The Ecological Narrative of the Marxist Theory of Productive Forces

Productive forces are a core concept of historical materialism. Unlike previous economists who understood productive forces only at the level of increasing wealth and strengthening national power, Marx explained productive forces as the material foundation of all human social life and history. He not only affirmed the immense productive forces created by capitalism but also regarded inheriting the developed productive forces of capitalism as the material prerequisite for the realization of communism. For this reason, some Western ecological scholars, when reflecting on the relationship between capitalism and ecological-environmental problems, have argued that Marx’s theory of productive forces contains anti-ecological ideological elements. To oppose this view, two issues must be discussed. First, do productive forces possess an ecological character? Through an analysis of the texts on productive forces in Marx’s writings, we seek to demonstrate the fact that productive forces have an ecological character. Second, what is the intrinsic relationship between ecological-environmental problems and the development of productive forces? Marx believed that the development of capitalist productive forces leads to a rupture in the material metabolism between humanity and nature, and he advocated resolving the problem of the rupture in material metabolism through the common control of material metabolism based on public ownership of the means of production. From this, it can be inferred that ecological-environmental problems are the result of the anti-ecological character of capitalist productive forces. We hold that although Marx did not explicitly mention the concept of “ecology” in his texts, his narratives concerning the attributes and laws of nature, the contradiction between humanity and nature and its resolution, and so forth, accord with the essentials of ecology, and this is concentratedly embodied in his theory of productive forces. In the process of adapting Marxism to the Chinese context and the needs of the times, Chinese Communists, while contemplating how to liberate and develop social productive forces, have paid close attention to the relationship between developing productive forces and protecting the environment. General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important exposition that “new quality productive forces themselves are green productive forces” is precisely a major principle-level innovation of Marxism. We will conduct an in-depth investigation of this, starting from the ecological narrative of the Marxist theory of productive forces.

生产力是历史唯物主义的核心概念。与过往经济学家仅在增进财富、增强国力层面理解生产力不同，马克思把生产力解释为人类社会生活和全部历史的物质基础，不仅对资本主义创造的巨大生产力给予肯定，而且视继承资本主义发达的生产力为共产主义得以实现的物质前提。为此，一些西方生态学者在反思资本主义和生态环境问题关系时认为马克思生产力理论具有反生态的思想因素。为反对这种观点，需讨论两个问题。一是生产力是否具有生态性?我们通过分析马克思论著中关于生产力的文本，力图指证生产力具有生态性这一事实。二是生态环境问题与生产力发展有怎样的内在关系?马克思认为资本主义生产力的发展导致人类与自然界之间的物质变换出现断裂，主张诉诸基于生产资料公有制对物质变换的共同控制来解决物质变换断裂问题，由此可推断生态环境问题是资本主义生产力反生态的结果。我们认为，马克思尽管没有在文本层面提及“生态”概念，但他关于自然界的属性和规律、人类与自然界的矛盾及其解决等内容的叙事契合生态学要义，这集中体现在生产力理论中。在马克思主义中国化时代化进程中，中国共产党人在思考如何解放和发展社会生产力的同时，对发展生产力与保护环境的关系给予高度关注。习近平总书记关于“新质生产力本身就是绿色生产力”的重要论述正是对马克思主义的重大原理性创新。我们将从马克思主义生产力理论的生态叙事出发对此展开深入考察。

I. The Ecological Character of Labor Productivity and the Source of Green Productive Forces

一、劳动生产力的生态性与绿色生产力的来源

From the perspective of the materialist view of nature, “a being which does not have its nature outside itself is not a natural being, and does not share in the being of nature. A being which has no object outside itself is not an objective being.” [1]1 Karl Marx, “Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844,” in *Marx-Engels Collected Works*, vol. 3 (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1975), p. 337. A being without an object is a non-being; all natural beings establish objective relations through objective activity. Motion is an inherent property of matter; material motion generates impulse, vitality, and tension. “The original forms of matter are the living, essential forces inherent in matter itself, which give matter its individuality.” [2]2 Karl Marx, “Difference Between the Democritean and Epicurean Philosophy of Nature,” in *Marx-Engels Collected Works*, vol. 1 (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1975), p. 40. The forces inherent in matter drive natural beings to interact with one another, engage in objective activity, and form objective relations, which Marx also called the natural material metabolism. Changes in the material structure, natural form, etc., of all natural beings are natural material metabolism. On this basis, Marx distinguished between living natural beings and non-living natural beings and discussed the objective relations between them. Living natural beings satisfy their needs for survival through objective activity, while non-living natural beings manifest their inherent essential forces through objective activity. The objective activity between living and non-living natural beings sustains life and enables the continuous evolution of life. The objective activity of animals is to maintain life through eating, drinking, reproduction, etc. As natural beings, and as living natural beings, humans are physiologically the same as animals: “Eating, drinking, and procreating are also genuinely human functions. However, when abstracted from other spheres of human activity and turned into the final and sole ends, they are animal functions.” [3]3 Marx, “Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844,” p. 275. The objective relations formed between plants, animals, and humans, on the one hand, and non-living natural beings, on the other, are the relations of interaction between organic life and its environment, the “home” that sustains life—that is, ecology. The interdependent objective relations formed through the interaction of various natural beings generate the ecosystem, which, in the ecological context, undergoes movements of material circulation, energy flow, and information transmission. Thus, Marx had already discussed the basic essentials of ecology within the materialist view of nature.

