Building Ethical Grounds For Low Carbon Life Style

Ethics is embodied by a set of values, including principle, standard, ban, belief, faith, sentiment and will. In essence, ethics is not determined by subjectivity but demands in real life. Although people in any generation have an ultimate goal of pursuing happiness, the paths to the satisfaction are not the same in different ages. One's lifestyle is, after all, defined by his means of production, exchange and socialization. And lifestyle further explains the ethics that is applied. By the same token, low carbon lifestyle is an inevitable result of the development of low carbon economy and technology. Low carbon lifestyle, as a new concept, emerges against the backdrop of global warming, environmental deterioration and frequent natural disasters as well as the climate change around the world. In a value-diversified modern society, low carbon lifestyle assumes a value-oriented perspective on the moral relationship between human and nature. To put it simple, low carbon lifestyle is a balanced way of life that focuses on the harmonized coexistence of man and nature. It is a plain and modest way of living that generates less carbon dioxide by encouraging people to avoid consuming carbon-intensive goods and services. In the essay, I start with the concept of lifestyle and analyze the possibility and inevitability of low carbon lifestyle. Further, I summarize the traits of such lifestyle and put some misconceptions under microscope. I then have an ethical review on the current lifestyle that renders a lot of pollution, emission and waste. Based on the ethical perspective, I try to build a guiding mode for low carbon lifestyle and justify it from a set of viewpoints including economy, daily life and value. Furthermore, I break them into subsets like consumption, social intercourse, recreation and family life. Finally, I propose the principles of low carbon lifestyle——saving more, consuming less, being fair and coexisting on the ground of three types of relationship: between man and self, man and others, human and nature. As to how to realize and popularize the low carbon lifestyle, I explore from both objective and subjective viewpoints, including incentive mechanism of policy, social consumption atmosphere, moral guidance of technology and individual's ethical nurturing.Low carbon and sustainable economy is impossible without the support of corresponding lifestyle. It is much more convenient and realistic to resort to ethical perspectives to reflect upon the current carbon-intensive mode of life and guide us to make a greener lifestyle. Only in this way can we achieve fairness in consumption, ecology and well-rounded human development as well as realize the harmonious coexistence between man and self, man and others and human and nature.