title: "An Ethical and Educational Analysis of Pseudo-Ecology" slug: "fanchunping-pseudo-ecology-ethics-education.en" date: "2019-06-01" category: "ecology" author: "Fan Chunping" excerpt: "Pseudo-ecology is more harmful than straightforward ecological destruction—it masquerades under the banner of ecology, confuses public understanding, and leads ecological civilization astray. How can we identify pseudo-ecology? Start by 'thinking like a mountain.'"

An Ethical and Educational Analysis of Pseudo-Ecology

Author: Fan Chunping (Senior Editor, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Beijing Institute of Technology)

Published in Forum on Science and Technology in China

As worsening ecological and environmental problems arouse public anxiety and ecological awareness, and as the state emphasizes the construction of an ecological civilization, the term "ecological" has come to carry symbolic, guiding, duty-fulfilling, demand-responsive, and even fashionable functions. Yet the genuine ecological literacy, education, judgment, and decision-making capacity needed to match the demands of substantive ecological civilization construction have not kept pace. Numerous products, projects, engineering initiatives, and commercial behaviors have donned ecological garb, allowing pseudo-ecology to flourish.

I. Pseudo-Ecology and Its Harms

The term "ecological" is often used to refer to or describe favorable ecological conditions, or to indicate that certain products, measures, or behaviors align with ecological requirements.

In this sense, "pseudo-ecology" refers to that which appears, borrows the guise of, or masquerades as ecology, while being, in substance, non-ecological, anti-ecological, or ecology-destroying. Looking around at our built environment and social affairs—from planting grass and trees and paving roads, to frontier mega-engineering projects and government work plans—pseudo-ecological phenomena are everywhere, like a haunting curse.

Examples: a community or campus where a rich natural habitat of wild grasses, flowers, shrubs, trees, butterflies, bees, and birdsong is cleared away and replaced with a uniform monoculture lawn; the landscape-oriented restoration of urban rivers and lakes under the banner of ecological construction; the transplantation of mature trees into cities; wave after wave of "water diversion to Xinjiang" projects—the "Bohai-to-Xinjiang Water Diversion," the "Red Flag River Project," the "Sky River Project"; and so on.

Pseudo-ecology is even more harmful than straightforward ecological destruction. If a matter genuinely cannot be avoided for insurmountable reasons, clearly stating what ecological damage it may cause allows for minimizing harm to the greatest extent possible. Pseudo-ecology, by contrast, operates under the banner of ecological and environmental protection, confusing public understanding, misleading public opinion, economic life, and the construction of ecological civilization.

II. How to Identify Pseudo-Ecology

The foremost tool for identifying pseudo-ecology is what Aldo Leopold called "thinking like a mountain": imagine what the natural ecosystem was originally like and what it should be like; ask what the mountain would feel if this were done.

Humanity today must understand one principle: whenever ecological laws are violated—especially when attempting large-scale, large-span alterations of natural landscapes—no matter how high-tech the disguise, how prestigious the professional credentials, or how ecological the banner, one can judge it to be pseudo-ecological.

III. Ethical and Educational Analysis

Why does pseudo-ecology thrive? The causes can be reduced to two: ignorance, and moral failure.

Ignorance sometimes manifests simply as a deficit of knowledge, sometimes as a skewed knowledge structure that yields distorted values. Moral failure and bureaucratic laziness or corruption at various levels are mutually reinforcing. Administrative bodies often rely on experts and think tanks out of procedural justice, yet experts may themselves have imbalanced knowledge structures or undisclosed ties to interested parties.

Professional ethics, in essence, is nothing more than each person clearly understanding and duly assuming their responsibilities. Those who understand and assume their responsibilities act ethically; those who confuse the issue and evade responsibility violate ethical norms. Cases of erroneous judgment caused by ignorance can and must be addressed through ecological education. Cases of intentional misconduct caused by moral failure implicate ethical education.

The purpose of ecological education is to equip learners with ecological knowledge and an understanding of ecological principles, enabling them to grasp "what the mountain is thinking." This is an urgent matter requiring learning programs from kindergarten through university. Ethical education is far more complex, for it involves character, soul, and values—sometimes entangled with vested interests.

The task that ethical education in China must complete is one of enlightenment—a compressed, urgent mission that layers the second enlightenment demanded by the ecosystem's collapse crisis atop the first Enlightenment of human history.

Published in Forum on Science and Technology in China