Abstract
The material wealth accumulated in the last 300 years since industrial revolution has far exceeded the total quantity of material wealth human beings created before that. With industrialization—the new human social civilization form—industrial civilization emerged, developed, became mature, and gradually replaced the agricultural civilization of low productivity. People’s shared values, production and life patterns, social organization forms, and institutional and legal systems also changed dramatically in the process. However, while people create and enjoy abundant material wealth, their living environments have been deteriorating: the fresh air becomes filthy, clean water source is polluted, agricultural products from soil polluted by heavy metal are poisonous and unhealthy, the global climate is becoming warmer, the ecosystems are degrading, and the income gap between the rich and the poor is widening. People have to rethink: can we continue the development paradigm of industrial civilization? If a new development paradigm is needed, then what shall it look like? In over three decades since the reform and opening up, China has experienced rapid industrialization and urbanization, and the development paradigm of industrial civilization has become dominant. With the rapid economic growth, the problems of imbalance, inharmony, and unsustainability are becoming increasingly severe. Under such a background, China’s traditional, historical, and cultural concept and practice of “harmony between human and nature” is passed on, promoted, and refreshed, and the new development paradigm of ecological civilization is formed and evolved.
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Notes
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Pan, J. (2016). The Development Paradigm of Ecological Civilization. In: China's Environmental Governing and Ecological Civilization. China Insights. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-47429-7_2
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