Towards a New Era of Ecological Civilization

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core has stood at the height of the rise and fall of human civilization and the sustainable development of the Chinese nation, regarded the construction of ecological civilization as an important part of the overall layout of the “five-in-one”, and put forward a series of new concepts, ideas and strategies, forming Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization. The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China defined the grand goal of building a prosperous, strong, democratic, civilized, harmonious and beautiful modern socialist country by the middle of this century, pointed out the way forward and the path for the construction of a beautiful China to move towards a new era of ecological civilization, and demonstrated the historical responsibility of Chinese communists to conform to the trend of the times and safeguard the interests of the people.

Section 1: Relating to the fundamental plan for the sustainable development of the Chinese nation

The relationship between man and nature is the primary relationship that must be faced and solved in the process of the development of human civilization, and the formation and development of human civilization is in a certain sense the evolution and change of the relationship between man and nature. The ecological civilization born on the basis of industrial civilization is an inevitable requirement for the harmonious development of man and nature, and a major leap in the history of human civilization. The construction of ecological civilization is a conscious adaptation and profound grasp of the development trend of human social civilization, a summary and reflection on the lessons learned from China’s economic and social development, and a positive response to the needs of people’s better life in the new era. Building an ecological civilization is related to the well- being of the people and the future of the nation, and is an important strategic task for realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

1. conform to the inevitable requirements of the process of civilization in human society

The ecological environment is the foundation of human survival and development, and changes in the ecological environment directly affect the succession of civilizations. Many ancient civilizations in history originated in areas with good ecology, and all of them led to the decline of civilization with the aggravation of ecological deterioration. It can be said that if the ecology rises, civilization will prosper, and if the ecology declines, the civilization will decline.

Since mankind entered the era of industrial civilization, it has “produced industrial and scientific forces that have not been imagined in any previous era in human history.”1 Social productive forces have been greatly improved, science and technology have developed rapidly, huge material wealth has been created, the world market has been opened, economic globalization has continued to develop, and modernization has become an irresistible historical trend. In this regard, Marx and Engels once commented that the productive forces created by the bourgeoisie in less than a hundred years of its class rule are greater than the entire productive forces created by all previous generations. Although capitalist industrial civilization has made great achievements in history, it is incompatible with the social productive forces it generates. Industrial civilization characterized by mechanization and electrification, driven by the nature of capital multiplication and expansion, dominated by anthropocentric and utilitarian ideas, regards human beings as the “masters” of nature, changes the relationship between man and nature into that between conquerors and conquerors, carries out predatory exploitation of natural resources, and controls the natural world to the point of “doing whatever you want.” This one-sided and radical attitude and practice towards nature, while promoting the triumphant march of industrial civilization, inevitably breaks the inherent cycle and balance of the ecosystem, produces irreparable ecological trauma, aggravates the contradiction between man and nature, and brings great threats to the survival and development of human beings. When mankind was still intoxicated with the great victory of the industrial revolution, the problems of ecological destruction and environmental pollution had gradually become prominent in the long- term accumulation. Since the 30s of the 20th century, a number of environmental pollution incidents have occurred in some Western countries, which have had a huge impact on the ecological environment and public life, bringing heavy losses.

After the middle of the 20th century, global environmental problems such as ozone layer depletion and destruction, biodiversity loss, acid rain spread, forest loss, land degradation and desertification, air pollution, marine pollution, water pollution, solid waste and garbage disasters have emerged one after another, and environmental pollution and ecological imbalance have become more serious. Especially after the 90s of the 20th century, due to the large use of fossil fuels, a large amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases were emitted, which gradually led to global warming over time. It has caused a variety of adverse impacts such as sea level rise, climate anomalies, aggravation of natural disasters, and accelerated spread of epidemic diseases. Generally speaking, the intensification of environmental pollution, global environmental problems, and climate warming is no longer just a problem of any country or region, but a serious global problem. The cruel reality fully shows that the attitude and practice of industrial civilization towards nature have reached a dead end, the relationship between human society and nature has been seriously reversed, and human civilization is in danger of being destroyed.

