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Growth and environment, China wants both: U.S. environmentalist

Xinhua, January 4, 2016 Adjust font size:

"There is a deep tension between a beautiful, healthful, and sustainable environment and rapid growth of industrial civilization. The Chinese people want both," said John Cobb, Jr., a 91-year-old U.S. philosopher and environmentalist.

"What is astonishing is the extent to which China is finding ways to continue growing that are not so costly to the environment. The problems are still enormous, and many of them are growing worse. But the efforts made to curb the destruction are also enormous and there are even prospects for reversing the deterioration while continuing to grow," Cobb told Xinhua recently.

"China is struggling to find its way to an industrialized ecological civilization," said Cobb who has been advocating for green development and more efforts to avoid global ecological crisis since 1970s.

Cobb founded the Center for Process Study in 1970s in Claremont, California, donating all of his money to support its operation and activities, including the holding of the International Whitehead Conference and the 9th Ecological Civilization International Forum under the theme of "Seizing an Alternative - Toward an Ecological Civilization." The four-day conference last June gathered over 2,000 scholars and environmentalists from some 30 countries.

Cobb has been following closely what happens in China. The Center for Process Study has a Chinese department whose research and findings inspire the philosopher. "The efforts of Chinese people toward ecological civilization give us new hope," he said in a previous interview.

Two months ago, Cobb went to China to attend the Third Forum for Rejuvenation of China's Rural Civilization. He also visited eco-villages in China.

"I hope the world will begin to emphasize increasing the carbon absorption by plants and soil as much as reducing carbon emissions. Whereas industrial farming continues to poison the land and lose soil, organic farms absorb carbon and build up the soil. May Chinese farmers return to organic methods before it is too late," he said. Enditem