【荐读】A cry from people who wake up first

Author: Wang Jing

Abstract:

The Limits to Growth (LTG) is a report released by the Club of Rome in 1972, which has raised worldwide response. Over the decades, its predictions on the exponential economy and population growth under a finite supply of resources have all came true.

Within the past 50 years, the world has changed dramatically with the advancing of technology as well as the emerging threats to the sustainable development of human beings. Biodiversity loss, climate change catastrophes, soil loss, and water resource shortage are alerting human beings to wake up to these crisis and take immediate actions, that is to shake off indulgence to material abundance brought by soaring economy and to fully understand its hidden costs to natural resource and the ecosystem. If people keep developing in this way, remains of plastic and concrete will be the only legacy of human civilization, just like those giant statues on the Easter Island, reminding people of nothing but what they have missed.

In 2018, Come On! Capitalism, Short-termism, Population and the Destruction of the Planet - A Report to the Club of Rome was published. Dr.Zhou Jinfeng, Deputy Director General and Secretary General of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation was invited to write the preface.

As a devoted reader to both reports, Dr.Zhou said, “I was wakened by The Limits to Growth. Now as one of those who wake up first, I want to join the torch-bearers, and to make more readers, realize the great damage human has done to   earth by reading this book”. Profit-driven industrial civilization calls environment to pay, while ecological civilization has great meaning for sustainable development.

Philosophy provides worldview and methodology. Ecological civilization thought meets the trend of today's world. Besides updated research and materials, the book Come On! Capitalism, Short-termism, Population and the Destruction of the Planet - A Report to the Club of Rome alerts human beings again, to protect the environment. Through the lens of philosophy, this book provides solution to change human beings’ future. This is a book worth reading.

Keywords: limits to growth, sustainable development, solution

Wang Jing,A cry from people who wake up first,Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development,Vol.1 No.1. December 2021,ISSN2749-9065