-dr-daniel-botkin-tells-congress-why-he-reversed-his-belief-in-global-warming-to-become-a-skeptic-there-are-several-lines-of-evidence-suggesting-that-it-agw-is-a-weaker-case-today-not/
  • Sustainable Business Development:  Presenters at the forum will trumpet the virtues of sustainable business development when it comes to promoting ecotourism in Southwest Florida.  What they won’t tell their audience with any clarity is what they mean by “sustainable.”  Sustainable, it turns out, is the imposition of a top-down regulatory structure, in which appointed government bureaucrats determine what is and is not acceptable development.  See www.cfact.org/2012/02/27/sustainable-development-latest-tool-to-expand-epas-empire/
  • Green Building and Green Economy:  One of the speakers at the forum represents a powerful non-profit organization, the U.S. Green Building Council.  The council is best known for its green building certification system, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).   “Across the United States,” USA Today reported in October 2012, “ the U.S. Green Building Council has helped thousands of developers win tax breaks and grants, charge higher rents, exceed local building restrictions and get expedited permitting by certifying them as ‘green’ under a system that often rewards minor, low-cost steps that have little or no environmental benefit.”  USA Today also reported that the 13,000-member council is “run by architects, builders and building suppliers.  Many specialize in – and profit from – the type of design the council certifies and promotes.  The council collects up to $35,000 in fees for each LEED certification.”  In other words, the council’s members are self-dealers who feather their nests under the guise of protecting the environment. See: www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/10/24/green-building-green-certification/1650517/
  • United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP): Founded in 1972 and headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, UNEP is the UN agency behind the Sarasota WED forum.  In recent decades, UNEP has been at the forefront of those organizations spreading fears about man-made climate change, even though global temperatures have remained flat for 17 years.  UNEP favors the imposition of carbon taxes and the replacement of fossil fuels by unreliable and unaffordable renewable energy, such as taxpayer funded wind and solar.  Do Floridians really want their beaches marred by giant offshore wind farms, which, in addition to being unsightly and inefficient, pose a severe threat to sea birds?  UNEP’s nearly 1,300 full-time bureaucrats are elected by no one and are accountable to no one.  See: www.unep.org/climatechange/

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