Agenda 21: It’s the biggest threat to your freedom, and unless you regularly attend yahoo-filled local planning and zoning meetings, you’ve probably never even heard of it. Until recently, this 20-year-old United Nations plan to promote “sustainable development” was known only to stalwart defenders of Liberty and Freedom like the John Birch Society. But the underground resistance is about to go mainstream. GOP intellectual it boy Ted Cruz leads the counterstrike, and the Republican Party is even considering a public flambéing of Agenda 21in its official 2012 platform.
Looking to help break the siege of bike paths and high-quality education on our freedoms? Here’s what you’ll need to know.
Want more? Read all 400+ pages of Agenda 21 on the U.N.’s website, or check out these past stories in Grist:
Chuck Nesci's artwork has been seen in such places as Tattoo magazine, on the ToysREvil website, and at Toy Tokyo in NYC. A multimedia artist, he is an avid woodworker and a lifelong fan of sequential art. Currently tattooing at Body FX Tattoo in Elkridge, MD, Chuck resides in Baltimore with his wife, Amy, and their 3 cats, Badger, Goblin, and Princess Tiny Feet.
Greg Hanscom is a senior editor at Grist. He tweets about cities, bikes, transportation, policy, and sustainability at
@ghanscom.