What are the differences between Eastern and Western environmental protection concepts? Environmental protection needs to be more humanistic

What are the differences in environmental protection concepts between the East and the West? In the face of the increasingly serious environmental problems, how to find solutions to both the symptoms and the root causes? A few days ago, Shi Peijun, executive vice president of Beijing Normal University (BNU), who studied geography, and Liao Xiaoyi, director of the Beijing Global Village Environmental Education Center (BGMEC), who studied philosophy, had a conversation about this. Shi Peijun (left), Executive Vice President of Beijing Normal University, and Liao Xiaoyi, Director of Beijing Global Village Environmental Education Center, in Beijing. Using Chinese wisdom to find a way out of environmental protection Topic: The traditional culture of the Orient "unity of heaven and man" will be the ultimate conceptual way out of environmental problems -- Shi Peijun: There is an essential difference between Oriental cultural thinking and that of the West, and that is the "who-centeredness" and the "who-centeredness". "Who is the center" of the problem. The center of the Orient is the family, the West is centered on the individual. The Western ethic is "me and you", while the Eastern ethic is "me and family". The environmental culture of "individualism" in the West and "familism" in the East has been debated for more than 50 years. The essence of the Chinese cultural understanding of the world is "the unity of heaven and mankind". Therefore, according to Chinese cultural traditions, the relationship between human beings and nature is not a subject-object relationship, and the biggest philosophical mistake today is to separate human beings from the surrounding environment. If this conceptual problem is not solved, environmental problems will emerge one after another, and human beings will always be in the vicious circle of creating environmental problems and solving them. Liao Xiaoyi: Your point of view reminds me that when I first came to the U.S. as a visiting scholar, I was once keen on following westerners to engage in environmental protection, and became an enthusiastic spreader of western-style environmental protection theories. Gradually, however, I became skeptical and began to look for answers to the questions of life and ecology in ancient Chinese culture. In traditional Chinese culture, human beings do not have the ability to protect nature in a condescending manner, but rather to follow nature in order to be protected by it. People and nature are closely intertwined and blood-related as a whole. Man is part of the ecosystem, not the other way around, and nature becomes part of man's economic system called "natural resources". Only from this concept of "unity of heaven and mankind" can we finally find answers to environmental problems. Shi Peijun: It is in this cultural tradition that China has made environmental protection a basic state policy, which is rare in the world. China is also one of the few countries in the world that has written a sustainable development strategy into its national strategy. Although this is due to the fact that China has a large population and little land, it is also y rooted in traditional Chinese culture. To solve the environmental problems to address both the symptoms and the root cause of the problem Topic: economics of environmental solutions can cure the root cause of the problem - Shi Peijun: from a certain point of view, the economics of the approach is working. Because the environment is polluted, the water can be treated cleanly, solid waste can be disposed of, but also to reduce emissions pollution. In this logic, the economy produces environmental problems can be solved by economic methods: one way is that people in economically developed areas to pollute the water, the use of water in underdeveloped areas, you can give a little money to the underdeveloped areas, so that they can make the environment better, which is called eco-compensation; the second approach is called emissions trading, and there is also a solution to the environmental problems through technological advances. But again, these approaches are not enough. They have a certain effect on the pollution that has already occurred and the environment that has already been damaged, and the question is how we can solve the problem of treating the symptoms and the root cause. Environmental economics is an environmental measure to treat the symptoms, not the root cause. If we are busy treating the damaged environment on the one hand, and keep destroying the environment on the other hand, there is no way out of such a cycle. Liao Xiaoyi: I think the approach of economics always wants to solve environmental problems with artificial, technical and investment methods. The Chinese style of environmental protection I understand is very simple, which is to respect the sky and follow nature. For example, don't turn winter and summer upside down by turning on high-powered air conditioners to make the indoors too warm in winter and too cool in summer. We should establish a concept of happiness that transcends material wealth, shifting from the predicament of over-consumption of physical energy to a way of life that balances physical energy, mental energy and physical energy. Can we change our perspective and use another economic means to solve environmental problems? Let's say we develop the health care industry, drive organic agriculture, and start a new path from this kind of small industry, trying to solve the problem not by trading means, but by guiding consumers and producers to accept the survival value of health and happiness from the bottom of their hearts. Exploring the rural model of ecological civilization Topic: Can you provide a feasible and practical example -- Liao Xiaoyi: This year, we have done a pilot project, with the financial support of the Red Cross Foundation and the Nandu Foundation, to create and implement a rural model of ecological civilization in the village of Daping, Tongji Town, Pengzhou, Sichuan Province, an area hardest hit by the earthquake. -- "Lehe Home". Its first task is to build Lehe homes, and its architectural model is based on the architectural design of the rural ecological house, the small rural community as the building program, and the local engineers as the implementation main body. At present, this building model has taken shape and achieved great results, with the main building of all 40 homes in the first phase of the project completed. We also helped the villagers to set up the first local environmental protection society, with members coming from each household's voluntary application, and they are the backbone of the post-disaster reconstruction of Daping Village. There, environmental protection is a way of life, a new mode of existence that integrates production methods, lifestyles, spiritual purification, life consciousness and even popular participation. While absorbing the experience of Western environmental protection, we pay more attention to maintaining and nourishing the 5,000-year-old ecological wisdom of the Chinese nation. Shi Peijun: Lehe Homeland started from a small area, and slowly expanded through the promotion of culture from the bottom, trying to find a new way out to solve environmental problems. I want to emphasize humanistic care in a broad sense and the irreplaceable role of humanity in environmental protection. Therefore, I say that the attempt of Lehe Home is very valuable, and this kind of environmental protection with villagers' participation can provide and accumulate feasible environmental protection experience for the vast rural areas in China.