在唯物主义自然观看来，“一个存在物如果在自身之外没有对象，就不是对象性的存在物。一个存在物如果本身不是第三存在物的对象，就没有任何存在物作为自己的对象，就是说，它没有对象性的关系”。没有对象的存在物是非存在物，一切自然存在物都在对象性活动中建立了对象性关系。运动是物质的固有特性，物质运动产生了冲动、活力和张力，“物质的原始形式是物质内部所固有的、活生生的、本质的力量，这些力量使物质获得个性”。物质内部所固有的力量推动自然存在物之间相互作用，进行对象性活动，形成对象性关系，马克思又称这种对象性活动为自然的物质变换。一切自然存在物的物质结构、自然形态等的变化都是自然的物质变换。在此基础上，马克思区分出有生命自然存在物和无生命自然存在物，讨论了两者之间的对象性关系。有生命自然存在物在对象性活动中使生存的需要得到满足，无生命自然存在物在对象性活动中则把内在的本质力量表现出来，有生命自然存在物与无生命自然存在物之间的对象性活动维持着生命存在，使生命不断进化。动物的对象性活动是通过吃、喝、生殖等来维持生命存在，人类作为自然存在物，而且作为有生命的自然存在物在生理方面与动物相同，“吃、喝、生殖等等，固然也是真正的人的机能。但是，如果加以抽象，使这些机能脱离人的其他活动领域并成为最后的和唯一的终极目的，那它们就是动物的机能”。植物、动物及人类与无生命自然存在物结成的对象性关系就是有机生命与其环境交互作用的关系，是维持生命的“家园”,即生态。各种自然存在物之间相互作用而形成彼此依存的对象性关系。生态学语境中那种进行着物质循环、能量流动、信息传递运动的生态系统就由这种对象性关系所生成。可见，马克思在唯物主义自然观中已论及生态学的基本要义。

Humanity’s objective activity toward nature generates productive forces. “Nature, at first, confronts people as a completely alien, all-powerful, and unassailable force.” [4]4 Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, “The German Ideology,” in *Marx-Engels Collected Works*, vol. 5 (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1976), p. 44. Initially, humans, like animals, survived in nature. Gradually, through objective activity that transforms nature, they construct a life-world, reproduce nature according to the natural laws they recognize and the laws of beauty, and thereby transform the alien force of nature into a force that sustains life. In historical materialism, Marx provides a more specific definition of humanity’s objective activity toward nature: “Labor is, first of all, a process between man and nature, a process in which man, through his own activity, mediates, regulates, and controls the material metabolism between himself and nature.” [5]5 Karl Marx, *Capital*, vol. 1, trans. Ben Fowkes (London: Penguin, 1990), p. 283. Labor, as the activity of material metabolism between humanity and nature, is the fundamental objective activity. In the objective relation, humans are the laborers, nature is the object of labor, and the means by which humans “transmit their activity to the object of labor, the thing or complex of things” are the instruments of labor. [6]6 Ibid., p. 285. The material force with which laborers use instruments of labor to transform and influence nature so that it suits social needs is productive forces. “The simple elements of the labor process are: purposeful activity, or labor itself, the object of labor, and the instruments of labor.” [7]7 Ibid., p. 284. The process of developing productive forces is precisely the labor process, the process in which humanity generates a humanized nature through objective activity toward nature. “Through this production, nature appears as his work and his reality.” [8]8 Marx, “Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844,” p. 277. For this reason, productive forces are also called labor productivity.

人类对自然界的对象性活动生成生产力。“自然界起初是作为一种完全异己的、有无限威力的和不可制服的力量与人们对立的”。人类起初像动物那样在自然界中生存，逐渐通过改造自然界的对象性活动来构造生活世界，按照认识到的自然规律、美的规律再生产自然界，进而将自然界的异己力量转化为维持生命的力量。在唯物史观中，马克思对人类对自然界的对象性活动作出更具体的界定：“劳动首先是人和自然之间的过程，是人以自身的活动来中介、调整和控制人和自然之间的物质变换的过程。”劳动作为人类与自然界的物质变换活动，是基本的对象性活动。在对象性关系中，人类是劳动者，自然界是劳动对象，人类以中介、调整和控制方式“把自己的活动传导到劳动对象上去的物或物的综合体”则是劳动资料，劳动者运用劳动资料改造和影响自然界以使其适合社会需要的物质力量就是生产力。“劳动过程的简单要素是：有目的的活动或劳动本身，劳动对象和劳动资料。”生产力的发展过程正是劳动过程，是人类在对自然界的对象性活动中生成人化自然界的过程，“通过这种生产，自然界才表现为他的作品和他的现实”。正因此，生产力也被叫作劳动生产力。

