Wangari Maathai’s warning exposes a moral imbalance at the heart of modern development: those who benefit most from environmental destruction are rarely those who bear its full costs. Instead, today’s comforts—fossil-fueled transport, throwaway plastics, unchecked deforestation—create long-term harms that unfold slowly. Because climate shifts, ecosystem collapse, and resource depletion operate on decades-long timescales, the consequences arrive when the original decision-makers are gone, leaving children and grandchildren to navigate a damaged world they did not choose. [...]
