Saving Our Planet

A) In the long view, the human relationship with forests has been one of brutal destruction,

but even it carries elements of slow hope. In the Middle Ages, there was no shortage of

timber in most parts of the world, and few saw cutting down forests as a problem. Yet in

1548 the people of Venice estimated that an important timber supply would last only 30

years at their current rate of usage-but different forest management would make it

possible to meet the demand for many centuries to come. The idea of preserving

resources came out of a concern for the future: a fear of using up resources faster than

they could be replenished (补充)。 e e ee e

B) Economic interests were at the core of this understanding of trees and forests. It would

take more than three centuries before scientists began to understand that timber

production is not the only, and possibly not the most important, function of forests. The

late 19th and early 20th century saw an increasing recognition that forests serve as

habitats for countless animal and plant species that all rely on each other. They take

over protective functions against soil erosion and landslides (塌方)； they make a

significant contribution to the water balance as they prevent surface runoff; they filter

dirt particles, greenhouse gases and radioactive substances from the air; they produce

oxygen; they provide spaces for recreation and they preserve historic and prehistoric

remains. As a result, forests around the world have been set aside as parks or wilderness

areas.

C) Recent years have seen a big change in our view of forests. Peter Wohlleben's book The

Hidden Life of Trees (2015), an international bestseller, suggests that trees can warn

each other of danger through a “wood wide web” of roots and fungi (真菌)。 They

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support each other through sharing of nutrients and information, and they even keep

ancient stumps alive by feeding them solutions of sugars. Such insights have made us

aware of deep ecological relationships between humans and the more-than-human

world.e o e e

D) Awareness of ecologies is a recent phenomenon. It was not until the 1940s that the

concept of the “environment" embracing all living and nonliving things developed. In

the 1970s, the term “environment" gained currency, becoming widely adopted in the

English and Romance languages, and as “Umwelt (“surrounding world) in German.

The emergence of the idea led to the rise of environmental agencies, regulations and

environmental studies, and to environmental science as new, integrated academic

disciplines. It was in 1956 that the very first bachelor of science in environmental

studies was awarded, at the State University of New York College of Forestry at

Syracuse. Since the 1970s-with the rise of “environmentalism"-environmental

studies programmes have sprung up at hundreds of universities. There is (slow) hope in

the fact that scholars from many different disciplines have adopted the term

“environment" over the past decades. They are exploring intricate connections within

and between complex ecologies, as well as the impact that human environment-making

(through techno-industrial, economic and other manipulative developments) has had on

the biosphere.

E) The rise of the idea of the environment and a scholarly understanding of ecological

processes has influenced new technologies and also politics. We have come to ask

questions about vulnerability and risk, world ecologies, and the relationship between

nature and power. The search for an adequate response to climate change occupies

centre stage in international diplomacy.

F) Social and environmental activists, scientists and indigenous groups have called the

Paris Agreement of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in December 2015

insufficient, weak, or compromised. To some extent, they are right: climate change has

already destroyed tens of thousands of livelihoods, and the situation will worsen in the

near future for millions of mostly poorer people, who will join the ranks of those who

have already been displaced by climate change and extreme weather events. But the

Paris Conference nevertheless marked a historic step toward the recognition of the need

for action on climate change, the cutting of carbon emissions, and world cooperation.

There were 195 nations that came to the table in Paris and agreed to limits on emissions.

Historically, nothing comparable had happened prior to this. Before the 20th century, a

handful of scientists had been interested in the theoretical relationship between

greenhouse gases and climate change, but only the empirical evidence accumulated

since the late 20th century established a clear connection between the burning of fossil

fuels and a vastly accelerated rise in global temperatures.

G) The current crisis is not the first that humans have encountered, and a look at the

struggles with pollution in recent history reveals transformations that once seemed

unimaginable. The “London fog" that came to define the capital through British novels

and thrillers is in reality smog or smoke, a legacy of industrialisation. After a century of

ignorance, London was hit by the Great Smog of December 1952-the worst

air-pollution event in the history of the United Kingdom which caused the deaths of

approximately 12,000 people. Shortly thereafter, public initiatives and political

campaigns led to strict regulations and new laws, including the Clean Air Act (1956).

Today, London has effectively reduced traffic emissions through the introduction of a

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Congestion Charge Zone in 2003, and an Ultra Low Emission Zone in 2019.

H) Scientific evidence that we are living in an era of climate change, resource exhaustion

and potential ecological disaster is overwhelming. How do we motivate a public

exhausted by never-ending scenarios of doom and disaster, when the challenges seem so

huge and so impossible to solve? Statistics about extinction and the gloom of decline

will not in themselves get us out of our often self-created ecological traps: instead, they

are more likely to result in paralysis and inaction.

I) We need stories and histories of change and transformation: ecological stories that make

us confront the fact that human power is potentially destructive, and that the survival of

our species on this planet depends on the preservation of soil and water, and the habitats

and ecological systems.

J) It is time that we showed successes and accelerations in ecological awareness, action

and restoration: stories that include past successes and future visions about the rise of

urban gardening and of renaturalised riverscapes, of successful protests against polluted

air and water, of the rise of regional markets and slow food, and the planting of trees

around the globe, of initiatives and enterprises that work towards ecological restoration.

The reality of ecological curses seems far greater than the power of the hopes left at the

bottom of Pandora's box. But if we believe that nothing can be changed, then we are

giving up our opportunity to act.

K) Today's saving powers will not come from a deus ex machina (解围之神)。 In an

ever-more complex and synthetic world, our saving powers won't come from a single

source, and certainly not from a too-big-to-fail approach or from those who have been

drawn into the whirlpool of our age of speed. Hope can work as a wakeup call. It

acknowledges setbacks. The concept of slow hope suggests that we can't expect things

to change overnight. If the ever-faster exhaustion of natural resources (in ecological

terms) and the “shrinking of the present" (in social terms) are urgent problems of

humans, then cutting down on exhaustive practices and working towards a“stretching

of the present" will be ways to move forward.

36. Climate change has wrought havoc on the lives of tens of thousands of people.

37. It took scientists a long time to realise that the function of forests goes far beyond

providing humans with timber.

38. There is abundant evidence that we are now facing a possible ecological disaster.

39. Environmental science became academic disciplines only some sixty years ago.

40. Things cannot change overnight, but reducing the consumption of natural resources will

help solve the ecological crisis.

41. Human perception of forests has undergone a tremendous change in the past years.

42. Recent history shows reduction of pollution, once seemingly impossible, can actually

be accomplished.

43. People began to consider preserving natural resources when they feared they would

have nothing to use in the future.

44. If we doubt our ability to reverse ecological deterioration, we are throwing away the

chance to take action.

45. How to respond effectively to climate change has become the focus of international

diplomacy.