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Z. Li
without fresh air, clean drinking water and healthy food, the existence and life of
laborers would be at risk, not to mention developing social productivity.
Second, the environmental state, which is the object of human labor, is a determinant factor for productivity development. This is because all material resources,
be it land, mineral, water, or biological resources represented by the forest, come
from the natural ecosystem, or ecological environment. The environmental state
directly affects and determines the development of productivity. To be more specific,
the global resource aggregate and the total bearing capacity of global ecosystem
determine the limit on global productivity development; the resource aggregate and
ecosystem’s bearing capacity in different regions determine the scale and speed of
regional productivity development; the ecological space and the types and quantities of resources in different regions determine the structure and layout of regional
productivity development. This can go on.
At last, the environmental state is also an important factor that affects the functioning of the means of labor, mainly the instruments of labor. This is because the
means of labor can only exert their due effects in suitable conditions, the absence
of which would lead to their malfunction. Some abnormal meteorological disasters
that we are familiar with can cause the malfunction of certain means of labor in
certain regions. For instance, the frost in some southern provinces in early 2008
paralyzed the traffic because highways were frozen and cars couldn’t move, and
it seriously damaged the electricity and communications lines, because of which
electric automotive couldn’t work, plants stopped running, and civil power use and
some communication services were cut off. In 2009, fifteen provinces and cities in
northern China, the Huanghuai region, northwest and Jianghuai region were hit by a
serious drought that lasted more than three months, not only endangering the winter
wheat and domestic animals, causing trouble in farmers’ lives and production, but
also creating an all-round emergency of industrial production and domestic water
use in cities.
All in all, General Secretary Xi’s remark that “protecting and improving the environment is protecting and increasing productivity” is a major breakthrough on the
productivity theory of mainstream economics on three levels. First, it contains the
idea of “environmental productivity is also a kind of productivity,” which inherits and
develops the Marxist view of “natural productivity is also a kind of productivity”;
second, it contains the idea of “the power of protecting and improving the ecological
environment is also a kind of productivity,” which deepens and enriches the connotations of “productivity”; third, it contains the idea of “ecological environment is
an important factor of productivity,” which elevates our understanding of the relation between ecological environment and productivity. Xi’s scientific assertion is of
immense significance in guiding us to correctly handle the relation between economic
development and environmental protection and should be carefully studied, deeply
understood and rigorously implemented.
Z. Li
without fresh air, clean drinking water and healthy food, the existence and life of
laborers would be at risk, not to mention developing social productivity.
Second, the environmental state, which is the object of human labor, is a determinant factor for productivity development. This is because all material resources,
be it land, mineral, water, or biological resources represented by the forest, come
from the natural ecosystem, or ecological environment. The environmental state
directly affects and determines the development of productivity. To be more specific,
the global resource aggregate and the total bearing capacity of global ecosystem
determine the limit on global productivity development; the resource aggregate and
ecosystem’s bearing capacity in different regions determine the scale and speed of
regional productivity development; the ecological space and the types and quantities of resources in different regions determine the structure and layout of regional
productivity development. This can go on.
At last, the environmental state is also an important factor that affects the functioning of the means of labor, mainly the instruments of labor. This is because the
means of labor can only exert their due effects in suitable conditions, the absence
of which would lead to their malfunction. Some abnormal meteorological disasters
that we are familiar with can cause the malfunction of certain means of labor in
certain regions. For instance, the frost in some southern provinces in early 2008
paralyzed the traffic because highways were frozen and cars couldn’t move, and
it seriously damaged the electricity and communications lines, because of which
electric automotive couldn’t work, plants stopped running, and civil power use and
some communication services were cut off. In 2009, fifteen provinces and cities in
northern China, the Huanghuai region, northwest and Jianghuai region were hit by a
serious drought that lasted more than three months, not only endangering the winter
wheat and domestic animals, causing trouble in farmers’ lives and production, but
also creating an all-round emergency of industrial production and domestic water
use in cities.
All in all, General Secretary Xi’s remark that “protecting and improving the environment is protecting and increasing productivity” is a major breakthrough on the
productivity theory of mainstream economics on three levels. First, it contains the
idea of “environmental productivity is also a kind of productivity,” which inherits and
develops the Marxist view of “natural productivity is also a kind of productivity”;
second, it contains the idea of “the power of protecting and improving the ecological
environment is also a kind of productivity,” which deepens and enriches the connotations of “productivity”; third, it contains the idea of “ecological environment is
an important factor of productivity,” which elevates our understanding of the relation between ecological environment and productivity. Xi’s scientific assertion is of
immense significance in guiding us to correctly handle the relation between economic
development and environmental protection and should be carefully studied, deeply
understood and rigorously implemented.