Archive for the ‘sustainability’ tag
china’s green religion
James Miller attending the Laozi Conference in the Great Hall of the People
I’m at the First Summit on Laozi and Daoist Culture, which is taking place this week in Beijing. The Summit is the work of Prof. Hu Fuchen, one of the leading scholars of Daoism, and a professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. This morning, we had the opening ceremony, which was held in the Great Hall of the People. It was my first time in this magnificent building.
The purpose of the conference is basically to promote Daoism throughout China and the World. It is being funded by a wealthy donor, and has received backing at a high level from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Read the rest of this entry »
china’s transition to sustainability
The following is reproduced from today’s Kingston Whig-Standard.
Change in offing in China, prof says
Posted By PAUL SCHLIESMANN
Behind today’s show of military might celebrating its 60th anniversary, the People’s Republic of China is undergoing significant environmental policy change, according to a Queen’s University professor.
“Economic expansion has been successful in terms of lifting people out of poverty and bringing economic wealth to China,” said James Miller, a professor of religious studies at Queen’s.
“They can’t keep on doing this for the next 50 or 60 years because the environmental and social costs are very high.”
Miller is part of a movement that believes religious traditions can be used to effect environmental change. Read the rest of this entry »
china must talk to its religious leaders to create a culture of ecological sustainability
Over the past sixty years China has achieved something close to a miracle when compared with other developing nations. It by and large manages to feed, educate, house and employ its own people. It is not involved in futile and costly military conflicts. It is a creditor nation, not a debtor. Its social and political system provides sufficient stability for the vast majority of its people to pursue their own livelihoods in a rational and predictable way.Yet all this will be lost if the world does not help China to embrace an ecologically sustainable culture. Read the rest of this entry »
is democracy good for sustainability?
Sustainability Salute from the Green Olympic Volunteers
I’m teaching a course in religion and the environment this term, and my students are preparing to debate this very question: is democracy good for sustainability?
By way of background, they have been reading Judith Shapiro’s book Mao’s War Against Nature, which forcefully details the way that Maoist ideology trumped scientific reason in charting China’s development in the twentieth century, resulting in famine, population explosion, and environmental disaster. Read the rest of this entry »