John Cobb Addresses Chinese Students Online
at the Opening of the 2020 Cobb Eco-Academy
Postmodern Eco's Facebook Post, March 18, 2020 |
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The Cobb Eco-Academy at Sunshine Eco-Village
What are ecological civilizations?
They are societies where people live with respect and care for the community of life, knowing that they are small but included in a larger web of life that includes the hills and rivers, trees and stars. They are societies whose local communities are, and strive to be, creative, compassionate, participatory, egalitarian, humane to animals, and good for the earth, with no one left behind. They are societies that do not focus on the young at the expense of the old, or the other way around, but are instead all-age-firendly taking care of old and young and everyone in between. They are societies whose spirit can be found in green villages, green towns, and green cities -- and often it is the countryside that best helps people understand their potential. This is one reason among many why the Cobb eco-village in China is so important.
They are societies where people live with respect and care for the community of life, knowing that they are small but included in a larger web of life that includes the hills and rivers, trees and stars. They are societies whose local communities are, and strive to be, creative, compassionate, participatory, egalitarian, humane to animals, and good for the earth, with no one left behind. They are societies that do not focus on the young at the expense of the old, or the other way around, but are instead all-age-firendly taking care of old and young and everyone in between. They are societies whose spirit can be found in green villages, green towns, and green cities -- and often it is the countryside that best helps people understand their potential. This is one reason among many why the Cobb eco-village in China is so important.
Introduction to Cobb Eco-Academy
by Meijun Fan
"We all participate in and contribute to the times in which we live, as we aspire for our own destiny. With reflection and discernment, our minds free us from concerns yet doubts still trouble our hearts. Where is the distant poetic beauty?
There is a rural life, where traditional wisdom listens to the wind and appraises the moon for shifting environmental conditions; where a new generation of farmers are stepping on the live-giving ground and harvesting its seasonal yields. It is both local and global, and it can heal and rebuild the beautiful countryside while allowing us to reconnect with the earth.
In the Sunshine Ecovillage, you can talk and listen to perceptive men and women who can offer practical knowledge and help you navigate the trails of life. Imbuing traditional wisdom with the latest communitive technology, this learning community blends in-person and online instruction.
Participants will experience a different lifestyle, fostered by a strong, committed community that has a profound local impact. As this promising education inspires more people, more and more ecological villages will appear instilling new values and lifestyles that will be universally emulated. This is the turning point of social change.
Removing ourselves from the current consumerist model and returning to a cultivating of living persons, we will see a paradigm shift in human development. There levant knowledge and technology are already available; what is needed is the imagination and exploration of ecological lifestyles.
Cobb Ecological Academy (Sunshine Ecovillage) will be the place where your life and the world turn for the better. Your destiny awaits you.
by Meijun Fan
"We all participate in and contribute to the times in which we live, as we aspire for our own destiny. With reflection and discernment, our minds free us from concerns yet doubts still trouble our hearts. Where is the distant poetic beauty?
There is a rural life, where traditional wisdom listens to the wind and appraises the moon for shifting environmental conditions; where a new generation of farmers are stepping on the live-giving ground and harvesting its seasonal yields. It is both local and global, and it can heal and rebuild the beautiful countryside while allowing us to reconnect with the earth.
In the Sunshine Ecovillage, you can talk and listen to perceptive men and women who can offer practical knowledge and help you navigate the trails of life. Imbuing traditional wisdom with the latest communitive technology, this learning community blends in-person and online instruction.
Participants will experience a different lifestyle, fostered by a strong, committed community that has a profound local impact. As this promising education inspires more people, more and more ecological villages will appear instilling new values and lifestyles that will be universally emulated. This is the turning point of social change.
Removing ourselves from the current consumerist model and returning to a cultivating of living persons, we will see a paradigm shift in human development. There levant knowledge and technology are already available; what is needed is the imagination and exploration of ecological lifestyles.
Cobb Ecological Academy (Sunshine Ecovillage) will be the place where your life and the world turn for the better. Your destiny awaits you.
| about_cobb_eco_academy.docx |
Ecological Civilization in China
Creative Localization in Rural Settings
Dr. Paul Bube
Lyon College, Arkansas, USA
(please scroll down for Chinese version)
Smoggy day at Beijing airport
Professor He Qing Zhou
Self-taught artist of Hongnong village
Yongji villager playing his ehru
Hui Tong main street
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I had never been to China before a recent trip where I had the opportunity to make several presentations at some conferences relating to ecological civilization—the idea of moving toward a civilization that is sustainable environmentally, economically, physically, and spiritually.
