UNESCO Wants Your Money to 'Dismantle' the Freedom of Expression It Touts!

UNESCO is one of those worse than useless UN agencies. The acronym stands for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. It is a mostly autonomous entity supposedly “aimed at promoting peace and security through international cooperation in education, sciences, culture, communication, and information." We’re told its primary goals include:

• Advancing education for all.

• Protecting cultural heritage and promoting cultural diversity.

• Encouraging scientific collaboration and ethical science practices.

• Promoting freedom of expression, media development, and access to information.

As with most things in the way of institutional goals, the language is intended to convey the opposite of what’s really happening and this especially applies to what I have bolded and italicized above. UNESCO, in fact, hates freedom of expression and seeks to absolutely kill it when the expression turns to global warming skepticism.

If you think I’m exaggerating I direct you to this UNESCO web page on the subject of the “Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change.” There is no information integrity, a/k/a truth, in that title, as a quick perusal of the material on the site reveals (emphasis added):

The Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change is a joint partnership between the Brazilian Government, the UN Secretariat and UNESCO.

Bringing together countries, international organizations, and stakeholders worldwide, it aims to promote and defend information integrity on climate change, address disinformation, and enhance climate change awareness and action. It includes a global fund which will finance research into disinformation on climate change and initiatives to promote information integrity…

A Global Fund for the Integrity of Information on Climate Change will be created at the initiative of interested members of the Global Initiative, to fund networked, in-depth research that will contribute to exposing and dismantling disinformation related to climate change, as well as the dissemination of the results of the research.

The Fund will be administered and implemented by UNESCO, and will be structured as a Multi-Partner Trust Fund.

The Fund will rely on voluntary contributions from donors, which will be collected in a single special account, and the use of resources will not be tied to specific donations. UNESCO will provide consolidated reports on the use of the aggregated resources to all donors.

The Fund will seek to support the integration of international research collectives to address identified gaps and respond to the challenges posed by the increasing levels of disinformation to the full exercise of freedom of expression and other fundamental human rights, as well as to the implementation of evidence-based policies to address climate change. Implementing partners will be selected through the launch of competitive calls for proposals or “Calls for Partnerships.”

Get that? UNESCO will collect money from various governments and special interest NGOs to dismantle what it labels disinformation through social media censorship, while pretending this somehow contributes to freedom of expression on the subject of global warming. This brings to mind a meme I saw a while ago that turns out to be more accurate than I ever imagined:

There’s a lot more to the story and I strongly recommend Chris Morrison’s article at The Daily Skeptic for further insights. He notes the ‘mad as a hatter’ UK government, which jails folks for what offensive Facebook posts, is going to finance this initiative along with help from some uber-wealthy NGOs established by masters of the universe dreamers. How much does the U.S. contribute, I asked Grok, and got this:

The United States, prior to its withdrawal from UNESCO in 2018, contributed approximately 22% of UNESCO's regular budget. This was based on the scale of assessments for U.N. agencies, where the U.S. was assessed at a rate reflecting its economic capacity. Here's a more detailed look:

• Historical Contributions: The U.S. contributed around $80 million annually when it was a fully participating member of UNESCO. This accounted for 22% of UNESCO's overall budget before the cessation of contributions due to legislative action following UNESCO's admission of Palestine in 2011.

• Withdrawal and Arrears: When the U.S. withdrew from UNESCO under the Trump administration in 2018, it left with significant arrears. By 2017, the U.S. had accumulated $542 million in unpaid contributions.

• Re-engagement: Under the Biden administration, there was a push towards re-engagement with UNESCO. The FY23 Omnibus Appropriations bill allowed the U.S. to waive statutory funding prohibitions, and the FY24 budget request included $150 million to begin addressing the U.S. arrears to UNESCO, which by that point had grown to approximately $612 million.

• Current Status: As of the latest available information, the U.S. has not officially rejoined UNESCO, but the steps towards resuming contributions have been initiated, aiming to pay down the accumulated arrears and participate once again in the organization's activities.

Thus, while the U.S. does not currently contribute to UNESCO's budget due to its withdrawal, there are ongoing efforts and discussions about potentially returning to full participation, which would involve resuming financial contributions based on the previous 22% assessment rate or a negotiated amount to address the arrears.

Let’s hope Trump kills U.S. participation in UNESCO once and for all.

#UNESCO #UK #US #Trump #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming