Research On The Evolution Of Sustainable Development Theory From The Perspective Of The History Of Western Environmental Economic Thought

With the rapid increase in human social and economic activities,the acceleration of urbanization,the substantial increase in the number of people,the accelerated depletion of natural resources,the expansion of localized pollution of the earth,and the large-scale human health "warning" and other problems have become increasingly prominent since the 16 th century.The call for sustainable development is growing.At present,the world is undergoing profound unseen changes in a century,China’s economic development has entered a new normal,and China’s natural environment is facing double tests from home and abroad.The situation is becoming increasingly complex and severe.From a domestic point of view,China is in a period of social transformation and a period of prominent contradictions,and the environment is facing a huge test.If it continues to develop in the way of extensive economic growth that was heavy on resources and heavy industry in the past,it is no longer in line with its own development interests,It is also not in line with the people’s yearning for a better life.From an international perspective,the COVID-19 epidemic is raging,climate warming is accelerating,the international situation is turbulent,and global sustainable development is facing a huge test.Facing the complicated domestic and international situation,it is urgent to explore and improve the sustainable development theory with Chinese characteristics that can handle the relationship between human and nature,so as to promote the high-quality sustainable development of China’s economy and society.In the past few centuries,the western environmental economic theories have been developing continuously.Around the theme of sustainable development,a theoretical system with resource scarcity and environmental externalities as the main research content has been formed.Studying the sustainable development theory of western environmental economy has important reference value for developing the sustainable development theory with Chinese characteristics By sorting out the background and theoretical connotation of the western sustainable development theory of environmental economy,this paper focuses on refining the theoretical evolution of sustainable development into four stages in chronological order.Firstly,from the budding of early capitalism to the period of classical economics,the sustainable development theory of western environmental economy is in the initial stage of exploration.At this stage,Adam Smith’s "The Wealth of Nations" is a representative of classical idealism.He emphasized that the accumulation of wealth is the only way to improve the living conditions of human beings,so increasing wealth is the key to human sustainable development.Malthus and Ricardo started from the population problem,analyzed the limit relationship between population growth and land carrying capacity,and successively formed the "Absolute Scarcity Theory" and "Relative Scarcity Theory" which are very representative of classical realism.Secondly,after The Second Industrial Revolution,the marginal utility school which is opposed to traditional economics has emerged.They argued that value is determined by consumption,demand and utility,and based on marginal utility theory,linking human desire and demand with resources,a new perspective of sustainable development theory research has been opened up,and the theoretical research of sustainable development has entered the stage of theoretical development."Natural Resource Commodity Creation Theory" is the main representative theory formed in this period.It takes the value of nature as the research foundation and the human demand motivation as the research object to analyze the effective way to realize the increase of human welfare.Thirdly,the theoretical research of sustainable development has entered a stage of theoretical deepening since the 20 th century,and environmental externalities have become an important research content of sustainable development.Two famous theories: "Pigou Tax Scheme" and "Coase Property Right Method" have become the classical theoretical representatives of environmental interventionism and market environmentalism and their influence on sustainable development theory continues to today.Finally,the sustainable development theory entered the stage of modern development in the 1940 s and 1950 s.The Third Industrial Revolution and empirical study on scarcity after World War II played a role in promoting the formation of the sustainable development theory.At this stage,the concept that the earth is a closed system has been widely accepted by the world,so a series of new development concepts based on natural circulation have been formed,such as the "Spaceship Earth Model","Forrester-Meadows Model" and "Circular Economy Theory",etc.Through systematic theoretical analysis,the evolution law and research characteristics of sustainable development theory are summarized:Sustainable development theory from the perspective of the history of western environmental economic thought takes resource scarcity and environmental externalities as the main clues,and takes the level of scientific and technological development as the main driving force,with the main social contradiction as the fuse for the change.The theory has the following research characteristics: always safeguarding the interests of the bourgeoisie,taking "anthropocentrism" as the standpoint,taking "Western-centrism" as the principle,having the tendency of "economic materialism",having the national interest first and the tendency of geographical extension feature.Finally,based on the research conclusions,the theories of sustainable development in China are considered from the theoretical and practical levels,and corresponding policy suggestions are given.On the basis of the existing research,the main innovations of this paper are mainly reflected in the following three aspects: From the perspective of research,the theme of sustainable development involves many research fields.This paper distinguishes previous studies,focuses on the field of environmental economy,focuses on the interrelationship between man and nature,and takes sustainable development as the core to analyze relevant economic theories such as population growth,resource scarcity,and environmental externality.From the ideas of research,whether it is a resource issue or an environmental issue,as long as it conforms to people’s cognition of sustainable development at that time,this paper regards it as a theoretical study of sustainable development.Through in-depth analysis of the historical background and theoretical connotation of these theories and analysis of their era significance,a historical review of economic theory on the proposition of sustainable development is formed,this research idea is of innovative significance.From the methods of research,this paper deliberately compares the sustainable development theory from the perspective of Western environmental economics and Marxist economics.Marxist economics has always stood in the position of the proletariat,focusing on the connection between man and nature,using historical materialism to analyze the problem of sustainable development is very different from the western theory of sustainable development of environmental economy.