OPINION:
The United Nations is holding its first-in-five-decades conference on water in New York, a gathering that some say could be a “Paris moment” — meaning, the global body could soon do for water what it’s sought to do, via treaty, for climate. Meaning, the United Nations is coming for control of the world’s water sources.
A Paris-like global agreement on water? Make way for the regulatory nightmares.
This conference, hosted by the governments of the Netherlands and Tajikistan, is the latest U.N. quest to accomplish its 17 sustainable development goals, a list that if realized, if fully achieved and enacted, would give a select band of elitist bureaucrats a total control of all human activities, from flying the skies to determining company pay scales to fishing the seas and sailing the oceans and building homes and businesses.
No poverty.
Zero hunger.
Good health — both physical and mental — for everybody.
Gender equality.
And now, clean water and sanitation.
Those are the first few sustainable development goals, a project of the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
And while they sound notable, the devil’s in the details. It’s one thing for, say, Christians to offer up aid to the hungry, the tired, the poor via tithes and charitable outreach. It’s one thing for, say, a nonprofit with a charitable mission to supply the needy with much-needed needs. It’s one thing for Joe Q. Taxpayer to reach into his own pocket and proffer some cash for a poor soul in obvious distress.
It’s quite another thing for the government to take tax dollars and take the reins of regulations to push us all toward a perfect world that never will come.
It’s quite another for a global government body to pretend it has the power to eradicate poverty, poor health, pollution, hunger and ignorance; to erase discrimination of all kinds; to provide well-paying jobs for all — all the while controlling the means of production and consumption; to ensure peace and justice the world over; to promise all will be nirvana — if only all the governments of the world will cede their sovereignty, bow down to the dictates of the United Nations’ select, and give up money, freedom and choice.
It’s for the good of the collective, dontcha know.
Global eyes have turned toward water.
“[T]he conference aims to raise awareness of the global water crisis and decide on action to achieve internationally agreed water-related goals,” the World Economic Forum wrote in a recent post.
“The Global Commission on the Economics of Water, launched at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in 2022, will report on game-changing ways to value and manage water as a common good,” the World Economic Forum wrote in this same recent post.
Just as the Paris Agreement promised an end to pollution — if only humans would stop taking airplanes and driving cars and heating their homes and using gas stoves — now this blossoming water treaty will no doubt promise an end to thirst. Yes, an end to thirst — so long as humans of the world unite and abide by all the coming U.N. water dictates.
The specifics of this looming regulatory model aren’t yet known. But the hints are there. The United Nations plans to protect water that’s used for bathing; water that’s used for developments; water that’s home to sea life; water that’s used for transportation. So the up-and-coming controls would likely focus on residential limits to water usage, and costly increases to access that water; on bans on agricultural usage, and costly increases on farmers; on strict controls on the types and numbers of ships that can sail the seas and rivers and channels, and costly increases for this form of transportation.
Then will come the offset demands — as with carbon offsets, the U.N. water czars will demand trades of activities to offset the supposed pollution of the waterways.
So much for jet skiing.
So much for fishing on the weekends with the family. It’ll be too expensive — and regulated.
“Natural resources crises, including for water and food, come within the top 10 biggest risks facing humanity in the coming decade,” the World Economic Forum wrote.
The hysteria’s in place. The hysterical claims are heating up the media.
“[A]s global warming continues to take effect, ordinary weather is becoming a thing of the past, exacerbating our water crisis,” the World Economic Forum wrote.
There you have it.
The double-whammy of climate alarmism and a water crisis: Let the fear go forth.
“It’s clear that we need to rethink our approach to how we can best allocate and value water,” the World Economic Forum wrote. “How can we share the cost of preventing or mitigating droughts and floods exacerbated by global warming?”
It’s a question the global bureaucrats want to be answered this way: by turning over all human activity to the control of the United Nations and its select partners in global politics.
This is where this water conference is leading. The globalists won’t quit until they grab all power from all people across all the nations — even if they have to do it a drop at a time.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
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