548
L. Wang
Nevertheless, the huge success in technologies, industry, capital and market has
incurred the prevalence of instrumentalism and consumerism, made man increasingly arrogant toward nature and unscrupulous in environmental behaviors, till at
last nature takes revenge in great intensity. In the twentieth century, environmental
disasters happened ceaselessly, as represented by the notorious “eight environmental
pollution (hazard) events” in the West. Global climate change is particularly worrying
concerning the prospects of civilization development. Over 50 years ago, the British
historian Toynbee commented, “In more than 200 years from 1763 to 1973, man
obtained the power to conquer the biosphere, which was unprecedented. In these
bewildering circumstances, only one prediction can be made with certainty. Man,
the child of Mother Earth, would not be able to survive the crime of matricide if he
were to commit it. The penalty for this would be self-annihilation.” When Toynbee
made these remarks, people were lamenting the “Silent Spring” and worried about
“The Limits to Growth,” and the international community began to realize the severity
of environmental problems and take countermeasures. Yet the desire for wealth and
the inertia of development were so overwhelming that man has continued to harm
earth’s ecology at a faster pace and on a larger scale since then, and there is no telling
when we will effectively halt the trend of environmental deterioration.
If we observe all civilization forms in the long history of human life, we can
distinguish their different outlook in different time and space. What is penetrating
the whole process is the waning and waxing of human power and natural power. Since
the Industrial Revolution, human power has grown quickly and material civilization
developed by leaps and bounds, along with the quickly worsening natural ecosystem.
For tens of thousands of years, social development and civilization progress have been
characterized by man trying to break away from natural restrictions to obtain as many
natural resources as possible in pursuit of an ever more affluent, even luxurious, life.
But things have changed today. The biggest dilemma in the current world is not the
contradiction between ever-growing material needs and backward social productivity,
but the contradiction between ever-bloating desire for material consumption and the
ecosystem’s limited bearing capacity. Man must control their material desire with
strong mental will, follow nature’s course, respect and care for it, take the initiative
to dissolve their contradiction, and strive for lasting development of man-nature
harmony. This is the great goal that China’s ecological civilization is aiming at,
which history will prove is the only right direction for human development in the
future.
2 Understanding Ecological Civilization
from the Perspective of the 5000-Year History of Chinese
Civilization
The history of Chinese civilization is the history of the coordinated evolution between
the Chinese nation and the natural environment it lives in.
L. Wang
Nevertheless, the huge success in technologies, industry, capital and market has
incurred the prevalence of instrumentalism and consumerism, made man increasingly arrogant toward nature and unscrupulous in environmental behaviors, till at
last nature takes revenge in great intensity. In the twentieth century, environmental
disasters happened ceaselessly, as represented by the notorious “eight environmental
pollution (hazard) events” in the West. Global climate change is particularly worrying
concerning the prospects of civilization development. Over 50 years ago, the British
historian Toynbee commented, “In more than 200 years from 1763 to 1973, man
obtained the power to conquer the biosphere, which was unprecedented. In these
bewildering circumstances, only one prediction can be made with certainty. Man,
the child of Mother Earth, would not be able to survive the crime of matricide if he
were to commit it. The penalty for this would be self-annihilation.” When Toynbee
made these remarks, people were lamenting the “Silent Spring” and worried about
“The Limits to Growth,” and the international community began to realize the severity
of environmental problems and take countermeasures. Yet the desire for wealth and
the inertia of development were so overwhelming that man has continued to harm
earth’s ecology at a faster pace and on a larger scale since then, and there is no telling
when we will effectively halt the trend of environmental deterioration.
If we observe all civilization forms in the long history of human life, we can
distinguish their different outlook in different time and space. What is penetrating
the whole process is the waning and waxing of human power and natural power. Since
the Industrial Revolution, human power has grown quickly and material civilization
developed by leaps and bounds, along with the quickly worsening natural ecosystem.
For tens of thousands of years, social development and civilization progress have been
characterized by man trying to break away from natural restrictions to obtain as many
natural resources as possible in pursuit of an ever more affluent, even luxurious, life.
But things have changed today. The biggest dilemma in the current world is not the
contradiction between ever-growing material needs and backward social productivity,
but the contradiction between ever-bloating desire for material consumption and the
ecosystem’s limited bearing capacity. Man must control their material desire with
strong mental will, follow nature’s course, respect and care for it, take the initiative
to dissolve their contradiction, and strive for lasting development of man-nature
harmony. This is the great goal that China’s ecological civilization is aiming at,
which history will prove is the only right direction for human development in the
future.
2 Understanding Ecological Civilization
from the Perspective of the 5000-Year History of Chinese
Civilization
The history of Chinese civilization is the history of the coordinated evolution between
the Chinese nation and the natural environment it lives in.