Corey Levine Feature: 5 Part Series on Women in Afghanistan
New book explores global solutions to global problems
“So, perhaps now is the time to reopen discussions about adopting more democratic principles at the global level – everyone might one day vote in a world parliament.”
Those words appear on page 203 of the Kindle edition of “Breaking Boundaries,” a new book on the climate crisis and other related problems. It is one of several places where authors Johan Rockstrom and Owen Gaffney mention the United Nations. They also discuss policies that would work best in a more effective and democratic UN, although they do not make the implied connections with world federalism.
The policies include an international carbon tax (with much of the money going as social dividends to low-income households), a global wealth tax, prices on nitrogen, phosphorus, and water, a global transformation of agriculture, a radical overhaul of the global health system, geo-engineering, and longterm global planning.
In memory of Leonard Angel
Dr. Angel actively supported the Campaign for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, an initiative that aims to give citizens, not just countries, a direct voice at the UN. The UNPA campaign is a global network of parliamentarians and non-governmental organizations advocating for direct representation of citizens at the United Nations. The consultative parliamentary assembly is envisaged as a practical first step towards establishing a directly-elected world parliament with co-decision powers over the UN system. This initiative was endorsed by 826 members of national parliaments in at least 102 countries, including at least 74 MPs and Senators from Canada.
Leonard's Comment on Endorsing the UNPA:
People all around the world are working (officially, only since the end of April beginning of May 2007) for global citizen's voices in what would/will be called the United Nations Parliamentary Assembly. This would/will be one of the most important transformations the world has seen--a voice for each person in the world through people who are not controlled by any nation-state government. The plan is open to each citizen of the world to endorse. Please check it out, and, if you're agreeable to it, as I expect you will be, endorse it. Then you can say to your children/grandchildren/friends/friends' children or grandchildren etc in the many decades to come: "I supported its development when it was still a dream." It's being supported by Boutros Boutros-Ghali (former Secretary-General of the UN), Vaclav Havel (former President of Czechoslovakia), hundreds of parliamentarians around the world, etc. It's still a dream, but it's a vivid one, acted on by many Nobel Prize winners, etc.
To check it out, go to UNPA Campaign.org!
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