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People in different parts of the world need to aim at becoming “ecological civilizations.” Those of us affiliated with different world religions can play a constructive role in helping bring about such civilizations in three ways. First, we can critique problematic dimensions of our own heritages that lead to a wasteful use of energy and an exploitation of the Earth. Second, we can recognize that the environment itself is not merely an issue among issues, but a context for all issues, insofar as it is the web of life in which human life is embedded. Third, we can develop fresh ways of thinking about “energy,” “God” and “human vocation.” Toward these ends, process philosophy reminds us that there are many kinds of energy, psychological and spiritual well as material, and that even consciousness is a kind of energy. Furthermore, it proposes that the mystery at the heart of the universe is an indwelling lure toward dwelling in harmony with the earth. Finally, process philosophy offers the idea that this lure is simultaneously an activity of receptive love and a Deep Listening, in whom all forms of energy are loved on their own terms and for their own sakes.

This chapter introduces a relatively new concept in the Chinese Communist Party's political vocabulary: “ecological civilization” (shengtai wenming), which offers a new metric of development apart from growth. Several years before the Sichuan earthquake, Qingchuan County was promoted by local officials and the media as an ecological society and an experimental pioneer in rethinking development in ecological terms. Qingchuan's ecological consciousness and dialectical strategy of protecting the environment and advancing the economy were said to differentiate it from other agricultural counties. This new discourse transformed Qingchuan's developmental constraints into political advantages. Among the most remote and impoverished counties in the earthquake zone, Qingchuan designed a reconstruction plan that would capitalize on environmental protection, forest conservation, and green modes of agricultural production. Using the case of Qingchuan, the chapter highlights the enormous obstacles for recasting not only production practices but also the very definition of economic development.

The Epilogue recaps central themes of the book and urges abdicating the common refrain to "save civilization." Civilization does not need to be saved but reinvented, since the domination of nature is constitutional to its very nature. The Epilogue argues that as long as the natural world is constituted as "resources" for wealth and power, social inequities will prevail. It also argues that if social justice (equal distribution of resources) were somehow achieved (at the expense of Earth's biological wealth and integrity), the very notion of "justice" would be rendered hollow. Superseding human supremacy and building an ecological civilization founded on love for Earth is the only option.

An ecological civilization is one in which the social, cultural, and political order is rooted in the capacity of nature to promote the flourishing of the human species. The Daoist tradition offers four insights that can help promote this: (1) an aesthetics of flourishing founded on the practical experience of the world in the body; (2) an ethic of flourishing founded on the mutual porosity and vulnerability of the world and the body; (3) a politics of flourishing founded on a democracy of local contexts; (4) a spirituality of flourishing founded on religious themes of consumption, violence, death, and transcendence. Altogether this produces a vision of flourishing based on overcoming the modern dichotomies of self and world, matter and spirit, nature and culture.

China, as a nominally socialist country that is famously beset with serious environmental problems, appears to contradict the theory that it is capitalism that has produced the global ecological crisis. Some avoid this conclusion by arguing that China is now, or always has been, a capitalist country, so that there is no inconsistency. Whether or not this is the case is a contentious debate, attracting fiercely opposing views, but most would agree that China certainly no longer conforms to the standard socialist model. This chapter describes how new legislation and collective action have enabled significant improvements in environmental policy making in China over the last decade. However, it also shows how, as in the United States and other countries, the impressive legal and institutional developments have, so far, failed to produce a reasonable level of environmental justice.