Labor productivity possesses the character of sustaining the interactive relations between animals, plants, microorganisms, and the environment, including humans. From Marx’s standpoint of explaining labor through the concept of “material metabolism,” the process by which labor creates a humanized nature is not a one-sided process of humanity dominating nature, but a two-way exchange process in which humanity and nature interact and depend on each other to sustain life. Humanity is only a part of the organic whole of nature. Humans transform other living natural beings and various non-living natural beings, appropriate and produce use-values, and extract material-energy-information to sustain life. At the same time, the excreta formed by human life activities and the physical bodies of the dead return to nature, on the one hand transforming into material-energy-information that sustains the life of other living natural beings, and on the other hand compensating for the material-energy-information that humans have extracted from non-living natural beings. Because the lost material-energy-information of other living and non-living natural beings is correspondingly compensated, they also maintain stable material circulation, energy flow, and information transmission. Thus, labor is not a one-sided activity of humanity infinitely extracting material-energy-information; it is merely an activity that participates in the process of interaction between living and non-living natural beings. It has the same function as metabolism and belongs to a mode of natural material metabolism. Hence, for Marx, humanity is not the owner of nature but an organic part belonging to nature—a position consistent with the ecological worldview. From the connotation of material metabolism in the concept of “labor,” labor productivity is essentially the force by which humanity conducts material metabolism with nature. It is both the force by which humanity extracts material-energy-information from nature to sustain life and the force by which humanity outputs material-energy-information to nature to compensate for the depletion of other natural beings. It is governed by the order of material circulation, energy flow, and information transmission in the ecosystem. Therefore, labor productivity can sustain the interactive relations between various organic lives, including humans, and the environment; it possesses an ecological character.

劳动生产力具有维持包括人类在内的动物、植物、微生物与环境交互作用关系的性质。从马克思以“物质变换”概念解释劳动的立场看，劳动创造人化自然界的过程并非人类单向度支配自然界的过程，而是人类与自然界相互作用、相互依存以维持生命的双向交换过程。人类只是自然界有机整体的一部分。人类改造其他有生命自然存在物、各种无生命自然存在物，占有和生产使用价值，汲取维持生命的物质能量信息；同时，人类生命活动形成的排泄物以及生命死亡的肉体等又回归自然界，一方面转化为其他有生命自然存在物维持生命的物质能量信息，另一方面补偿人类从无生命自然存在物中摄取的物质能量信息；其他有生命自然存在物和无生命自然存在物相互之间由于失去的物质能量信息得到相应补偿也维持着稳定的物质循环、能量流动和信息传递。由此，劳动并非人类单向度地无限摄取物质能量信息的活动，而只是参与有生命自然存在物和无生命自然存在物之间相互作用过程的活动，与新陈代谢具有相同作用，属于一种自然的物质变换方式。因而在马克思这里，人类并非自然界的所有者，而是属于自然界的有机部分，这一立场符合生态学世界观。从“劳动”概念的物质变换内涵看，劳动生产力实质就是人类与自然界进行物质变换的力量，既是人类从自然界获取物质能量信息以维持生命的力量，也是向自然界输出物质能量信息以补偿其他自然存在物耗损的力量，受生态系统的物质循环、能量流动和信息传递秩序所规定。所以，劳动生产力能维持包括人类在内的各种有机生命与环境交互作用的关系，具有生态性。

The ecological nature of labor productivity is the source of the background color of green productivity. Ecological studies show that vegetation is the producer in the ecosystem, converting solar energy into chemical energy and inorganic matter into organic matter through photosynthesis, forming the primary productivity of the ecosystem and providing oxygen, organic matter, and food energy for the maintenance of life. In the symbolic sense of life, the “green” of vegetation signifies vibrant life vitality and is regarded as the background color of nature and a proxy for ecology. Labor productivity, as a force originating from the material circulation, energy flow, and information transmission activities of nature, possesses an ecological nature that sustains life vitality and can also be identified by “green.” Marx and Engels pointed out that “the productive forces at its disposal no longer further the development of the conditions of bourgeois property; on the contrary, they have become too powerful for these conditions, by which they are fettered, and so soon as they overcome these fetters, they bring disorder into the whole of bourgeois society, endanger the existence of bourgeois property” [9]9 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, *The Communist Manifesto* (1848), Chapter I: Bourgeois and Proletarians. The quotation is slightly adapted from the standard English translation.. At a certain historical stage, under the influence of specific relations of production, labor productivity can also destroy the interactive relationship between organic life and its environment, leading the ecosystem toward collapse. Therefore, in the process of transforming nature, humanity needs to form a productivity that can sustain the sustainable interactive relationship between organic life and its environment, identified as “green,” namely green productivity, which takes ecological nature as its fundamental characteristic and green development as its background color.