The trip was sponsored by the Institute for Postmodern Development in China, whose director is Dr. Zhihe Wang. My colleagues on the trip were Dr. Annie Ingram (Environmental Studies, Davidson College), Dr. Stephen Field (Trinity University, Chinese Studies), and Dr. Jay McDaniel (Hendrix College, Religious Studies). I write this as a companion to a short piece written by Dr. Ingram about this trip: It All Starts with Dancing: How the environmental humanities can learn from China. I hope you will read it as a complement to this article. We Americans were in China, not only to present papers at conferences, but also to explore sites where concrete experiments are being undertaken in developing an ecological civilization. It may sound odd to talk about “ecological civilization” when visiting the dense smog-imbued cities of Beijing (19.6 million) and Guangzhou (14 million), and even “small” cities like Lingbao (720,000), whose pollution is significant though not as bad as the other cities. However, as I came to the end of my trip, I think China may be just the place to learn about ecological civilization for two reasons. It's Official: China seek to become an Ecological Civilization The first reason has to do with China’s official policy. Built into the formal planning of the Chinese government is the idea that, in the future, China wants to move beyond the worst aspects of industrial civilization and become an ecological civilization. Many of the people we met in the first half of our trip were people in universities, mostly in large and heavily polluted cities such as Beijing and Guangzhou. In my conversations with students and faculty, they were very aware that the central government had made “ecological civilization” a priority in national policy. I was told that experiments were going on in communities throughout China to make progress on the environmental problems facing China. Some experiments are deep, as illustrated in the local villages below, and some are relatively modest, such as signs in the streets of Beijing encouraging citizens to be more environmentally responsible or cafeteria signs at a university recommending a “low carbon diet.” In areas where pollution is not as serious a problem, such as Zhuhai, there is an experiment with United International University to partner with a dying village, Hui Tong, to help revive it in a way that is sustainable economically and environmentally. These signs, deep and modest, are illustrative of the fact that China has not only been well aware of the pollution problems created by rapid industrialization over the last 25 years, it is consciously taking steps to address them. This will not happen overnight. It should be remembered that in the United States, there was considerable