人口是环境破坏的原因吗——评生态社会主义内部的一场论辩

Is Population the Cause of Damage to the Environment——Review a Debate within the Ecosocialism

2011年5月至7月间,生态社会主义内部引发了一场关于人口是否是环境破坏的原因的论辩。论辩源起于在生态社会主义内部出现一股企图把深生态学融入生态社会主义的趋势,把人口视为环境破坏的原因和减少人口数量作为解决之道,并力图捍卫马尔萨斯人口原理的观点。萨拉.萨卡就是这一观点的代表。而生态社会主义的其他代表人物,如伊恩.安格斯等人则认为马克思恩格斯当年对马尔萨斯的批判仍然有效,萨卡的观点是反人类的,不可避免地导致种族排斥、不利于团结社会运动等恶果。这场论辩的实质在于这是一场关于生态环境问题的成因是工业主义还是资本主义的论辩。尽管双方的观点都有失偏颇,但从这次论辩中,我们既要认识到人口的数量是环境破坏的一个重要因素,也要注意资本自身所具有的反生态本性,在控制人口的数量时,更应采取措施优化人口的结构。

A debate about whether the population is the cause of environmental destruction happened within the ecosocialisminMay and July2011.The debate originated in an attempt to incorporate deep ecology intoecosocialism.It regarded the population as a cause of environmental damage and believed the population decrease as a solution,trying to defend the Malthusian population theory.SaralSarkar is one of the representatives.While representatives of ecosocialism,such as Ian Angus and others argued that Marx and Engels on Malthus′s critique was still valid,and Sarkar′s view wasanti-humanity,which would inevitably lead to ethnic cleansing and would be unconducive to unity social movement.The essence of this debate is whether the causes of environmental problems are capitalism or industrialism.Despite the arguments on both sides are biased,but from this debate,weshould not only realize that the number of population is an important factor of environmental damage,but also pay attention to the fact that the capital itself has the anti-ecological nature.Weshould take measures to optimize the structure of the population in its control.