劳动生产力的生态性是绿色生产力的底色来源。生态学研究表明，植被是生态系统中的生产者，通过光合作用把太阳能转化为化学能、把无机物转化为有机物，形成生态系统的初级生产力，为生命的维持提供氧气、有机物质、食物能量等。在生命的象征意义上，植被的“绿色”寓意生机勃勃的生命活力，被视为自然界的底色和生态的代称。劳动生产力作为源于自然界的物质循环、能量流动和信息传递活动的力量，具有维持生命活力的生态性，也可用“绿色”予以标识。马克思恩格斯指出，“生产力在其发展的过程中达到这样的阶段，在这个阶段上产生出来的生产力和交往手段在现存关系下只能造成灾难，这种生产力已经不是生产的力量，而是破坏的力量”。劳动生产力在一定历史阶段受特定生产关系作用也会破坏有机生命与环境的交互作用关系，导致生态系统趋于崩溃。因此，人类在改造自然界的过程中需要形成能维持有机生命与其环境交互作用可持续关系的、被标识为“绿色”的生产力，即绿色生产力，它以生态性为根本特性、以绿色发展为底色。

The development of green productivity has the following requirements. First, it must not exceed the carrying capacity of the ecosystem. The ecosystem’s ability to self-maintain and self-regulate is its carrying capacity. Humanity needs to convert the natural productivity of the ecosystem into labor productivity to sustain life, but excessively extracting material, energy, and information from nature without returning an equivalent amount, or returning things that cannot be absorbed by nature (such as various pollutants that cannot be assimilated by nature), will damage the basic structure and functions of the ecosystem, making it difficult for the ecosystem to bear the development of productive forces. In the process of its development, green productivity must return the material, energy, and information extracted from nature in an absorbable manner to maintain the stable operation of the ecosystem. Second, it must not violate the operational laws of the ecosystem. Mastering and utilizing the “mechanical, physical, and chemical properties of things” to invent and create labor instruments that “mediate, regulate, and control” nature is the fundamental way for the continuous development of labor productivity. Developing science and technology and creating labor instruments based on a correct understanding of the laws of nature and the relationship between humans and nature is an inherent requirement of green productivity. The application of science and technology and production activities that violate the operational laws of the ecosystem will inevitably destroy the interactive relationship between organic life and its environment, making it difficult to maintain the order of material circulation, energy flow, and information transmission in nature, thereby depriving productive forces of the natural conditions for sustainable development. Third, it must not deviate from the needs of human free development. On the basis of meeting the needs of sustaining life, labor productivity must also meet the needs of realizing the free and comprehensive development of humanity. At the level of the relationship between humans and nature, this is manifested as humans treating natural beings equally: “When the thing is related to man in a human way, I can in practice relate to the thing in a human way. Therefore, need and enjoyment have lost their egoistic character, and nature has lost its mere utility” [10]10 Karl Marx, *Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844*, “Private Property and Communism.”. Treating natural beings as alien existences to be conquered, endlessly extracting material, energy, and information, and developing productive forces through insatiable pursuit of desires and pleasures will inevitably lead to a sharp opposition between humanity and nature. Developing green productivity requires humanity to achieve free and comprehensive development in harmonious coexistence with nature.

绿色生产力的发展有如下要求。其一，不超出生态系统承载力。生态系统自我维持和自我调节的能力就是它的承载力。人类需要将生态系统的自然生产力转化为劳动生产力来维持生命，但过度向自然界摄取物质能量信息却没有等量返还或者返还的东西不能为其所接纳(如各种无法被自然界所吸收的污染物),就会破坏生态系统的基础结构和功能，导致生态系统难以承载生产力的发展。绿色生产力在其发展过程中要将从自然界摄取的物质能量信息可接纳地返还给自然界，以维持生态系统的稳态运营。其二，不违背生态系统运行规律。通过掌握和利用“物的机械的、物理的和化学的属性”来发明创造“中介、调整和控制”自然界的劳动资料是劳动生产力不断发展的根本方式。基于对自然规律和人与自然关系的正确认识来发展科学技术和创造劳动资料是绿色生产力的内在要求。违背生态系统运行规律的科学技术应用及生产活动必定会破坏有机生命与其环境之间的交互作用关系，以致自然界的物质循环、能量流动及信息传递秩序难以维持，使生产力失去持续发展的自然条件。其三，不偏离人类自由发展需要。劳动生产力在满足维持生命需要的基础上还要满足实现人类自由而全面发展的需要。在人与自然关系层面体现为人平等地对待自然存在物，“当物按人的方式同人发生关系时，我才能在实践上按人的方式同物发生关系。因此，需要和享受失去了自己的利己主义性质，而自然界失去了自己的纯粹的有用性”。把自然存在物作为需要征服的异己存在来无限索取物质能量信息、不知餍足地追逐欲望和享乐而发展生产力，必然导致人类与自然界尖锐对立。发展绿色生产力须使人类在与自然界的和谐共生中实现自由而全面的发展。

In summary, labor productivity, as a force of material exchange between humanity and nature, possesses an ecological nature, but under specific relations of production, it can also produce anti-ecological consequences, destroying the ecosystem. Therefore, humanity needs to develop green productivity.

