The so-called opposition, that is, human subjective needs and purposeful activities, is bound to contradict the objective attributes and development laws of the environment. Human beings must understand the environment and engage in production and activities according to the law of environmental development and change, otherwise they will be retaliated and punished by the environment, and environmental problems that are not conducive to human survival will follow.
The so-called unity means that human beings always exist in a certain environmental space with the environment as the carrier, and human activities always interact, restrict and transform with their surrounding environment. Human beings are not only the product of the environment, but also the shaper of the environment in a sense. It is impossible for human activities to take from the environment endlessly, and it is impossible to discharge wastes into the environment indefinitely. When human behavior is retaliated by the environment, which affects the survival and development of human beings, human beings have to adjust their behavior to adapt to the scope allowed by the environment.
For thousands of years, human society has developed in this relationship of unity of opposites.
When humans just differentiated from animals, this relationship of unity of opposites was already in the primary state. Early humans knew how to find food, make fires, make clothes, dig holes and compete for survival in various environments. However, due to its limited activity ability, it can only exchange material and energy with the environment through life activities and its own physiological metabolism process. At this time, the contradiction between human beings and the environment is not outstanding, and people's efforts are only aimed at adapting and utilizing the environment, but rarely consciously changing the environment.
With the enhancement of human activity ability and the improvement of tools used, human beings began to know how to change the environment, learned farming, breeding, clothing and living, and the population increased greatly. Especially in the era of agricultural civilization, people have turned vast barren hills and grasslands into fertile fields, and the development of water conservancy has provided a guarantee for the bumper harvest of agriculture. However, behind its development, the contradiction with the environment is outstanding. Due to uncontrolled logging and reclamation, serious soil erosion has been caused, the destruction of grassland has led to the expansion of desert, and unreasonable water diversion irrigation has led to the formation of soil salinization. The intensification of these contradictions turned the once prosperous Babylonian civilization into a desert, and also made the Maya unable to resist the invasion of drought, flood and sandstorm, and had to abandon their civilization and leave their hometown ... This was an early environmental problem. Regrettably, people did not arouse vigilance and did not realize that this was environmental retaliation. At that time, human productivity was not developed, the damage to the environment was not obvious, and the environmental problems had not reached the point of endangering human survival, so human beings still went their own way. In the modern industrial age, the situation has changed fundamentally. The productivity of human society, the number of human beings, the scope and scale of life are not the same as before. The idea that "man can conquer nature" occupies people's minds. While human beings are transforming the environment, the damage to the environment is also increasing. At the same time, the structural composition of the environment, the way and intensity of material circulation have undergone profound changes, and environmental problems have become clear. Modern industry has exploited a large number of underground mineral resources and put them into the environment. With the production and consumption of products, waste gas, waste water and waste residue are discharged, many of which are difficult to treat and assimilate, causing unbearable harm to human beings and creatures. With the continuous accumulation of these hazardous wastes, the environmental quality has gradually deteriorated and the ecological balance has been destroyed. Modern industry has also brought population problems and urbanization problems, and agricultural modernization has also spawned many environmental problems. It can be seen that while human beings play an active role in creating a high level of material civilization, they also bring negative side effects to the environment, from the "black storm" in the United States in 1934 to the "artificial desert" in Inner Mongolia during the Great Leap Forward in China. From the London smog incident in 1960s, the photochemical incident in Los Angeles and the Maas Valley incident in Belgium, to a series of environmental problems such as the sharp increase of population, the sharp decline of forests and the hole in the ozone layer in the world today, all of them are the revenge of nature on human beings. These are the concrete manifestations of the antagonistic relationship between human beings and the environment.
Of course, where there is opposition, there must be unity. From ancient people's passive adaptation to modern people's conscious transformation of the environment to adapt to human survival and development, it embodies the unified relationship between man and the environment. From arboreal to cave dwelling, from cave dwelling to folk house, from collecting natural food to developing agriculture and animal husbandry, these are the processes that human beings adapt to the environment. It should be said that this is also the process of the unification of human beings and the environment. With the emergence of modern environmental problems endangering human survival, human beings began to reflect on themselves and made a series of countermeasures, such as closing mountains, planting trees, planting grass, establishing nature reserves, paying attention to the control and development of resources and environmental governance. , so that human survival and development can better adapt to the laws of environmental development. In particular, human beings rely on their own wisdom and ability. Constantly transform the environment and create a space that is more suitable for human survival and development and in harmony with the environment, so as to reach the highest level of unified relations. For example, Britain's "Fog Capital Improvement", America's "Dead River Revival", Japanese "Garden Factory", China's "Three North" Shelterbelt and more than 700 nature reserves all illustrate the unity and improvement of the relationship between human activities and the environment.
Fortunately, protecting the environment and promoting ecological balance have become the knowledge of human beings in the world today. 1On June 5th, 972, the United Nations held a conference on "Man and Environment" in Stockholm, Sweden, put forward the slogan "There is only one earth" and adopted the Declaration on Human Environment. In the same year, June 5th was designated as "World Environment Day". Since 1976, many international conferences have been held to discuss the problem of solving the ozone hole in the atmosphere, and the United Nations has also adopted a resolution to stop using "chlorofluorocarbons" before the year 2000. 1992, the United Nations held a conference on "Environment and Development" in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, attended by heads of state. These countermeasures can be said to be new measures to promote the relationship between human society and geographical environment from opposition to unity.
It must be noted that the unity of opposites between human beings and the environment runs through the development of human society. With the development of human society and the increasing demand for environmental resources, this relationship is also developing. To solve the contradiction between human beings and the environment, on the one hand, we must rely on the development of productive forces and the progress of science and technology, on the other hand, we must vigorously raise the environmental awareness of the whole people and achieve a high degree of coordination between human beings and the environment. Therefore, it is necessary to straighten out the following relations:
① Establish the concept of sustainable development, that is, the current behavior or goal of human beings should be consistent with the long-term interests and destiny of the whole, and all kinds of production and life activities of human beings should be conducive to the living environment and obtain the greatest benefits;
② Human activities can continuously obtain material and energy from the environment, obtain a good living environment and long-term benefits, and live healthily and happily;
③ A benign complementary relationship can be established between man and nature, and between people, so as to realize the organic integration of all elements of the coordination system.
④ Human culture must promote social development and national progress, deepen people's understanding of natural utilization and establish a good social and economic environment;
⑤ In the great project of coordinated development between human beings and the environment, the organizational structure and knowledge structure of human beings must be sound, the consciousness of participation of the whole people must be strengthened, and the main decision-making must be correct; The coordination between human beings and the environment must be all-round, human beings must always be within the maximum environmental capacity or carrying capacity of the earth and must always be in the best living environment.
In a word, the unity of opposites between human beings and the environment is everywhere. To eliminate opposition and strengthen unity, we must coordinate the relationship between man and environment and achieve a high degree of coordination between economic benefits, social benefits and ecological benefits in economic construction. Only in this way can we ensure a high degree of unity between human sustainable development and the environment. Otherwise, those who only consider the needs of human development, regardless of environmental quality, or even just consider the immediate practices will only undermine unity and strengthen opposition. The needs of human development cannot be met, and the relationship between them cannot be improved. In addition, the legacy of environmental damage will also affect future generations.