Description
A global ecological crisis is evidenced by frequent wildfires, floods, extreme heat waves, and biodiversity decline across all continents and seas. Yet business-as-usual capitalism persists because the COP26 saw a last-minute hitch of India and China on coal from ‘phase-out’ to ‘phase-down’. China is the biggest polluter in aggregate terms. However, holding its government accountable alone will not help us survive a global ecological crisis. In this critical conjuncture, the global ecological crisis must be one of the core concerns in IPE. The discussion must also involve confronting the coloniality of knowledge in IPE. The article offers a Taoist-inspired reflection upon the paradox between economic development (Euro-centric) and restoration of ecological health, using a lecture-seminar session on China and Energy and Environment as a case study. Taoism provides a non-western philosophical foundation for China to confront its environmental issues and restore a healthy interconnection between human development and dynamic nature. The earth’s ecological health can only be sustained by (1) following inclusive, dialectical-relational, and fluid principles, (2) shifting from a human-centric (though not necessarily humanism) to a cosmo-centric ethos, (3) being aware of the reversal at the extreme, (4) practising the action of non-action, and (5) re-acquiring awe of nature.