概言之，劳动生产力作为人类与自然界之间的物质变换力量具有生态性，但在特定生产关系下也会产生反生态后果，破坏生态系统，因此人类需要发展绿色生产力。

II. The Economic Nature of Capitalist Productive Forces and the Development Prospects of Green Productivity

二、资本主义生产力的经济性与绿色生产力的发展图景

Marx and Engels pointed out that “this development of productive forces is an absolutely necessary practical premise, because without it want is merely made general, and with destitution the struggle for necessities and all the old filthy business would necessarily be reproduced” [11]11 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, *The German Ideology* (1845-46), Part I: Feuerbach.. Developing productive forces is an economic activity to escape poverty and a fundamental way to enrich the country and benefit the people. Thus, labor productivity has an economic nature. However, its economic nature and ecological nature can come into mutual antagonism: the ecological nature requires maintaining the stability and balance of the ecosystem, while the economic nature requires extracting as much material, energy, and information from the ecosystem as possible to create wealth. The examples cited by Engels of residents of Mesopotamia and other places who suffered nature’s revenge for deforestation and land reclamation are concrete manifestations of this contradiction. Therefore, social development must coordinate the ecological and economic natures of productive forces.

马克思恩格斯指出，“生产力的这种发展……是绝对必需的实际前提，还因为如果没有这种发展，那就只会有贫穷、极端贫困的普遍化”。发展生产力是摆脱贫困的经济活动，也是富国裕民的根本途径。由此可见，劳动生产力具有经济性。不过，它的经济性与生态性会出现相互对抗的现象，生态性要求维持生态系统稳定平衡，经济性则要求尽可能多地从生态系统摄取物质能量信息来创造财富。恩格斯列举的美索不达米亚等地居民因毁林造田而受到自然界报复的事例就是二者矛盾的具体体现。由此，社会发展必须协调好生产力的生态性与经济性。

Capitalist productive forces evolve from labor productivity and possess an anti-ecological economic nature. Marx discovered “undifferentiated human labor” in labor products, believing that “the common substance that manifests itself in the exchange value of commodities, whenever they are exchanged, is their value” [12]12 Karl Marx, *Capital*, Volume I, Chapter 1: The Commodity.. Labor products are transformed into commodities based on their exchangeability through value; commodity exchange gives rise to money as the general representative of value; capital is generated in the economic act of using the economic power of money to obtain more money, and is money that can realize an increment beyond the originally advanced sum of money: “this increment or excess over the original value I call ‘surplus-value’” [13]13 Karl Marx, *Capital*, Volume I, Chapter 4: The General Formula for Capital.. Unlike the early forms of capital—commercial capital and interest-bearing capital, which extracted surplus value through buying cheap and selling dear, interest, etc.—modern capitalist society directly transforms the intrinsic elements of labor productivity—workers, means of labor, and objects of labor—into variable capital and constant capital, achieving accumulative expansion by gratuitously appropriating the surplus value created by workers and then converting surplus value back into variable and constant capital. Thus, labor productivity, under the domination of capital, evolves into capitalist productive forces: “Capital in its boundless pursuit of wealth necessarily strives to increase the productive forces of labor without limit... every increase in the productive forces of labor is an increase in the productive forces of capital, and the productive forces of labor are only the productive forces of capital” [14]14 Karl Marx, *Grundrisse* (1857-58), “The Chapter on Capital.”. Labor productivity creates wealth by extracting material resources from nature; the wealth pursued by capital is value that expands without limit. Driven by value expansion, capitalist productive forces extract material resources boundlessly, creating wealth that “appears as ‘an immense accumulation of commodities’” [15]15 Karl Marx, *Capital*, Volume I, Chapter 1: The Commodity.. This nature of creating wealth by extracting material resources from nature to the maximum extent and gratuitously appropriating the surplus value of workers is the economic nature of capitalist productive forces. Determined by this economic nature, capitalist productive forces adopt modes of wealth creation characterized by production for the sake of production, technology for the sake of technology, and consumption for the sake of consumption, creating an irreparable rift in the material exchange relationship between humanity and nature, thereby triggering an ecological crisis.

