In the more than 200 years since the industrial revolution, human beings have intervened in the evolution of the earth's natural ecology on a large scale, which has triggered and aggravated the ecological crisis. Since the 1950s, due to the new technological revolution, the rapid development and expansion of productive forces have caused greater damage to the ecological environment for human survival and triggered more serious natural ecological consequences. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the ecological crisis became one of the most remarkable phenomena in human life. The contemporary ecological crisis has attracted the attention of people of insight with the most social responsibility on earth.
The first man of insight was American marine biologist Carson. 1962, Carson published her masterpiece Silent Spring. In this book, she shows the harm of industrial pollution to life forms on earth, including human beings, describes the harm caused by technological revolution in an easy-to-understand way, and depicts a dead spring without blue sky, beautiful sunshine and flowers. She sounded the alarm of the seriousness of environmental problems to the whole world. The then US President Kennedy read this book and proposed that the following year be designated as the United Nations Year of Nature Conservation. Carson's book has a far-reaching influence and opened the prelude to the "ecological era". Carson's book represents the awakening of human green ecological consciousness in the twentieth century. However, at that time, people didn't realize that Carson started the green consciousness and green care of human beings in the second half of the twentieth century, nor did they feel that a new era was coming quietly.
The birth of the Club of Rome is a milestone of human ecological consciousness from awakening to maturity. Club Rome 1968 was established in Rome, Italy in April. It is an international, non-governmental, non-ideological and loosely structured academic research group and social group. Its founder, aurelio Becej, received his Ph.D. in economics in his early years, worked for Fiat Automobile Company before and after World War II, and joined the Italian anti-fascist left-wing movement during World War II. At the end of 1960s, Becej retired at the peak of his entrepreneurial career, focusing his responsibilities and eyes on the "human dilemma" he faced today. The Club of Rome is the first social group in human history to react violently to the global ecological crisis. It initiated the study of contemporary global problems that threaten human survival, and it has undeniable historical achievements. 1972 The famous research report "The Limits to Growth" of the Club of Rome clearly puts forward "global problems", namely, population problems, industrialization funds problems, food problems, non-renewable resources problems and environmental pollution problems. However, in the western world, which was immersed in the "golden age" of high growth and high consumption at that time, people simply could not listen to this genius prediction about "human dilemma".
The Club of Rome aims to change human's attitude and direction of action towards the environment from cognition and practice. It has gathered a group of world-famous sociologists, politicians, economists, philosophers and mathematicians, physicists, chemists, biologists, ecologists and futurists, submitted a series of special reports, often met with heads of government and senior politicians, held various international conferences, and widely publicized their views around the purpose of the Club of Rome. The activities of the Rome Club soon made the ecological consciousness become the knowledge of most people, which greatly changed people's value orientation. The Club of Rome expressed a new development concept and made a profound reflection on industrial civilization and modernity.
Although the Rome Club's early prediction of the future tends to be pessimistic, it has a far-reaching impact on awakening human ecological consciousness, inspiring contemporary human social responsibility for the global ecological crisis and promoting human common action. At the same time, it also directly triggered a large-scale new social movement in the western world in the 1970s-the ecological protection movement.
The development of green politics
The rise of green ecological movement has led to the development of ecological politics and green politics. The first is the emergence of the Green Party in party politics. The phenomenon of Green Party first appeared in Western Europe, North America and Oceania. Among many civic ecological organizations, the Green Party, as a new political force, has aroused widespread concern in the ruling and opposition parties and rewritten the pattern of party politics in western countries.
