“生态赤字”与科学双刃剑

科学的“双刃剑”问题，近年来国际上颇为关注。今天我们在谈科学发展观、绿色GDP、可持续发展的时候，无疑应该更多地关注科学“双刃剑”问题。

In recent years, the problem of "double-edged sword" of science has attracted international attention. Today, when we talk about the concept of scientific development, green GDP and sustainable development, there is no doubt that we should pay more attention to the problem of "double-edged sword" of science.

科学的发展，不但为人类带来财富，也带来福祉。然而，今天人们在享受科技发达所创造的便利、舒适时，也开始为科学发展所困惑。由信息网络化所引发的全球化浪潮，打破了人们安宁恬静的生活，更多的隐私被暴露于世人面前；神奇的生物技术，使人们维护自身的伦理道德成为一件十分困难的事情；科学发展带来的大规模生产，使地球上的自然资源急剧减少，生态环境恶化……

The development of science brings not only wealth but also well-being to mankind. However, when people enjoy the convenience and comfort created by the development of science and technology, they begin to be confused by the development of science. The wave of globalization caused by the information networking has broken people's peaceful life, and more privacy has been exposed to the world; the magic biotechnology has made it very difficult for people to maintain their own ethics; the large-scale production brought about by the scientific development has dramatically reduced the natural resources on the earth and worsened the ecological environment

因此，科学史家确信，科学发展的结果确实具有两面性。

Therefore, historians of science are convinced that the results of scientific development do have two sides.

那么，如何趋利避害呢？

So, how to seek benefits and avoid disadvantages?

有学者提出借鉴经济学上赤字的评估方法，即社会发展是否在自然生态和社会生态所能承载的科学发展限度之内。从该角度审视今天科学的发展，以牺牲生态环境为代价的发展就显得得不偿失。

Some scholars put forward the evaluation method of economic deficit, that is, whether social development is within the scientific development limit of natural ecology and social ecology. From this point of view, the development of today's science, at the expense of the ecological environment, is not worth the loss.

现代化一直是各国追求的梦想，科学的发展更让各国加快了追赶的步伐。现代化带来的城市化造成了森林不断减少，水资源严重匮乏，能源危机频频出现，环境污染日益突出，这些累积的问题成为一笔越来越大的“生态赤字”。生态经济学家告诉我们，世界上城市化水平最高的地区，也正是生态赤字最严重的地区。

Modernization has always been a dream pursued by all countries, and the development of science has accelerated the pace of catching up. The urbanization brought by modernization has resulted in the continuous reduction of forests, the serious shortage of water resources, the frequent occurrence of energy crisis and the increasingly prominent environmental pollution. These accumulated problems have become an increasingly large "ecological deficit". Ecological economists tell us that the area with the highest level of urbanization in the world is also the area with the most serious ecological deficit.

为了维护生态和社会的平衡，科学应该在其中寻找自己的发展方向。当前，在科学发展观日益深入人心的时候，科学的发展在“有所为有所不为”方面如何正确抉择，某种意义上也是如何取其造福人类的一面，而规避其负面效应的问题。

In order to maintain the balance between ecology and society, science should seek its own development direction. At present, when the concept of scientific development is more and more popular, how to choose the right way to "do something or not" in the development of science, in a sense, is also how to take the benefit of human beings and avoid its negative effects.