ABSTRACT
The notion of ecological civilization has become central to Chinese efforts to confront and deal with environmental problems. However, ecological civilization is characterized by its proponents in different ways. Some see it as simply an adjunct to the existing system designed to deal with environmental problems. Its more radical proponents argue for a socialist ecological civilization that should be developed globally and transform every part of society, changing the way people perceive, live, and relate to each other and to nature and the goals they aspire to. Ecological civilization is a translation of the Russian notion of ecological culture. Tracing the history of ecology and the concept of culture in the Soviet Union, particularly in the 1920s, I will support this more radical view but argue that ecological civilization is underpinned by ecosocialism and could only be ecosocialist. And it provides the means to clarify the meaning of socialism generally. That this notion has been officially embraced within China revives a tradition of socialist thought that now has the potential to challenge and replace global capitalism.
