Systematic Difference and Correlation
in Urban and Rural Ecological
Civilization
Zhiyuan Ouyang
Ever since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, ecological civilization has been
comprehensively implemented as a major national strategy with great progress made
in environmental protection. Under the rigorous supervision and guidance of the
central government, pollution sources have been shut down and sludge and garbage
piled up for a long time quickly cleared away, but environmental problems have
kept re-emerging as they also reflect social issues. This situation happens in urban
and rural areas alike, but the latter has obviously done a better job than the former
in building an ecological civilization. Therefore, there have been many articles and
discussions about taking the approach of “encircling cities from the countryside” to
this ecological campaign, a view I also endorse. But it won’t do if we stay at words and
slogans. Studies of the underlying laws and patterns have to be carried out, otherwise
the approach has no theoretical or realistic significance. On the other hand, there are
studies of self-organizations of rural environmental protection in recent years, but
more should be done to elevate such studies on the theoretical level, such as the
systematic and scientific review of the self-organizations, and their significance for
overall rural development and ecological civilization. This paper is an attempt toward
that goal.
1 Origin of the Issue
The most conspicuous environmental issue now is pollution, which in essence is
caused by low-efficiency or inefficient utilization of resources, and pollutants are
essentially mutated natural resources. At present, pollution control is usually through
the harmless treatment of pollutants at the back end, but this is a very passive approach
Z. Ouyang (B)
School of Philosophy, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China
© China Environment Publishing Group Co., Ltd. 2021
J. Pan et al. (eds.), Beautiful China: 70 Years Since 1949 and 70 People’s Views
on Eco-civilization Construction, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6742-5_56
567
in Urban and Rural Ecological
Civilization
Zhiyuan Ouyang
Ever since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, ecological civilization has been
comprehensively implemented as a major national strategy with great progress made
in environmental protection. Under the rigorous supervision and guidance of the
central government, pollution sources have been shut down and sludge and garbage
piled up for a long time quickly cleared away, but environmental problems have
kept re-emerging as they also reflect social issues. This situation happens in urban
and rural areas alike, but the latter has obviously done a better job than the former
in building an ecological civilization. Therefore, there have been many articles and
discussions about taking the approach of “encircling cities from the countryside” to
this ecological campaign, a view I also endorse. But it won’t do if we stay at words and
slogans. Studies of the underlying laws and patterns have to be carried out, otherwise
the approach has no theoretical or realistic significance. On the other hand, there are
studies of self-organizations of rural environmental protection in recent years, but
more should be done to elevate such studies on the theoretical level, such as the
systematic and scientific review of the self-organizations, and their significance for
overall rural development and ecological civilization. This paper is an attempt toward
that goal.
1 Origin of the Issue
The most conspicuous environmental issue now is pollution, which in essence is
caused by low-efficiency or inefficient utilization of resources, and pollutants are
essentially mutated natural resources. At present, pollution control is usually through
the harmless treatment of pollutants at the back end, but this is a very passive approach
Z. Ouyang (B)
School of Philosophy, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China
© China Environment Publishing Group Co., Ltd. 2021
J. Pan et al. (eds.), Beautiful China: 70 Years Since 1949 and 70 People’s Views
on Eco-civilization Construction, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6742-5_56
567