Can China use Confucianism to Cure its Environmental Woes?
A leading Confucian intellectual in China makes the proposal for a political system that will give equal emphasis to the otherwise ignored sectors of modern democracies: foreigners, future generations, and ancestors. “Is democracy really the best way to protect future victims of global warming?” he asks. Confucianism is premised on human kinships that eventually find themselves in networks. No man is an island, so to speak. The individual is part of the whole. Whatever affects him, affects the group. And whatever affects his group affects other groups. As China is starting to consider the role of Eastern thought in sustainability, the concept of plurality just might help China address in sustainable fashion its environmental woes. China, after all, is presently the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases. As the country has not elevated itself from a largely coal-backed economy, pollution in China is overwhelming. If the country wants to protect its future generations or those that
