On the Value Implications of the Outlook on Sustainable …
243
3 The Outlook on Sustainable Development is a New Vision
that Aims to Realize Value Through Effective
Coordination of Diverse and Complex Value Relations
The outlook on sustainable development is a new vision that reflects the fundamental
changes in the way of value realization and aims to achieve balanced, sustainable
value by coordinating diverse and complex value relations. There are always diverse
and complex value relations in the social organism composed of human, nature, and
society. Effective coordination of such relations is the prerequisite for promoting
sustainable development. Historically, the rise or fall of a civilization is related to
how its people perceive and handle environmental issues. Lessons from history,
coupled with current environmental problems, demonstrate that whether diverse and
complex value relations influencing the development of human society can be well
coordinated has a direct bearing on the achievement of sustainable development.
As a new vision with value objectives, demands, and vision, the outlook on sustainable development reflects the unity of opposites between the value of present and
future generations and the sustainable use and realization of ecological value. It
holds fast to the unity of opposites between national and regional value and global
and holistic value and represents the balance between short-term and long-term
objectives of the building of an ecological civilization. Diachronic coordination and
coexistence of diverse and complex valuation relations as displayed in the outlook on
sustainable development reflects the practical logic that development of an ecological
civilization can push various value relations to reach a balance through the dialectical
process.
The outlook on sustainable development is the result of profound reflection on the
way of value realization and coordination of value relations. It came into being and
has evolved with a strong sense of crisis about the serious impacts of environmental
destruction on the survival and development of present and future generations. It
draws upon the concept of sustainable development put forth by the International
Union for Conservation of Nature, the United Nations Environment Programme, and
the World Wildlife Fund in their report on the conservation of nature in the early
1980s, inherits and carries forward the ideas of Marxism on the relation between
human and nature, and was born amid China’s battles against air, water, and soil
pollution. It is intended to meet people’s basic needs for fresh air, clean water, and
safe food and respond to the unprecedented tension between human and nature and
the accompanying conflicts between human value and ecological value, economic
value and natural value, immediate value and long-term value, regional value and
national value, as well as national value and global value. It is a new point of view
on ecological progress based on comprehensive reflection on the relation between
human and nature and its development trends from a holistic perspective.
The outlook on sustainable development of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological
Civilization is an organic system encompassing the central subject, goal, value, basis,
conditions, guarantees, and basic requirements of sustainable development, among
others. The relations between these basic elements of sustainable development are
243
3 The Outlook on Sustainable Development is a New Vision
that Aims to Realize Value Through Effective
Coordination of Diverse and Complex Value Relations
The outlook on sustainable development is a new vision that reflects the fundamental
changes in the way of value realization and aims to achieve balanced, sustainable
value by coordinating diverse and complex value relations. There are always diverse
and complex value relations in the social organism composed of human, nature, and
society. Effective coordination of such relations is the prerequisite for promoting
sustainable development. Historically, the rise or fall of a civilization is related to
how its people perceive and handle environmental issues. Lessons from history,
coupled with current environmental problems, demonstrate that whether diverse and
complex value relations influencing the development of human society can be well
coordinated has a direct bearing on the achievement of sustainable development.
As a new vision with value objectives, demands, and vision, the outlook on sustainable development reflects the unity of opposites between the value of present and
future generations and the sustainable use and realization of ecological value. It
holds fast to the unity of opposites between national and regional value and global
and holistic value and represents the balance between short-term and long-term
objectives of the building of an ecological civilization. Diachronic coordination and
coexistence of diverse and complex valuation relations as displayed in the outlook on
sustainable development reflects the practical logic that development of an ecological
civilization can push various value relations to reach a balance through the dialectical
process.
The outlook on sustainable development is the result of profound reflection on the
way of value realization and coordination of value relations. It came into being and
has evolved with a strong sense of crisis about the serious impacts of environmental
destruction on the survival and development of present and future generations. It
draws upon the concept of sustainable development put forth by the International
Union for Conservation of Nature, the United Nations Environment Programme, and
the World Wildlife Fund in their report on the conservation of nature in the early
1980s, inherits and carries forward the ideas of Marxism on the relation between
human and nature, and was born amid China’s battles against air, water, and soil
pollution. It is intended to meet people’s basic needs for fresh air, clean water, and
safe food and respond to the unprecedented tension between human and nature and
the accompanying conflicts between human value and ecological value, economic
value and natural value, immediate value and long-term value, regional value and
national value, as well as national value and global value. It is a new point of view
on ecological progress based on comprehensive reflection on the relation between
human and nature and its development trends from a holistic perspective.
The outlook on sustainable development of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological
Civilization is an organic system encompassing the central subject, goal, value, basis,
conditions, guarantees, and basic requirements of sustainable development, among
others. The relations between these basic elements of sustainable development are