lag time between the passage of the Clean Air Act and the improvement in air quality in Los Angeles and other cities (and there is still more to go). The one thing that China has over the United States is that there is wide spread recognition of the need to address the problem of pollution at every level of society, especially the problem global climate change. Rural Renewal: Stemming the tide of migration to cities by making rural villages desirable places to live The second reason China is a good place to learn about ecological civilization has to do with what I witnessed in two rural communities: Hongnong and Yongji. Each of these communities is made up of natural villages—villages that have been around for many generations as opposed to administrative villages that have been created by the government. In Hongnong, Each village has a significant community project that involves the majority of the villagers in organic farming practices, handicrafts, a financial coop (essentially a community-based credit union), and other opportunities for enrichment and community building. About ten years ago in Hongnong, Professor He Qing Zhou, a professor of agriculture, started an academy that promotes these opportunities through moral education that is based upon traditional wisdom, especially associated with Confucianism and Daoism. Her philosophy, which seems to be widely embraced by the villagers, is that by learning the traditional wisdom of China, the villagers today can live in harmony with nature (through organic farming), each other and themselves (through practicing respect, trust, and service). As children and adults come to the academy to learn arts and crafts, or techniques of organic farming, they also recite—virtually chant—in unison sayings of Laozi and Kong Fuzi, bowing regularly as they do. The academy has become the village social center in both formal and informal ways. We were present to participate in the ribbon cutting ceremony of a new credit union by which farmers will provide one another micro loans to help each other provide a living through organic apple tree orchards and production of apple cider. The pride and excitement of the community is contagious. Creative Localization: Think globally, develop locally Perhaps it is in these villages that a new kind of 'development' is quietly emerging in China which may in the long run be promising for other nations, too. We can call it creative localization in urban and rural settings. For the past twenty-five years, since the opening of China to market economies in the 1980's, China has followed a model inherited from the modern west. The emphasis has been on heavy industry, urban development, and manufacturing products for export. Along the way many Chinese