Cao Shixiong, Chen Li, Liu Zhande
College of Economics and Management, China Agriculture University, Beijing.
Ambio. 2007 Jul;36(5):409-15. doi: 10.1579/0044-7447(2007)36[409:dbsaec]2.0.co;2.
Nature can survive without humans, but humans cannot survive without nature. Despite a clear understanding of this dependency, humans continue to exist in disharmony with nature, and our current environmental and human dilemmas reflect old problems with a long history. Societies have historically experienced many transitions from harmony between nature and society to a crisis of disharmony, followed by a subsequent transition from crisis to harmony. Such ecological crises arise when society no longer practices sustainable consumption of resources within the limits imposed by the environmental carrying capacity. Over the long term, the growth in human desires has always exceeded the growth in the environmental carrying capacity. Science, technology, and social institutions must all be improved to resolve the ecological crises that arise from this imbalance. This paper discusses how increasing understanding of the problem by the public and by decision makers is the key to minimizing the undesirable impacts of the coming bottleneck for sustainable development. Furthermore, we emphasize how this awareness must be translated into fundamental political and economic changes.
自然可以在没有人类的情况下生存，但人类离不开自然。尽管清楚地认识到这种依存关系，人类却仍与自然不和谐地共存，而我们当前面临的环境和人类困境反映了由来已久的老问题。历史上，社会经历了许多从自然与社会和谐到不和谐危机的转变，随后又从危机转变为和谐。当社会不再在环境承载能力所限定的范围内进行可持续资源消费时，就会出现这种生态危机。从长远来看，人类欲望的增长一直超过环境承载能力的增长。必须改进科学、技术和社会制度，以解决这种失衡引发的生态危机。本文探讨了公众和决策者对问题的认识不断提高如何成为将即将到来的可持续发展瓶颈的不良影响降至最低的关键。此外，我们强调这种意识必须转化为根本性的政治和经济变革。
