On October 19, Dr. Zhou Jinfeng, the Secretary-General of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) was invited to attend the “2019 China Humanities and Social Sciences Environmental Forum”. At the meeting, Dr. Zhou shared some concrete examples of CBCGDF’s efforts in the field of sustainable development with the theme of “The Impact of Consumption Society on Resources and Environment in the Era of Ecological Civilization”. examples of these efforts include the prohibition of harvesting and digging clams at Bagutan(Beach) in Tianjin to protect the habitat of relict gulls, concerns about hydropower development projects that poses a survival risk to orangutans and Acer pentaphyllum, concerns about KFC’s refusal to allow consumers to buy drinks from their own mugs, and advocacy for students not to use plastic book covers, etc..

"Consumerism, the consumer economy, the consumer society in my opinion, has basically been formed in China and has Chinese characteristics. It is different from the capital society, just like the market economy, but the overall is based on the consumption of industrial civilization. about the question of consumers freedom, the question of the freedom of human existence as a whole, is a contradiction and a contradiction that is constantly adjusting. Now human beings are facing the loss of habitats. With the strengthening of these crises, the legal and moral culture of the people’s society is doing adjustments, then freedom of consumption will be limited.” Dr. Zhou said this when answering questions from the audience.

The units that organized the forum included: Institute of Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences of Nanjing University, Department of Social Sciences of Nanjing University of Technology, School of Marxism of Nanjing University of Technology, and Editorial Department of Academic Journal of Nanjing University of Technology. The guest speakers included experts and scholars from the Institute of Environmental Law from Wuhan University, the Marxism Institute of Peking University, the School of Social Sciences of Shanghai University, the School of Philosophy of Beijing Normal University, the Philosophy School of Inner Mongolia University, the College of Law and Political Science of Zhejiang Normal University, and the School of Environment of Renmin University of China. They had interdisciplinary discussions on the topics such as the resource and environmental costs of the consumer society, the formation of the consumer society in China, the characteristics of China, the resource consumption and ecological footprint of the consumer society, the garbage problem of the consumer society, the resources of the representative consumer goods – environmental costs (cars, housing, etc.), sustainable / green consumption issues.

(Photo credit: CBCGDF)

Original Chinese article:

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/smcJIn6FLqacKLfxjuCUfw

By / Maggie