diff --git a/include/osg/Referenced b/include/osg/Referenced
index 97823af81..8eef3d358 100644
--- a/include/osg/Referenced
+++ b/include/osg/Referenced
@@ -117,12 +117,6 @@ class OSG_EXPORT Referenced
 
     public:
 
-        /** Set whether reference counting should use a mutex for thread safe reference counting.*/
-        static void setThreadSafeReferenceCounting(bool enableThreadSafeReferenceCounting);
-
-        /** Get whether reference counting is active.*/
-        static bool getThreadSafeReferenceCounting();
-
         friend class DeleteHandler;
 
         /** Set a DeleteHandler to which deletion of all referenced counted objects
diff --git a/src/osg/CMakeLists.txt b/src/osg/CMakeLists.txt
index 2564f4c5c..7df405dfb 100644
--- a/src/osg/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/osg/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -427,15 +427,6 @@ SET(TARGET_SRC
     ${OPENSCENEGRAPH_VERSIONINFO_RC}
 )
 
-################################################################################
-## Quieten warnings that a due to optional code paths
-
-IF(CMAKE_COMPILER_IS_GNUCXX)
-    # Remove -Wextra flag as it barfs on ffmoeg headers
-   STRING(REGEX REPLACE "-Wextra" "" CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS}")
-ENDIF()
-
-
 
 SET(TARGET_LIBRARIES OpenThreads)
 
diff --git a/src/osg/Referenced.cpp b/src/osg/Referenced.cpp
index cedc391d4..07a10933f 100644
--- a/src/osg/Referenced.cpp
+++ b/src/osg/Referenced.cpp
@@ -97,32 +97,9 @@ struct InitGlobalMutexes
 };
 static InitGlobalMutexes s_initGlobalMutexes;
 
-
-#if !defined(_OSG_REFERENCED_USE_ATOMIC_OPERATIONS)
-static bool s_useThreadSafeReferenceCounting = getenv("OSG_THREAD_SAFE_REF_UNREF")!=0;
-#endif
 // static std::auto_ptr<DeleteHandler> s_deleteHandler(0);
 static DeleteHandlerPointer s_deleteHandler(0);
 
-static ApplicationUsageProxy Referenced_e0(ApplicationUsage::ENVIRONMENTAL_VARIABLE,"OSG_THREAD_SAFE_REF_UNREF","");
-
-void Referenced::setThreadSafeReferenceCounting(bool enableThreadSafeReferenceCounting)
-{
-#if !defined(_OSG_REFERENCED_USE_ATOMIC_OPERATIONS)
-    s_useThreadSafeReferenceCounting = enableThreadSafeReferenceCounting;
-#endif
-}
-
-bool Referenced::getThreadSafeReferenceCounting()
-{
-#if defined(_OSG_REFERENCED_USE_ATOMIC_OPERATIONS)
-    return true;
-#else
-    return s_useThreadSafeReferenceCounting;
-#endif
-}
-
-
 void Referenced::setDeleteHandler(DeleteHandler* handler)
 {
     s_deleteHandler.reset(handler);
@@ -153,10 +130,7 @@ Referenced::Referenced():
 #endif
 {
 #if !defined(_OSG_REFERENCED_USE_ATOMIC_OPERATIONS)
-#ifndef ENFORCE_THREADSAFE
-    if (s_useThreadSafeReferenceCounting)
-#endif
-        _refMutex = new OpenThreads::Mutex;
+    _refMutex = new OpenThreads::Mutex;
 #endif
 
 #ifdef DEBUG_OBJECT_ALLOCATION_DESTRUCTION
@@ -206,10 +180,7 @@ Referenced::Referenced(const Referenced&):
 #endif
 {
 #if !defined(_OSG_REFERENCED_USE_ATOMIC_OPERATIONS)
-#ifndef ENFORCE_THREADSAFE
-    if (s_useThreadSafeReferenceCounting)
-#endif
-        _refMutex = new OpenThreads::Mutex;
+    _refMutex = new OpenThreads::Mutex;
 #endif
 
 #ifdef DEBUG_OBJECT_ALLOCATION_DESTRUCTION
diff --git a/src/osgViewer/ViewerBase.cpp b/src/osgViewer/ViewerBase.cpp
index 05ce7d662..9642a7a4d 100644
--- a/src/osgViewer/ViewerBase.cpp
+++ b/src/osgViewer/ViewerBase.cpp
@@ -307,9 +307,6 @@ void ViewerBase::startThreading()
             return;
     }
 
-    // using multi-threading so make sure that new objects are allocated with thread safe ref/unref
-    osg::Referenced::setThreadSafeReferenceCounting(true);
-
     Scenes scenes;
     getScenes(scenes);
     for(Scenes::iterator scitr = scenes.begin();