588
J. Lin
by the UN Environment Assembly. Some poor areas with favorable environmental
resources can explore a path of poverty alleviation through ecological reform and
innovation to revitalize the local factors such as land, labor force, assets and natural
landscape, and consequently turn resources into assets, capital into equity, farmers to
shareholders, and lucid waters and lush mountains into mountains of gold and silver.
Ecological culture is the basis to foster ecological civilization. Establishing,
promoting and popularizing ecological culture will advance ecological civilization;
in return, practices of building an ecological civilization will enrich the connotations
of ecological culture. The idea of ecological culture and ecological civilization is
deeply integrated with and comprehensively implemented in every aspect and the
full process of economic, political, cultural and social advances. Ecological culture,
as the mainstream culture in the age of ecological civilization, provides powerful
spiritual drive, intelligent support, behavioral guide and institutional guarantee for
ecological civilization.
2 Values of Ecological Civilization
The ecological cultural system follows ecological values as the norm.
The ecosystem has important values, both natural values and life values. Its value
to mankind lies in supporting life, providing resources and interacting for symbiosis.
Ecological culture, on the other hand, has spiritual and social values.
1. Natural values
Nature has value, which is created in the process of material production, defined
as “stored achievements,” and determined by the nature, structure and function of
natural objects. Life and nature are both self-organized systems. The natural process
is one of material production and incessant value creation. Man should care for nature
and fully realize that it is far from being just an instrument employed by man, but
has intrinsic values that don’t hinge on human will. We should respect or hold in awe
the intrinsic value and independence of nature.
Leopold, founder of ecological ethics, urged man to understand nature with a
holistic and organic view and realize its integrity and internal connections. He
proposed the standard of “land ethic” and asked man to look at nature and treat
it kindly from a point beyond human interests.
Nature’s value consists of two parts. The first is nature’s usage to man, which
is called its use value or external value. The other is the self-sufficiency of the
natural world or ecosystem, namely the dynamic balance resulting from the mutual
connections and utilization among natural objects, which is called nature’s internal
value. The second part emphasizes that nature’s value is objective and the human
dimension is the absolute or only dimension.
This shows that nature has two kinds of values. Its external value refers to the
value of natural objects as tools, namely their meaning in meeting human needs. For
J. Lin
by the UN Environment Assembly. Some poor areas with favorable environmental
resources can explore a path of poverty alleviation through ecological reform and
innovation to revitalize the local factors such as land, labor force, assets and natural
landscape, and consequently turn resources into assets, capital into equity, farmers to
shareholders, and lucid waters and lush mountains into mountains of gold and silver.
Ecological culture is the basis to foster ecological civilization. Establishing,
promoting and popularizing ecological culture will advance ecological civilization;
in return, practices of building an ecological civilization will enrich the connotations
of ecological culture. The idea of ecological culture and ecological civilization is
deeply integrated with and comprehensively implemented in every aspect and the
full process of economic, political, cultural and social advances. Ecological culture,
as the mainstream culture in the age of ecological civilization, provides powerful
spiritual drive, intelligent support, behavioral guide and institutional guarantee for
ecological civilization.
2 Values of Ecological Civilization
The ecological cultural system follows ecological values as the norm.
The ecosystem has important values, both natural values and life values. Its value
to mankind lies in supporting life, providing resources and interacting for symbiosis.
Ecological culture, on the other hand, has spiritual and social values.
1. Natural values
Nature has value, which is created in the process of material production, defined
as “stored achievements,” and determined by the nature, structure and function of
natural objects. Life and nature are both self-organized systems. The natural process
is one of material production and incessant value creation. Man should care for nature
and fully realize that it is far from being just an instrument employed by man, but
has intrinsic values that don’t hinge on human will. We should respect or hold in awe
the intrinsic value and independence of nature.
Leopold, founder of ecological ethics, urged man to understand nature with a
holistic and organic view and realize its integrity and internal connections. He
proposed the standard of “land ethic” and asked man to look at nature and treat
it kindly from a point beyond human interests.
Nature’s value consists of two parts. The first is nature’s usage to man, which
is called its use value or external value. The other is the self-sufficiency of the
natural world or ecosystem, namely the dynamic balance resulting from the mutual
connections and utilization among natural objects, which is called nature’s internal
value. The second part emphasizes that nature’s value is objective and the human
dimension is the absolute or only dimension.
This shows that nature has two kinds of values. Its external value refers to the
value of natural objects as tools, namely their meaning in meeting human needs. For