世界范围内的环境保护主义:一种不同的观点

亚克西姆·纳德考(Joachi m Radkau)不仅是德国最重要的环境史学家,而且代表了一代人对1970年代环境事件的看法。本文意欲从更加年轻一代的观点出发,补充亚克西姆·纳德考的观点。1970年代的环境保护主义者经常用他们那个时代的议程作为自我证据,但是年轻一代的环境保护主义者倾向于采取一种更加批判的态度来看待此问题,即从后来发生的事实的角度来看待。因此,过去的环境议程常常被年轻的一代看作是强迫的和错误指导的议程。环境保护主义者经常从一个宽泛的环境问题中选择几个问题给予特别的关注,而历史学家需要仔细地研究是什么指导了环境保护主义者的选择。因此,不仅仅将环境保护主义看作是知识分子的事业,而且看作是他们的一种生活方式,并且进一步考察环境议程与环境保护主义者的日常生活是如何联系起来的。这是一件有意义的事情。此外,环境史学家需要注意环境争论中不同的国家特色。许多国家都发展出了完全不同的具有国家特色的环境保护主义,尽管近年来世界环境保护主义出现了趋向一致的倾向,但是这些不同的国家发展道路还没有褪色到足以被忽视的地步。最后,本文呼吁,要对环境意识从一代向下一代的转变给予更多的关注。将来的环境保护主义也许与今天的环境保护主义有相当大的区别,或许环境保护主义将来根本就不存在了。进一步仔细观察,环境保护主义是一个不稳定的、脆弱的事物。

Environmentalism in the World A Different Views

Joachim Radkau is not only Germany’s foremost environmental historian but also a representative of a generation that took up the environmental cause in the 1970s. This article seeks to complement his perspective with the views of a member of a younger generation. While environmentalists of the 1970s often took their own agenda as self-evident, younger environmentalists tend to take a more critical look: past environmental agendas often look constrained or ill-directed in hindsight. Environmentalists are always selecting a few problems worthy of special attention from a broad range of environmental issues, and historians need to study carefully what is guiding the environmentalists' choice. In doing so, it is often rewarding to see environmentalism not only as an intellectual enterprise but also as a way of life, and to look how environmental agendas relate to what environmentalists were doing on a daily basis. Furthermore, environmental historians need to pay attention to the national peculiarities of environmental debates. Many countries developed a distinct national style of environmentalism, and in spite of convergence in recent years, these national paths have not faded into oblivion. Finally, this article calls for more attention to the shifts in environmental awareness from one generation to the next. Future environmentalism may differ considerably from today’s environmentalism - or it may not exist at all. Looked upon closely, environmentalism is a precariously fragile thing.