This dissertation explores the relationship between climate change, reproductive justice, and the prosperity of families, communities, and economies through a discussion utilizing a comprehensive literature review and the results of a quantitative study to examine the relationship between the adverse impacts of a changing climate and the cost of living, represented by increases in food prices, housing costs, and health care expenditures, and the associated impact on declining birth rates.
The first chapter builds the foundation for examining how climate change, reproductive justice, and societal prosperity interact by summarizing the climate change science literature that addresses the health and social harm disparities for low-income, communities of color, particularly women of color, and advocates for a reclaiming of bodily autonomy given the communities that are most impacted by climate change. The second chapter recalls the historical legacy of settler colonialism, especially the exploitation of Indigenous women, and examines how corporate expansion, consumerism, and white feminist ideologies create and maintain corporate colonialism and the oppression of nonwhite women through the disproportionate impacts of climate change, while calling for a reconstruction of feminism. The third chapter explores how a modern society measures prosperity through both financial and nonfinancial performance measures and introduces a new prosperity model based on a four-part test to promote, protect, and advance the health and long-term viability of families, communities, economies, and ecosystems through sustainable and responsible economic principles, means, and indicators of success. Implications and considerations for private industry and public policy are discussed, along with the need for additional research to better understand the new model’s effectiveness in predicting, determining, and protecting societal prosperity.