Global Environmental Crisis and Rural Reconstruction Movement

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Global Environmental Crisis and Rural
Reconstruction Movement

• Dale Jiajun Wen
• International Forum on Globalization
• RCEF New York Retreat, March 2007

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Triple Crisis

• Global Warming
• Resource Depletion
• Peak Oil

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Will We All End Up like North Korea or Cuba?

• North Korea famine the most misunderstood
  disaster in recent year
• It is more of the failure of industrial
  chemical farming, instead of a failure of
  ideology.

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By 1980s, 70 of North Koreas was already
urbanized. Collapse of Soviet Bloc in 1990
caused more than 50 deduction in oil import,
resulted in the collapse of the countrys highly
oil dependent agriculture.
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Chinas Three Dimensional Rural Crisis

• Rural areas, Peasants, and Agriculture all in
  crisis with symptoms including
• Stagnant income, declining public
  services,overstaffed but inefficient local
  government,rampant corruption, declining social
  capital, degraded environment,escalating crimes,
  and expanding protests and demonstrations

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Manifestation of Rural Environmental Crisis
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Is Industrialization and Urbanization the
Solution?

• About 60 of the water in seven major river
  systems is classified as heavily polluted.
• Sixty million people face water scarcity, and
  more than 300 million do not have access to clean
  drinking water.
• Because of this water shortage alone, the current
  model of industrialization and urbanization seems
  neither scalable nor sustainable.
• 200 million migrant workers do not enjoy the
  fruit of urbanization.

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Why are Chinese Villagers Flocking the Cities
for Jobs?

• For 2008 Olympics game alone, the government is
  pouring more than 280 billion Yuan into the
  capital city of Beijing.
• The government is only spending 10.7 Yuan per
  capita annually for rural health care (1998
  data). So for the entire 866 million rural
  population, the annual government spending on
  health care is only 9.25 billion Yuan, less than
  3.5 of the Olympics expenditure.

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De-development of Rural Infrastructure
Irrigation canal before and after reform. Photos
by Joshua Muldavin.
Such kind of de-development has been one driving
force for coastal boom.
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The Vision of Rural Reconstruction Movement

• Bring the agrarian perspective back into the
  development narrative.
• Peoples Livelihood
• Peoples Solidarity
• Peoples Diversity Cultures

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Solution from Within

• Reconnecting with the land and each other
• Rebuild people centered and community based
  economy
• Reclaim aspects of traditional Chinese culture,
  including harmony with nature, community values,
  and a sense of sufficiency instead of endless
  pursuit of wealth and consumption.

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Similar Movements in the World

• Back to the land movement in the west in 60s
  and 70s.
• Kerala peoples Science Movement
• Rural revitalization efforts in Latin America.

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How does it relate to environment?

• Economic localization instead of globalization-
• Decrease the energy intensity of economic
  activities.
• Internalize environmental and social costs.

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The world has enough resources for
everyones need, but not for everyones greed.
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Anyone who believes in infinite growth in a
finite world is either mad or an economist.
--Kenneth
Boulding

• "The world will no longer be divided by the
  ideologies of 'left' and 'right,' but by those
  who accept ecological limits and those who
  don't."Wolfgang Sachs, Wuppertal Institute,
  Germany

The world has enough resources for everyones
need, but not for everyones greed. --Gandhi
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How does the rural reconstruction movement relate
to education?
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Narrative of Modernity in Chinese Education

• In the last quarter century, most educational
  materials and media imply that
• the only way to a better life is to
  industrialize, to urbanize.
• Everything urban is progressive and desirable,
  while everything rural is backwards and
  despicable.
• Peasants traditional attachment to the land is a
  stupid sentiment, and should be replaced by
  upward mobility at all cost.

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Empty Promises

• But, can western industrialization and
  urbanization process be copied? Is western life
  style scalable and sustainable?
• NO! Because of resource and environment limit.

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Living planet report 2002--by WWF,UNEP,
Redefining Progress
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Problems with Current Education

• The urban and western centered, elitist education
  has served as an agent of cultural colonization
  in rural areas during the reform era.
• It contributes to the boom of big cities and
  coastal regions at the cost of rural hinterlands.
• Such hegemony of modernity need to be challenged
  if we want to address the growing imbalance
  between regions, and between urban and rural
  areas in China, as well as the global
  environmental crisis created by unregulated and
  unlimited industrialization and urbanization.

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A New Educational Approach

• The educators and students need to be educated
  first before the peasants.
• The movement brings student volunteers in touch
  with the rural reality a powerful antidote to
  the elitist and urban-biased education.