In the era of Marx and Engels, the contradiction between man and nature was far less serious than later, and the ecological and environmental problems had not yet attracted widespread attention from human beings. However, the founders of Marxism have paid attention to the foundation and importance of the relationship between man and nature ahead of time, pointing out that man is the product of the long-term evolution of nature, and inorganic nature is the matrix, foundation and homeland of human survival and development, and without nature there is no one himself. Human beings can use nature and transform their self-perception through practical activities, but they must follow the objective laws of natural development. They paid great attention to historical cases of reprisals for ecological destruction in Mesopotamia, Greece, Asia Minor, and other histories, issuing the message “Let us not revel in our human triumph over nature.” For every such victory, nature takes revenge on us.”1 While revealing that the capitalist mode of production is the root cause of the ecological crisis of modern society, it emphasizes that the disharmony between man and nature is essentially the disharmony of social relations between people. The founder of Marxism also expressed his yearning for the harmonious coexistence between man and nature in the future society, believing that in order to achieve the ultimate “reconciliation” between man and nature and between people, it is necessary to change the irrational social system and establish a communist society. After Marx and Engels, due to the increasingly serious environmental problems, from the middle of the 20th century, some people of insight in the West began to look for the profound social and historical reasons behind environmental pollution and ecological destruction, strongly called for the protection of the ecological environment, and gradually formed the theory of sustainable development.

In 1962, American female biologist Rachel Carson published “Silent Spring”, which exposed the damage to the ecosystem caused by environmental pollution caused by the abuse of pesticides and put forward the idea of protecting the ecological environment, which triggered a debate on the concept of development in the world. In 1972, the Club of Rome published a study that shocked the world “The Limits of Growth”, which deeply reflected on the West’s theory of economic growth at the cost of high consumption of resources, high emissions of pollution and serious ecological damage, revealing “high growth’s” unsustainability has aroused great concern and extensive discussion on environmental and development issues in the international community. In the same year, the United Nations held its first conference on the human environment and adopted the Declaration on the Human Environment, which unveiled the prelude to the common protection of the environment by all mankind. In 1987, the World Commission on Environment and Development published the report “Our Common Future”, which formally defined sustainable development and systematically expounded the idea of sustainable development. In 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development adopted important documents such as the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and Agenda 21 with the concept of sustainable development as the core, raising the issue of sustainable development to a strategic level. People are gradually realizing that the development of killing chickens for eggs and exhausting fish has caused great damage to natural ecosystems, and eventually caused human beings to suffer from themselves. Therefore, it is necessary to deeply examine the serious problems caused by industrial civilization, and re-examine and properly handle the interrelationship between man and nature. The development practice of industrial civilization proves that severe ecological and environmental problems seriously threaten the survival and development of human beings, objectively forcing human beings to establish a harmonious relationship between man and nature, and exploring new development models and development paths is the only feasible choice. At the same time, the theoretical exploration of environmental protection and sustainable development shows that human beings need to create a new form of civilization to continue to survive. Green development that conforms to nature and protects the ecology is the only way, and building an ecological civilization is the trend of the times. Ecological civilization is the product of the development of industrial civilization to a certain stage, a more advanced form of civilization after industrial civilization, a new requirement for the harmonious development of man and nature, and a major achievement of human social progress. Ecological civilization is based on the harmonious development of man and nature, takes the coordinated development of economy, society, population and nature as the criterion, takes the recycling and recycling of resources as the means, and uses the laws of ecology to guide people’s economic activities, so as to fundamentally solve the contradiction between the development of human civilization and the deterioration of the natural environment. Building an ecological civilization is not only a historical trend, but also a world trend. As a major developing country, China must also consciously grasp the general trend of history and take the initiative to follow the trend of the world.

Comrade Xi Jinping has repeatedly stressed that in building socialist modernization in China, with a population of 1.4 billion, it must not repeat the old Western countries of “pollution first, treatment later” and “treatment while pollution.” We must attach great importance to the construction of ecological civilization and take a green, low-carbon and sustainable development road. The proposal of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization is the result of profound reflection on the form of traditional civilization, especially industrial civilization, an important strategic measure to cope with the global ecological crisis, and a major contribution of China to global sustainable development. As Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out: “We must build an ecological system that respects nature and green development.” Human beings can use nature and transform nature, but in the final analysis, they are part of nature, and they must take care of nature, not be above nature. We must solve the contradictions brought about by industrial civilization, take harmonious coexistence between man and nature as the goal, and achieve sustainable development of the world and all-round human development.