Smart Cities - Mute Mountains

Welcome to the Fourth Industrial Revolution

"We stand on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work and relate to one another. In its scale, scope and complexity, the transformation will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before”.

Klaus Schwab Founder And Executive Chairman World Economic Forum
17 January 2016

The recitation of this passage was Kate Mason’s challenging introduction to her talk to the Blue Mountains community on 12th August 2023. This was part of her investigation of Smart Cities and what it means to her Central Coast community and to ours.

NOTE: A video of Kates’s talk is currently in production and will be added to this article shortly

Schwab’s words herald massive changes that involve much of our resources, national infrastructure, policy directions, our language and faith being handed to very big business. Meanwhile, government plays the role of neoliberal handmaiden. Sadly, our official heralds are muzzled through organisations such as The Trusted News Initiative or discredited by the fact-checking spivs.

Importantly, we are also in a linguistic war where words mean just what our masters choose them to mean. This may shift depending on the current propaganda’s needs and the messages curated for our tribe. Hands up, who’s for censorship? Those calling for censorship today, are very different from those in favour of it 5 years ago.

It sounds like we face quite a challenge. Yet, when questioned, local political representatives blithely infer there is nothing to see and anyone who thinks there is is labelled a cooker, tinfoil hat wearer, climate denier, right wing nut job or conspiracy theorist. In this assessment of the annoyingly curious, our elected officials find enthusiastic denunciators within the Labor and Green faithful with help from a smaller but enthusiastic Liberal element. It is this latter group, to their shame, that has dumped the highly principled Senator Gerard Rennick.

We must all make sacrifices

Locally, smart parking meters have recently been installed in selected mountain towns to ensure visitors pay to visit. This complements the devastating impact of Covid-19 policies on Blue Mountains villages. We are told the meters are a necessary revenue raising measure.

What is clear is that we will all need to make sacrifices; at least that is true for the people you and I know. We need to make way for new Global Private Public Partnerships (G3P) which may not have much room for the petty aspirations of our communities.

Politicians and bureaucrats at all levels in Australia and in western nations, generally, are gimlet-eyed on the incredibly ambitious United Nations’ 17 SUSTAINABLE Developments Goals. Does mention of the United Nations have you shaking a leg free from a phantom claw pulling you down a conspiracist’s rabbit hole. Please put such delusions aside and give Kate’s work the respect it deserves.

It seems trillions are needed to address sustainability’s needs. The lack of a clear definition is no barrier to action. The need may be vague but it is urgent. Risk is everywhere and must be averted. We will need the assistance of very wealthy people to manage a world facing dangers of unimaginable scale. Fortunately, they readily make their private jets available to fly themselves to events like the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) where they and Greta decide what we and governments must do to attract their help.

Make space for GFANZ

To become sustainable demands the creation of fiscal space. This requires governments to set aside a portion of national budgets to meet this sustainable need. How great these demands are is only limited by the expansive imagination of highly paid consultants such as those at the Big 4 consultancy firms and their ESG framework. The deindustrialisation that accompanies greenhouse gas reduction may even trap relatively wealthy countries like Australia. The GFANZ people have trillions ready to assist any desperate cause.

So where do our parking meters fit into this? That they are not standalone is explained by this Smart Nation document produced by the Smart Cities Council:

We can do all of that by investing in smart infrastructure. By that we mean deploying proven information and communications technologies - smart devices, sensors and software - that give our existing infrastructure the equivalent of digital eyes and ears. These intelligent devices enable more efficient and effective monitoring and control of our energy and water systems, transportation networks, human services, public safety operations - basically all core government functions”.

This is much more ambitious than a few parking meters in a few mountain towns. Why would public officials seek to downplay something for which so much energy, money and public disruption, let alone compliance, is needed?

We are now part of the SIX CITIES

The Blue Mountains is part of THE SIX CITIES REGION. Specifically, we are incorporated in the Western Parkland City and we have our very own Commissioner, Ms Billie Sankovic …. that we share with Liverpool, Penrith, Campbelltown and the new airport. Ms Billie sits in her office anxiously awaiting our calls.

It seems a Smart Western City Program has been in place since August 2021. Part of this plan states:

”There is significant opportunity for the City to improve internet connectivity, by taking advantage of current and emerging technologies, providing greater levels of customer service to its residents and businesses and supporting deployment of smart and connected devices”.

We might ask what sort of devices, to deliver what services and for what purpose? We are also told how we will be encouraged to engage in planning to promote acceptance. To date, asking such questions is to invite vitriol and ridicule from our local Mayor. An email sent six weeks ago requesting he explain the meaning of a pledge he has made to the C40 Global Mayors COVID-19 Recovery Task Force awaits a reply.

The Smart Nation document continues:
”Smart Planning and Management program theme initiatives will encourage community engagement across a wide range of City planning and development activities, driving increased public participation and acceptance of development within the City”.

So participation leads to acceptance in that order. Let’s have some. One of the leading companies involved in the rollout of this smart technology is Technology One. Their website claims:

“73% of Australian and New Zealand residents live in a council powered by TechnologyOne”.

I became aware of their engagement by our Blue Mountains City Council and sought to understand how this technology was being used. I wrote to the CEO who pushed me down the chain of command where I received this “participatory” reply.