have forgotten the wisdom of their own past, having been enamored of western models. But in these villages we see a reclaiming of traditional wisdom in a new and, as Dr. Wang would put it, constructively postmodern way. They are reclaiming three realities that are sorely needed in the world today as adumbrated by Dr. Ingram: (1) a sense of local community, (2) a love of the earth, and (3) a renewal of the cultural treasures from the past, as inspiring concrete hopes for a new and more ecological future. If there is hope for our world, perhaps it lies in these kinds of experiments. Already such movements toward creative localization are occurring in other parts of the world, as illustrated in the transition town movement where local citizens are trying to develop post-petroleum communities that are creative, compassionate, participatory and ecologically wise. The rural communities that I saw in China, were seeking to be examples of transition towns, Chinese-style. They offer concrete hope to a world in need, given the realities of global climate change. It is time for us to follow their lead. |
[Chinese version of “Ecological Civilization in China -- Creative Localization in Rural Settings,” translated by Xie Bangxiu]
生态文明在中国
乡村的创造性本土化
美国阿肯色里昂学院
保罗•布伯 博士
珠海联合国际学院的标示
最近我有幸到中国去在几个有关生态文明的研讨会上发言。生态文明指的是这样一种观念，即走向在环境、经济、肉体、精神等方面均可持续发展的文明。此前我从未到过中国。
此行由中美后现代发展研究院资助，王治河博士是该研究院的负责人。与我同行的同事有安妮•英格拉姆博士（在戴维森学院从事环境研究）、斯蒂芬•菲尔德博士（在三一大学从事汉学研究）和杰伊•麦克丹尼尔博士（在汉德里克斯学院从事宗教研究）。
我撰此文意在呼应英格拉姆博士撰写的一篇有关此行的短文：“一切始于舞蹈：环境人文学能够如何向中国学习”。希望读者将本文视为对该文的补充。
我们这些美国人到中国来不仅是为了在研讨会上发言，也为了实地考察研究发展生态文明的具体实验。当你走访烟雾笼罩的大城市北京（拥有1960万人口）和广州（拥有1400万人口），甚至像宁波（拥有72万人口）这样污染虽严重但没有其他城市那么糟糕的“小”一点的城市时，你也许会觉得在这里讨论“生态文明”听起来很奇怪。然而，当我此行接近尾声时，我开始认为也许中国正是学习了解生态文明的好去处，理由有两点：
官方要求：中国寻求建成一个生态文明社会。
第一个理由与中国官方政策相关。中国政府将这一理念写进其官方规划：将来，中国要超越工业文明最糟糕的方面，建成一个生态文明社会。
在此行的前一半行程中我们见到的许多人来自高校，它们大多位于像北京、广州这样的污染严重的大城市。在我与学生和教职员工的交谈中，他们都知道中国中央政府已将“生态文明”定为首要国策。我听说中国各地都在进行实验，以改善中国所面临的环境问题。
一些实验已经进行得很深入，如下面那些本土乡村所示；也有一些相对温和，如北京街头那些鼓励市民对环境负责的标示，或大学自助餐厅里建议“低碳饮食”的标示。在一些污染并不严重的地区，如珠海，有这样一项实验：联合国际学院携手一个濒临消亡的村子，会同村，帮助它以一种在经济与环境两方面都可持续发展的方式恢复生机。
深入也好，温和也罢，这些迹象均可以表明这样一个事实：中国不仅充分认识到了过去25年多快速工业化所造成的污染问题，也在自觉地采取措施应对这些问题。这不可能在一夜之间完成。我们应该记得，在美国，从《清洁空气法案》的通过到洛杉矶及其他城市的空气质量改善，其间就有相当长的一段延滞时期（这一时期犹在持续）。中国在这一点上比美国强：社会各层的人士普遍认为有必要应对污染问题，特别是应对全球气候变化问题。
乡村的复兴：通过将乡村建成令人满意的宜居之地而截住向城市移居的潮流
认为中国是学习了解生态文明的好地方的第二个理由与我在弘农（Hongnong）和永济（Yongji）这两个乡村共同体的耳闻目睹有关。这两个共同体都是自然村——由世代居住于斯的村民自然形成，与由政府划分的行政村截然不同。在弘农，每一个村庄都有一个重要的共同体项目，为绝大多数村民提供机会从事有机农耕、制作手工艺品、进行金融合作（主要是基于共同体的信贷合作社），以及其他丰富和改进共同体建设的机会。
在弘农，大约10年前，周河清（He Qing Zhou）教授，一位农业教授，创办了一所学院，基于传统智慧，特别是儒家思想和道家思想，进行道德教育，这种道德教育促成了这些机会。她的哲学是，通过学习中国的传统智慧，今天的村民能够（通过有机农耕）与自然和谐相处，（通过践行尊重、信任和服务）与相互、与自己和谐共处，这似乎已为村民们广泛接受。
