title: "The Bullet Train Plunging Into the Abyss—Also on 'Green Classics' and the Second Enlightenment" slug: "fanchunping-speeding-train-into-abyss-2011.en" date: "2011-06-01" category: "ecology" author: "Fan Chunping" excerpt: "Globalization has become a high-speed bullet train where every car has its own power system—but the brakes for the whole train have failed. Humanity needs a second green enlightenment."

The Bullet Train Plunging Into the Abyss—Also on "Green Classics" and the Second Enlightenment

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

Published in Green Leaf, Issue 6, 2011, under the title "Bullet Train: Brake, or Plunge Into the Abyss"

The First Enlightenment and Globalization

The early structures of human society were like individual rickshaws, each traveling across the earth's different mountains and plains. As the scope of human activity expanded, rickshaws became animal-drawn carts. Later, as science and technology converged, animal-drawn carts became ever more advanced powered vehicles.

The first Enlightenment marked the first critical turning point in human history—people ceased to restrain their desires and began to assert individuality and rationality. Creativity was unleashed.

Then, people began coupling car after car together, and the train grew longer and longer, until all the cars were connected. This is what we call globalization—a high-speed "bullet train" where every car has its own power system, but the brakes for the entire train have failed.

The Environmental Movement and the Green Classics

The first to awaken, Rachel Carson, issued the first "leaflet"—Silent Spring.

Clear-headed individuals began moving between cars, telling people what was happening outside. These "leaflets" helped more people understand the train's predicament, drawing them into the ranks of those shouting warnings and writing more leaflets. Later, the process of distributing leaflets and raising voices came to be called the environmental protection movement, and some of these leaflets became known as the "green classics."

Yet this movement has only made a portion of people aware of the situation; the majority remain in confusion—some rush forward to pull the brake lever, while others press down harder on the accelerator.

How Difficult Is a Second Enlightenment?!

Compared to the first Enlightenment, a second enlightenment faces far greater obstacles:

• It requires a thorough reckoning with a human culture distorted by consumerism and hedonism.
• It needs not only the continuing inspiration of the "green classics," but also new ideas and new approaches.
• The first Enlightenment allowed early-awakeners to act first while others followed; the second demands collective action from everyone.
• The first encouraged development and enjoyment; the second requires restraining material consumption.
• The first could unfold gradually over centuries; the second cannot afford delay.

Given such demanding conditions, is there any hope for enlightenment?

In truth, humanity was born into precariousness from the start. As Richard Dawkins argues in Climbing Mount Improbable—the probability that humanity could emerge on Earth and evolve to its present state is nearly zero, yet humanity has traversed this improbable path.

New order parameters are already germinating—Natural Capitalism, Liao Xiaoyi's "Lehe" green living experiments, the industrialization of desert rehabilitation—all bring new hope.

Facing the boundless abyss ahead and a future with glimmers of dawn, may the passengers on this "bullet train" awaken as quickly as possible and, for the sake of Earth, humanity's only home, do what they ought and what they can.

Published in Green Leaf, Issue 6, 2011