On page 29 of the Smart Western City Program report we are given the following reassurance:

Yet, smart plans and smart debate has been about the revenue raising benefits that smart parking meters will deliver. Did anyone see the Trojan horse being hauled up the Great Western Highway? Has our State member, Trish Doyle, seen it? Can someone tell us what the horse is carrying or is that meant to be a surprise? Where have the Blue Mountains Gazette articles been telling us about these great plans? As it seems the horse now has an office in Council, perhaps we will hear from it directly.

Protecting the Blue Mountains

Who has heard of the term Natural Asset Class (NAC)? In late 2021, the Integrated Exchange Group joined with the Rockefeller Foundation to commence the commodification of nature. Evidently, the world’s natural environment is a $125 trillion dollar investment opportunity. Has anyone noticed that our mountain towns sit within 11,400 square kilometres of bushland?

Audio only

Such initiatives must be of interest, if not concern, for people living in the Blue Mountains and for those who recognise its local, national and international significance.

Hello Blue Mountains Planetary Health Initiative. Imagine our good fortune to have the World’s First Professor of Planetary Health as part of a local advisory committee. No need to buy a lottery ticket because we have won already. There are a some members of this committee who make the indefatigable appear indolent such is their networking and engagement.

Through them we have links to Monash Sustainable Development, United Nations Institute for Global Health, ClimateWorks, Global Rights for Nature (GARN), The Centre for Democratic and Environmental Rights (CDER), The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA), Future Dreaming Australia, Rockefeller Foundation - Lancet Commission, Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEAll), ,TheConversation (multiple contributors), Wellcome Trust, UNESCO, World Economic Forum (WEF), Coca Cola Australia and New Economy Network Australia (NENA). When do they sleep?

NENA is the Australian outpost of the Wellbeing Economic Alliance (WEAll). WEAll has links to the Rockefellers Brothers Fund and to The Club of Rome which has a phenomenal crossover membership with the World Economic Forum.

Since November 2021, Council has entered into a partnership with AELA which is a champion of The Rights of Nature. And serendipitously, Council received a Local Recognition of Rights Award from GARN (see linked organisations above).

Last month, NENA celebrated DEGROWTH WEEK. Co-organisers were members of Degrowth Network Australia (DNA). Aside from degrowth and EQUITY for nature, NENA is committed to localisation and decolonisation. Not sure what this means but as a First Fleet descendant, I hope there’s no demand that I make the return trip. NENA also has a very interesting favicon.

We observe the World Economic Forum is another organisation interested in degrowth and has devoted nearly 50 articles to it. It also has 100 articles dealing with localization and 34 on decolonization. Plenty of research for us to do here.

There is obviously enough firepower here to win any battle. Our job is to assist our Council and the Blue Mountains Planetary Health Advisory Committee to define winning.

We are all ONE

One area where colonisation is apparent is in plans for our bodies and general health management. Here COMMODIFICATION is in big red letters. CRISPR technology (courses are available at Rockefeller University) will help with DNA manipulation in humans, animals and plant life. Kate has warned us to watch out for the word TRANSFORMATION. It sparked my interest when I came across the Rockefeller and Gates plans to transform our food. These activities link to the WHO’s OneHealth which is something we’ll discuss in the next article.

Another key issue Kate raised on the day was Social Impact Bonds (SIB). On 20th August, she spoke in more detail on this matter with Taschi from Taschi Talks. This is an initiative that Australian Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, is committed to and thus the Federal Government. Former Prime Ministers Scott Morrison and Julia Gillard are both supporters of SIBs. Julia has even found time away from her role as Chair of Wellcome (Britain’s Gates Foundation equivalent) to add Leapfrog Investments’ Global Leadership Council to her growing list of corporate and non-profit ventures.

Social Impact Investing is a concept with links to the United Nations (Sustainable Development Goal 3), WEAll and the Rockefeller Foundation again. And we note that one of WEAll’s well-credentialled co-founders was a keynote speaker at the Social Impact Summit held at University of Technology, Sydney, on 3. - 4. July, 2023.

It seems housing or the lack of it presents an opportunity here. When both major Australian parties have presided over our housing Ponzi scheme for the past 40 years (we note this pattern of speculation on residential property has been repeated across much of the world). Nothing remains to be done now other than to sell off the fallout from housing mismanagement to predatory investors.

It seems there is NOTHING you can’t commodify and turn a dollar or a million on, even social issues like homelessness.

Kate also introduced us to Inger Andersen who is Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). If Inger is right, it won’t be long and tinfoil hats will soon be selling in the hundreds at Target.

She explains: “Among actions under examination is Solar Radiation Modification (SMR), and in particular Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI) – which aims to cool the planet by reflecting sunlight back into space”. SRM and SAI are referenced 674 times in this related document providing a wonderful opportunity for an enthusiastic climate change researcher to look into the United Nations plans to meet Sustainable Development Goal 13. And maybe a little pretesting has already been done. What do you think?

We need more heralds

In closing, there has been so much unheralded information in need of a herald. Fortunately, we have found one in Kate who refuses to be muzzled. She simply asks us find our curiosity and put it to work. Her generosity and talent deserves to be rewarded and all she asks is that we act in our own interest.

Kate Mason is a writer and investigator with an extensive background in community development. She is committed to ensuring people have the information they need to assess and act on events that impact their lives and environment.

Warren Ross
29th August 2023