资本主义生产力嬗变于劳动生产力，具有反生态的经济性。马克思从劳动产品中发现了“无差别的人类劳动”,认为“这个社会实体的结晶，就是价值”。劳动产品基于价值可交换而转化为商品，商品交换分离出作为价值一般代表的货币，资本就生成于运用货币的经济权力来获取更多货币的经济行为中，是能实现在原预付货币额上多出增殖额的货币，“这个增殖额或超过原价值的余额叫做剩余价值”。不同于资本初期形态——商业资本、生息资本以贱买贵卖、利息等方式来赚取剩余价值，现代资本主义社会直接将劳动生产力内在要素——劳动者、劳动资料、劳动对象变为可变资本和不变资本，以无偿剥夺劳动者创造的剩余价值、再将剩余价值转化为可变资本和不变资本的方式实现积累式增殖。由此，劳动生产力受资本支配嬗变为资本主义生产力，“资本在无限地追求发财致富时，力求无限地增加生产力……劳动生产力的每一次增长……都是资本的生产力的增长，而劳动生产力之所以是劳动生产力，只是由于它是资本的生产力”。劳动生产力从自然界获取物质资料而创造财富，资本追逐的财富是无止境增殖的价值，资本主义生产力在价值增殖驱动下无限摄取物质资料，创造出“表现为‘庞大的商品堆积’”的财富。这种以最大限度从自然界获取物质资料和无偿占有劳动者剩余价值来创造财富的性质，就是资本主义生产力的经济性。资本主义生产力受其经济性所规定，采取为生产而生产、为技术而技术、为消费而消费的财富创造方式，在人类与自然界之间的物质变换关系中造成一个无法弥补的裂缝，以致引发生态危机。

1. Production for the sake of production: breaking through natural limits

1.为生产而生产：突破自然界限

O’Connor states: “In Marx’s words, capitalism is necessarily ‘accumulate or die.’” The operation of capitalism depends on surplus value; a tendency of the rate of surplus value toward zero means capital approaches death. For this reason, capitalist productive forces “produce for the sake of production, that is, develop human labor power regardless of any predetermined and predetermined limits of needs,” breaking through any limits that hinder the development of productive forces to produce surplus value. First, breaking through the limits of the ecosystem. Capitalism subjects nature to the fetishism of money, turning it into a controllable useful object. Capitalist productive forces absorb the material, energy, and information of the ecosystem without corresponding compensation, thereby exceeding the carrying capacity of the ecology. Second, breaking through the limits of time and space. Capitalism incorporates natural resources into the circulation cycle at a geometrically expanding magnitude and rate, exhausting in a short time the “blessings of hundreds of thousands of years of history” evolved by nature, while at the same time tailoring the rhythm of natural life to the velocity of currency circulation, disrupting the life cycle of the ecosystem. “By its very nature, capital strives to transcend all spatial limits.” Capitalist productive forces tear apart the natural bond between city and countryside, transforming natural space into production space, “destroying the eternal natural conditions for the lasting fertility of the soil.” In short, in the process of maximizing surplus value, capitalist productive forces produce for the sake of production, breaking through natural limits and thereby causing ecological crisis.

奥康纳谈道：“用马克思的话来说，资本主义必然是‘要么进行积累要么就死亡’。”资本主义的运行依赖剩余价值，剩余价值率趋于零意味着资本接近死亡。为此，资本主义生产力“为生产而生产，即不顾任何事先决定的和事先被决定的需要界限来发展人类劳动生产力”,突破阻碍生产力发展的任何界限来生产剩余价值。其一，突破生态系统界限。资本主义使自然界臣服于货币拜物教，变成可被控制的有用物。资本主义生产力吸纳生态系统物质能量信息而不对其进行相应补偿，进而超出生态承载限度。其二，突破时空界限。资本主义以几何式扩张的量级和速率将自然富源纳入循环周期，在短时间内耗尽自然界演化出的“几十万年历史的恩惠”,同时以货币流通速度裁剪自然生命节律，打乱生态系统生命周期。“资本按其本性来说，力求超越一切空间界限。”资本主义生产力撕裂城市和农村天然纽带，把自然空间转化为生产空间，“破坏土地持久肥力的永恒的自然条件”。总之，资本主义生产力在追求剩余价值最大化过程中为生产而生产，突破自然界限而造成生态危机。

2. Technology for the Sake of Technology: The Domination of Natural Forces

2.为技术而技术：统治自然力

For Marx, science becomes a productive force because capitalists “utilize science, appropriate science” to shape production technology, using science and technology to increase labor productivity and thereby obtain extra surplus value. Science and technology, “possessed” by value, become an autonomous evolutionary system, combining with laborers, means of labor, and objects of labor in a technology-for-technology manner to transform into productive forces. Although Marx affirms that science and technology are historical levers promoting the development of productive forces, he clearly points out that in their capitalist application, science and technology “transform material production into the scientific domination of natural forces.” First, the formal domination of natural forces. Nature, after being unveiled by science, is abstracted into universal forms expressing natural laws; under the construction of these universal forms, production technology can reshape and empower natural forces, drawing all natural forces into capitalist productive forces. Second, the industrial domination of natural forces. Science and technology, dominated by capital, are used to explore the entire natural world in order to discover natural forces that can be endlessly supplied to large-scale industry and agriculture operated on an industrial basis. In summary, the technology-for-technology approach brings extra surplus value, but the “scientific domination of natural forces” also causes a rupture in the metabolic interaction.

