摘要
Abstract
As the term suggests,“environment cliff”means the environment on which mankind relies for existence and development is in jeopardy and if human doesn’t change their behavioral patterns, human and the environment will fall into the abyss of hopeless situation. As a poetic expression,“environment cliff”can be used to describe our situations and inspire us to protect the environment. When taken as a scientific expression, however, this term is lack of accuracy. The scientific concept of“environment cliff”can be interpreted as a sudden decline of“contribution of environment to economic growth”, or an abrupt drop of“dependency level of economic growth on environment”. The proactive interpretation of“environment cliff”is helpful for people to make efforts yet doubtful in possibility of making achievement. No matter how to interpret, the environment is facing a tough situation, tending towards collapse. The root cause of the collapse is generally believed to be anthropocentrism, the solution to which is“eco⁃centrism”or“anthropocentrism in a weak sense”, sharing the common premise with anthropocentrism: taking the interests and welfare of human as the target. All of them are not sufficient to stop the collapse. Actually, the root cause of environmental collapse lies in the quantified and materialized consequentialism as well as the capitalist mode of production based on that. Therefore, to stop environmental collapse calls for the abandonment of consequentialism and the looking for other resources to promote the social transformation accordingly. The two approaches to environmental collapse termination are technology progress and institutional innovation. The technology progress cannot stop the environmental collapse thoroughly for its intrinsic deficiency while institutional innovation, based on the reverence for the nature and the role of each being, will be the inevitable choice to cease environmental collapse for its guiding of the social transition towards“open society”.关键词
社会制度/人性化/转型/环境崩解/功利主义/资本主义Key words
social institution/humanization/transition/environmental collapse/utilitarianism/capitalism
