On The Theory And Practice Of Environmental Justice

The rapid development of industrial civilization in the West since the Modern times and the resulting tide of economic globalization brought unprecedented material wealth to the humankind.However,what accompanies the prosperity is the increasingly intense environmental crisis,the tension between human existence and natural ecology.The reconciliation of this tension is related to the justice between people.The unification of environmental protection and social justice should be achieved to ensure the existence of human beings.This dissertation aims to probe into the possibility to solve this problem.According to the Marxist fundamental of "existence determining consciousness",the practical causes for the emergence and development of environmental justice lie mainly in the multi-layer contradictions between human,nature and society resulting from ecological problems and the launch of environmental justice movement.According to the Marxist law that consciousness develops logically,the theoretical background of the emergence and development of environmental justice consists in the following:the theoretical drawbacks and the practical dilemmas of Western environmental ethics objectively offers topics for the research on environmental justice,and the Western Marxist criticism of the nature of anti-ecology and injustice of Capitalism as well as their probe into the eco-socialism which realizes the emancipation of human kind and the unification of nature and human history provide important insights into the approach to environmental justice.Though these practical causes and theoretical background contributed to the emergence and development of environmental justice,how should we establish the theoretical ground and value criteria of environmental justice? We need to examine the various theoretical modes of justice from the perspective of the history of Western thoughts of justice,namely,the teleological mode,the right theory mode,the utilitarian mode and a comprehensive mode.Due to their limitations in integrating environmental protection and social justice,these theories do not constitute the theoretical ground for environmental justice.Therefore,we have to reconsider the theoretical feasibility of environmental justice.This dissertation,from the perspective of the existence and development of the whole human kind and the shift of cultural values against a background of globalization and the perspective of changes in the way of human existence,probes into the theory and practice of environmental justice on the basis of basic theories of philosophy and ethics.It explains the theoretical feasibility of environmental justice as a class justice from perspectives of the properties and principles of environmental justice and the presenting dimensions of environmental justice.Then,it,starting with the relationship between environmental justice and the construction of ecological civilization and that between environmental justice and responsibility of subjects, elaborates on the practical possibility of environmental justice as a class justice.Finally,it reveals the biggest problem of environmental justice,that is,the ethical dilemma in international practice of environmental justice,and points out the means to solve the dilemma according to the class principle.