对马克思来说，科学之所以成为生产力是资本家“利用科学，占有科学”来塑造生产技术，通过科学技术来提高劳动生产率以获取超额剩余价值的结果。科学技术被价值“附体”成为自主演化系统，以为技术而技术的方式与劳动者、劳动资料和劳动对象相结合而转化为生产力。马克思尽管肯定科学技术是促进生产力发展的历史杠杆，但明确指出科学技术在资本主义应用中“把物质生产变成对自然力的科学统治”。其一，对自然力的形式化统治。自然界经过科学的揭秘抽象化为表达自然规律的普遍形式，生产技术在普遍形式建构下能对自然力进行重塑、赋能，将自然力全部吸入资本主义生产力。其二，对自然力的工业化统治。科学技术受资本支配，被用于探索整个自然界，以便发现可无穷尽输送给大工业和按工业方式经营的大农业的自然力。概言之，为技术而技术的方式带来超额剩余价值，但“对自然力的科学统治”也造成了物质变换断裂。

3. Consumption for the Sake of Consumption: Overdrawing Natural Resources

3.为消费而消费：透支自然富源

The realization of surplus value requires a “vast accumulation of commodities” to enter the consumption sphere to complete the capital circulation cycle. Once commodities cannot be absorbed by the consumption sphere, the chain between the supply side and the demand side breaks, leading to economic crisis. The drive to extract surplus value and the pressure to avoid economic crisis give rise to a consumption-for-consumption model. First, material-desire consumption. The instinctual desires of human life, governed by “capital as the boundless drive for enrichment,” become an ideology that deeply influences production and consumption; desires are activated by capital to generate what Deleuze calls desiring-production and what Baudrillard calls the consumer society’s material-desire consumption, forming a bottomless abyss that devours natural resources. Second, accelerated consumption. Stimulating, inducing, and even disciplining laborers to overdraw future labor in order to accelerate the consumption of the “vast accumulation of commodities” is a way to complete capital circulation at the fastest speed. The acceleration of consumption brings about an acceleration of capital circulation; this cumulative cyclical movement not only accelerates the overdrawing of natural resources but also causes the natural environment to be unable to absorb and process in the short term the waste that should have been decomposed and purified over nearly a hundred years. Third, polluting consumption. Driven by the pursuit of super-profits, capitalists discharge waste into nature without decontamination treatment or reuse; “in the utilization of these excreta, the capitalist economy is extremely wasteful.” Waste destroys the material structure of nature and the functions of ecological mechanisms, leading to the excessive overdrawing of natural resources.

剩余价值的实现需要“庞大的商品堆积”进入消费领域来完成资本循环周期。商品一旦无法为消费领域所吸纳，供给端和需求端的链条就会断裂，以致爆发经济危机。攫取剩余价值的动力和规避经济危机的压力衍生出为消费而消费的模式。其一，物欲式消费。人类生命的本能欲望受“资本作为无止境地追求发财致富的欲望”的统摄而变成深度影响生产和消费的意识形态，欲望被资本激活生成德勒兹所谓欲望生产、鲍德里亚所谓消费社会的物欲式消费，形成吞噬自然富源的无底深渊。其二，加速式消费。刺激、诱导乃至规训劳动者透支未来劳动来加速消费掉“庞大的商品堆积”,是以最快速度完成资本循环的途径。消费加速度又带来资本循环加速度，这种累进式循环往复运动不仅加速透支自然富源，而且导致自然环境无法短期内吸收处理本应在近百年分解和净化的废物。其三，污染式消费。资本家在超额利润驱使下未经去污处理和再利用就将废物抛于自然界，“在利用这种排泄物方面，资本主义经济浪费很大”。废物破坏自然物质结构、生态机制功能，以致自然富源被过度透支。

The wealth-creation methods of production for the sake of production, technology for the sake of technology, and consumption for the sake of consumption render the economic and ecological aspects of labor productivity irreconcilable, thereby triggering ecological crisis. Developing green productive forces is the fundamental way to address the current ecological crisis. The Marxist theory of productive forces scientifically provides a development blueprint for green productive forces.

