The Rise of a Green Society

Ever since its emergence, human being has been in a relation of unity of opposites with the environment. On the one hand, obtaining resources from the environment is the basic condition of human survival and development, and man’s productive and living activities always exert impacts on the environment, as reflected in the consumption, deterioration and damage of it. On the other hand, excessive exploitation of resources and environmental damage will eventually affect human survival and development. Therefore, in different development stages of productivity and different social systems, man, based on its understanding of its relation with environment that is acquired from productive and living practices, has always incorporated environmental factors in its activities of social construction in various ways, aiming at the coordination between human society and environment. In this sense, there is always an environmental dimension to social construction though it varies in different historical periods and backgrounds. For one thing, the human perception of environmental status and impacts varies in different stages of social development; for another, the inclusion of environmental factors in social construction varies in breadth, depth and intensity.