The impact research of value orientation and pattern evolution of consumption on environmental issues

AbstractAs the indispensable consumptive activity for human survival and development, consumption is not only the process of single material consumption but the reflection of social relations and the relationship between human and nature. From primitive society of hunting stage to contemporary post-industrial stage, the impact of consumptive activity on the environment (nature) has never been interrupted and goes further instead due to consumption's feature of negative externality and duality. From the development history of human society, the pattern of human consumption has undergone three significant evolutions: living the life of a savage, self-contained and self-sufficient, and alienation consumption. Likewise, the environment issues have experienced three corresponding stages of development: initial stage of environmental damage, regional stage and unprecedented challenge stage mankind has never faced before at which environmental issues become global, aggregative and complex. Thus, consumption is the core of the environmental issues, which should be never ignored