The Sustainability Scam: How Self-Interest Ruins Good Ideas
Current laws aim to protect children’s right to be born into safe and healthy environments, but our society fails to uphold these rights. Prioritizing economic growth over environmental health has created a world where children are often born into inequality and pollution, with fewer resources for welfare. The impacts are felt most by poor, Indigenous, and non-white communities, exposing a legacy of environmental racism and inequality.
While corporations and wealthy families drive profit, often harming the environment, children have no say in these decisions. This profit-driven system emerged partly from policies that separated human rights from environmental sustainability. The United Nations missed early opportunities to address the connection between population growth, human rights, and environmental health, leading to a system that benefits wealthy nations and corporations at others’ expense.
To correct these injustices, some propose reparations funded by those who have benefited from environmental degradation. New laws and norms should protect unborn children’s rights and ensure that resources and welfare are equitably distributed to every child. Without such reforms, “sustainability” becomes a hollow term used by leaders to mask environmentally harmful practices.
Activists argue that genuine sustainability means addressing birth equity, the idea that all children deserve equal access to safe environments and democratic rights from birth. This is vital to prevent an unjust world where the poor and marginalized bear the costs of pollution and climate change, while the wealthy profit. Equal participation in democratic processes and protection from environmental harm is essential for a just, inclusive future.
🔭 This summary was human-edited with AI-assist.
