Environmental movement will fail if...

"The environmental movement can only survive if it becomes a justice movement.  As a pure environmental movement, it will either die, or it will survive as a corporate 'greenwash'.  Anyone who's a sincere environmentalist can't stand that role"  Vandana Shiva. )Vandana Shiva is an Indian scholar, environmental activist, food sovereignty advocate, and anti-globalization author. Shiva, currently based in Delhi, has authored more than twenty books.)


Today's Washington Times editorial was titled “Saving the planet, not the people: The U.N. places climate above all”

Dear Editor,

With all the attention the UN and progressives are giving Climate Change it does appear that the UN and the progressive movement is more devoted to “Saving the planet, not the people" as today’s editorial asserts.  
In reality, the UN was created with only the capacity.  To put the protection of national sovereignty above all else.  It has no power to protect human rights or the environment other than by proclamations and a forum for diplomacy.  Some of its agencies can accomplish some minor things but none have the economic or political power that nations of the Security Council has.   And to these unelected sovereignty state entities their priorities rarely put human rights and environmental protection first and foremost.  Costa Rica is the one practicing exception. 

We forget that when the US put sovereign states rights ahead of human rights a bloody civil war between the states resulted in more American deaths on both sides than all the wars that our nation has fought in since then…combined.   

It’s unfortunate that the Washington Times gave no mention of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which are the only comprehensive approach to nearly every threat we humans, the environment, and all nations face (pandemics, terrorism, war, extinction of species, WMD proliferation, economic recessions, refugee flows, climate change, loss of species, and our antibiotic arsenal...).  

Funding and achieving these 17 globally agreed upon goals for the 2030 deserve the greatest attention of every government and UN system and structure this Tuesday at the opening of the U.N. General Assembly in New York this Tuesday.

Only by putting the protection of human rights and the environment above the rights of nations to do as they please, will we be able to protect our cherished freedoms and our own national security.  The SDGs comprehensive approach addresses root causes of nearly every injustice that fuels the threats we face.

With the accelerating evolution of weapons, war, environmental degradation, and repression of human rights we are running out of time.  And nothing short of global 'liberty and justice for all' will save us all.