In 1984 scientists in the former Soviet Union called for an ecological
civilization. This idea was taken up in 1987 in China by Ye Qianji.
Subsequently the notion of ecological civilization was promoted by the deputy
director of China’s State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), Pan
Yue, incorporated into the Central Commission Report to the Communist
Party’s 17th Convention in November, 2007, and embraced as one of the key
elements in its political guidelines. Characterized as the su…
Read moreIn 1984 scientists in the former Soviet Union called for an ecological
civilization. This idea was taken up in 1987 in China by Ye Qianji.
Subsequently the notion of ecological civilization was promoted by the deputy
director of China’s State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), Pan
Yue, incorporated into the Central Commission Report to the Communist
Party’s 17th Convention in November, 2007, and embraced as one of the key
elements in its political guidelines. Characterized as the successor to
agricultural and industrial civilization, it is now being promoted as a goal for
the whole of humanity in order to avert a global ecological disaster. The
success or failure of this project to create an ecological civilization could
determine whether humanity survives. But what does it mean to create an
ecological civilization? What does ‘civilization’ mean, and then what would it
mean to create an ‘ecological’ civilization? This essay seeks to answer this question.