New Zealand's "Value Party" was the first Green Party born in the late 1960s. It takes the lead in emphasizing environmental protection, values and humanistic spirit, advocating stable economy, ecological balance, decentralized government and equality between men and women, and is "left" and "right" externally. Its 1975 program "After Tomorrow" is regarded as the first declaration of "green politics". 1973, the American Green Party was founded in Michigan. 198 1 year, the west german green party was formally established in Frankfurt. By 1983, party member had registered 25,222 people with more than 2 million followers, making it the fourth largest political force in the 1983 general election. 1987, the west german green party won 8.3% of the votes in the 1 1 Bundestag election, becoming the third largest political force in the 1995 general election. After the 1980s, major European capitalist countries such as Belgium, Austria, Italy, Britain, France, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Sweden, Switzerland and so on successively established the Green Party. From 198 1, the green party in western Europe began to enter the parliaments of various countries. 1984, representatives of the Green Party entered the European Parliament. 1987, the international green party conference was held. In the social democratic transformation marked by the "third way" in the mid-1990s, green parties from various countries participated in politics one after another and formed a coalition government with the Social Democratic Party. On the world stage after the Cold War, the Green Party has played an important role in solving the two major themes of contemporary world peace and development, and has had a significant impact on the future development direction of society.
According to the program of green parties in various countries, the green party's proposition can be summarized as follows: maintaining ecological balance; Oppose unlimited economic growth; Advocating social justice; Implement grass-roots democracy; Emphasize the principle of non-violence; Respect women's rights. The Green Party became the political spokesman of the mass ecological movement, the natural organizer of the largest "new social movement" in developed capitalist countries at the end of the 20th century, and was positioned as the post-modern "New Deal governing the party" in western society.
In the field of green politics, ecological socialism, ecological feminism and deep ecology are three schools with great influence. Deep ecology, that is, dark green school, also known as ecologism, eco-centrism, and ecological fundamentalism (primitive ecologism), is the mainstream ideology in the ecological movement and the basic idea advocated by green parties in various countries. The dark green school thinks that ecology has produced an ecological ethics, which fundamentally rejects "authoritative technical solutions", opposes all technologies and all anthropocentrism. Deep ecology only emphasizes the "intrinsic value" of nature and thinks it is "deeper" than human value. Eco-feminism, also known as green feminism, is a combination of feminist movement, green movement and peace movement. Eco-feminism is consistent with the basic views of deep ecology, holding a similar post-modern position, criticizing modern civilization and advocating nature worship. The only difference is that the object of eco-feminism worship is "goddess" and the object of criticism is "male technical solution" to solve environmental problems. The influence of eco-feminism is mainly in feminist organizations in European countries. The influence of ecological socialism is mainly in France, Germany, Britain and other western European countries. Among the various factions of ecological politics, ecological socialism occupies the most important position and has a wide influence.
In recent years, another notable feature of green politics is its generalized development, which is embodied in the "greening" of traditional party politics. Political thoughts of traditional political parties, such as liberalism, conservatism, socialism, anarchism, nationalism, etc. , have absorbed the ideological elements of green ecologism more or less, and integrated green ideas into their own political themes. Since 1970s, the so-called neutral "new politics" in the west has been green politics to a great extent. The presidential elections in western developed countries have played "green cards" one after another, and "green" has become an important bargaining chip for developed industrial countries to gain political capital and win public support. In the general election, all political parties "green" their platforms to attract and please the middle class and young voters. In the election manifestos and platforms of all political parties, green clauses are prominent. Pan-greening is the main reason for the "neutrality" of European and American politics in the 1990s.
At present, green ideology is becoming the mainstream of contemporary western people's anti-globalization movement. In essence, green ideology is based on anarchism. Anarchism's deconstruction of neo-liberal order and its beautiful expectation of a new world order with fair, harmonious and balanced development are two inseparable objective requirements of green concept. The Green Party movement flaunts political neutrality, but it is essentially an anti-institutionalism movement. Therefore, the Green Party opposes the capital oppression under the bureaucratic system and the new international economic and political order constructed by neoliberalism. At present, anarchism is becoming a new fashion. Anarchists with the Green Party as the main body launched anti-globalization protest movements in Seattle, Prague, Davos, Nice, Genoa and other parts of the world, attacking the World Bank, the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund, and opposing large-scale investment by multinational companies, thus becoming the main body of the anti-globalization movement. This movement is still developing.