当孩子、大人到学院来学习艺术、手工制作、或有机农耕技术时，他们也一致背诵——实际上是唱诵——老子和孔夫子的教导，像他们一样端端正正地鞠躬。学院成为村里正式和非正式的社会活动中心。我们现场参与了一个新的信贷合作社成立的剪彩仪式，农民可以通过该合作社相互提供小额贷款，相互帮助扶持一个存活下来的有机苹果园生产苹果醋。共同体骄傲而激动人心的气氛令我们很受感染。
创造性本土化：放眼全球思考，立足本土发展
也许就是在这样的一些村子里一种新的“发展”正在中国大地悄然发生，这终究会让其他国家也看到前途。我们可以称之为城乡创造性本土化。
从1980年代中国开放市场经济时起，在过去的25年间，中国模仿的是现代西方的模式，将发展的重心放在重工业、城市开发和出口产品制造上。在这个过程中，许多中国人一直迷恋于西方模式，忘记了他们自己过去的智慧。
但是在这些村子里，我们看见其传统智慧在以一种新的，用王博士的话来说，建设性后现代的方式再生。正如英格拉姆博士所描绘的那样，它们在复兴今日世界所强烈需要的三种现实：（1）一种本土共同体意识，（2）对大地的爱，（3）对过去的文化瑰宝的复兴，以激发对一种新的更生态的未来的具体希望。
如果我们这个世界还有希望的话，那么希望也许就存在于如此种种的实验之中。如转变城市运动 所示，这样的走向创造性本土化的运动也正在世界上其他地方兴起。在转变城市运动中，本土市民在努力尝试开发具有创造性、同情心、参与性和生态智慧的后石油共同体。我在中国所见的乡村共同体在探寻成为转变城市运动的中国式范例。就全球气候变化的现实而言，它们为处于危难中的世界提供了具体希望。到了我们向它们学习的时候了。
生态文明在中国
乡村的创造性本土化
美国阿肯色里昂学院
保罗•布伯 博士
珠海联合国际学院的标示
最近我有幸到中国去在几个有关生态文明的研讨会上发言。生态文明指的是这样一种观念，即走向在环境、经济、肉体、精神等方面均可持续发展的文明。此前我从未到过中国。
此行由中美后现代发展研究院资助，王治河博士是该研究院的负责人。与我同行的同事有安妮•英格拉姆博士（在戴维森学院从事环境研究）、斯蒂芬•菲尔德博士（在三一大学从事汉学研究）和杰伊•麦克丹尼尔博士（在汉德里克斯学院从事宗教研究）。
我撰此文意在呼应英格拉姆博士撰写的一篇有关此行的短文：“一切始于舞蹈：环境人文学能够如何向中国学习”。希望读者将本文视为对该文的补充。
我们这些美国人到中国来不仅是为了在研讨会上发言，也为了实地考察研究发展生态文明的具体实验。当你走访烟雾笼罩的大城市北京（拥有1960万人口）和广州（拥有1400万人口），甚至像宁波（拥有72万人口）这样污染虽严重但没有其他城市那么糟糕的“小”一点的城市时，你也许会觉得在这里讨论“生态文明”听起来很奇怪。然而，当我此行接近尾声时，我开始认为也许中国正是学习了解生态文明的好去处，理由有两点：
官方要求：中国寻求建成一个生态文明社会。
第一个理由与中国官方政策相关。中国政府将这一理念写进其官方规划：将来，中国要超越工业文明最糟糕的方面，建成一个生态文明社会。
在此行的前一半行程中我们见到的许多人来自高校，它们大多位于像北京、广州这样的污染严重的大城市。在我与学生和教职员工的交谈中，他们都知道中国中央政府已将“生态文明”定为首要国策。我听说中国各地都在进行实验，以改善中国所面临的环境问题。
一些实验已经进行得很深入，如下面那些本土乡村所示；也有一些相对温和，如北京街头那些鼓励市民对环境负责的标示，或大学自助餐厅里建议“低碳饮食”的标示。在一些污染并不严重的地区，如珠海，有这样一项实验：联合国际学院携手一个濒临消亡的村子，会同村，帮助它以一种在经济与环境两方面都可持续发展的方式恢复生机。
深入也好，温和也罢，这些迹象均可以表明这样一个事实：中国不仅充分认识到了过去25年多快速工业化所造成的污染问题，也在自觉地采取措施应对这些问题。这不可能在一夜之间完成。我们应该记得，在美国，从《清洁空气法案》的通过到洛杉矶及其他城市的空气质量改善，其间就有相当长的一段延滞时期（这一时期犹在持续）。中国在这一点上比美国强：社会各层的人士普遍认为有必要应对污染问题，特别是应对全球气候变化问题。
乡村的复兴：通过将乡村建成令人满意的宜居之地而截住向城市移居的潮流
认为中国是学习了解生态文明的好地方的第二个理由与我在弘农（Hongnong）和永济（Yongji）这两个乡村共同体的耳闻目睹有关。这两个共同体都是自然村——由世代居住于斯的村民自然形成，与由政府划分的行政村截然不同。在弘农，每一个村庄都有一个重要的共同体项目，为绝大多数村民提供机会从事有机农耕、制作手工艺品、进行金融合作（主要是基于共同体的信贷合作社），以及其他丰富和改进共同体建设的机会。
在弘农，大约10年前，周河清（He Qing Zhou）教授，一位农业教授，创办了一所学院，基于传统智慧，特别是儒家思想和道家思想，进行道德教育，这种道德教育促成了这些机会。她的哲学是，通过学习中国的传统智慧，今天的村民能够（通过有机农耕）与自然和谐相处，（通过践行尊重、信任和服务）与相互、与自己和谐共处，这似乎已为村民们广泛接受。
当孩子、大人到学院来学习艺术、手工制作、或有机农耕技术时，他们也一致背诵——实际上是唱诵——老子和孔夫子的教导，像他们一样端端正正地鞠躬。学院成为村里正式和非正式的社会活动中心。我们现场参与了一个新的信贷合作社成立的剪彩仪式，农民可以通过该合作社相互提供小额贷款，相互帮助扶持一个存活下来的有机苹果园生产苹果醋。共同体骄傲而激动人心的气氛令我们很受感染。
创造性本土化：放眼全球思考，立足本土发展
也许就是在这样的一些村子里一种新的“发展”正在中国大地悄然发生，这终究会让其他国家也看到前途。我们可以称之为城乡创造性本土化。
从1980年代中国开放市场经济时起，在过去的25年间，中国模仿的是现代西方的模式，将发展的重心放在重工业、城市开发和出口产品制造上。在这个过程中，许多中国人一直迷恋于西方模式，忘记了他们自己过去的智慧。
但是在这些村子里，我们看见其传统智慧在以一种新的，用王博士的话来说，建设性后现代的方式再生。正如英格拉姆博士所描绘的那样，它们在复兴今日世界所强烈需要的三种现实：（1）一种本土共同体意识，（2）对大地的爱，（3）对过去的文化瑰宝的复兴，以激发对一种新的更生态的未来的具体希望。
如果我们这个世界还有希望的话，那么希望也许就存在于如此种种的实验之中。如转变城市运动 所示，这样的走向创造性本土化的运动也正在世界上其他地方兴起。在转变城市运动中，本土市民在努力尝试开发具有创造性、同情心、参与性和生态智慧的后石油共同体。我在中国所见的乡村共同体在探寻成为转变城市运动的中国式范例。就全球气候变化的现实而言，它们为处于危难中的世界提供了具体希望。到了我们向它们学习的时候了。