为生产而生产、为技术而技术和为消费而消费的财富创造方式导致劳动生产力的经济性与生态性不可协调，以致引发生态危机。发展绿色生产力是当前应对生态危机的根本出路。马克思主义生产力理论科学地给出了绿色生产力的发展图景。

First, the historical inheritance of developed capitalist productive forces based on public ownership of the means of production. The development of capitalist productive forces will produce results such as the infinite increase of constant capital and the gradual approach of variable capital to zero due to technological progress and increased labor productivity, so that capitalism is replaced by communism, i.e., “the development of productive forces brought about by capital itself in its historical development, after reaching a certain point, will not promote but eliminate capital’s self-valorization.” The wealth created by capitalist productive forces, with the establishment of public ownership of the means of production, is transformed into collective wealth shared and owned by all laborers; labor productivity, while breaking free from the control of capital and returning to the community, develops to a high degree, possessing the economic character of making “all the springs of collective wealth flow abundantly.” Inheriting the developed productive forces of capitalism to create wealth in the process of transcending capitalism is the realistic prerequisite for developing green productive forces; returning to a stage of development of productive forces where “there would only be poverty, the generalization of extreme poverty” for the sake of “greenness” does not conform to historical laws.

首先，基于生产资料公有制对资本主义发达生产力的历史承继。资本主义生产力的发展会产生因科技进步及劳动生产率提高等而带来的不变资本无限增大、可变资本逐渐趋于零的结果，以致资本主义为共产主义所替代，即“资本本身在其历史发展中所造成的生产力的发展，在达到一定点以后，就会不是造成而是消除资本的自行增殖”。资本主义生产力创造的财富随着生产资料公有制的确立而转化为全体劳动者共有、共享的集体财富，劳动生产力在摆脱资本控制而复归共同体的同时高度发展，具有使“集体财富的一切源泉都充分涌流”的经济性。在超越资本主义的历史进程中承继资本主义发达生产力来创造财富是发展绿色生产力的现实前提，为了“绿色”而返回“只会有贫穷、极端贫困的普遍化”的生产力发展阶段不符合历史规律。

Second, the common control of the metabolic interaction based on public ownership of the means of production. Marx profoundly points out: “Productive forces will also expand at the same time. The freedom in this realm can only consist in this: that socialized humanity, the associated producers, rationally regulate their metabolic interaction with nature, bringing it under their common control, instead of letting it rule over them as a blind force; carrying it out with the least expenditure of energy, under conditions most worthy of and most suitable for their human nature.” This indicates that common control of the metabolic interaction between humanity and nature based on public ownership will ensure that the development of productive forces does not exceed the carrying capacity of the ecosystem, does not violate the laws of ecosystem operation, and does not deviate from the needs of human free and comprehensive development. Specifically, developing green productive forces should pay attention to the following aspects. First, carrying out the metabolic interaction “under their common control.” An institutional arrangement “for the common interest, according to a common plan, with the participation of all members of society” can, in the process of metabolic interaction, “coordinate the allocation of their productive forces according to a unified general plan,” so that the development of productive forces does not exceed the carrying capacity of the ecosystem. Second, carrying out the metabolic interaction “with the least expenditure of energy.” The development and application of science and technology, organized and managed by the whole society, will make it possible to extract as little material, energy, and information from the ecosystem as possible in the metabolic process, to reinvest waste as resources into production and consumption processes as much as possible, and to return non-polluting excreta to nature, thereby supporting the high development of productive forces by consuming the least natural force. Third, carrying out the metabolic interaction “under conditions most suitable for their human nature.” Public ownership not only frees humanity from “all relations in which [man] is a debased, enslaved, abandoned, contemptible being” and realizes “free, conscious activity,” but also provides an institutional foundation for humanity to carry out metabolic interaction with nature on an equal footing, enabling humanity to coexist harmoniously with nature in the process of developing productive forces, moving from the realm of necessity to the realm of freedom. The green productive forces of the future society will firmly maintain the interactive relationship between organic life, including humanity, and the environment; the reconciliation between humanity and nature will be truly realized.

其次，基于生产资料公有制对物质变换的共同控制。马克思深刻指出：“生产力同时也会扩大。这个领域内的自由只能是：社会化的人，联合起来的生产者，将合理地调节他们和自然之间的物质变换，把它置于他们的共同控制之下，而不让它作为一种盲目的力量来统治自己；靠消耗最小的力量，在最无愧于和最适合于他们的人类本性的条件下来进行这种物质变换。”这表明，基于公有制对人类与自然界物质变换的共同控制将使生产力的发展不超出生态系统承载力、不违背生态系统运行规律、不偏离人类自由而全面发展的需要。具体来说，发展绿色生产力应注意以下方面。一是“置于他们的共同控制之下”进行物质变换。“为了共同的利益、按照共同的计划、在社会全体成员的参加下”的制度安排能够在物质变换过程中“按照一个统一的大的计划协调地配置自己的生产力”,使生产力发展不超出生态系统承载限度。二是以“靠消耗最小的力量”进行物质变换。由全社会共同组织和管理的科学技术开发与应用，将使在物质变换过程中尽量少地摄取生态系统的物质能量信息、尽可能把废物作为资源再投入生产和消费过程、向自然界返还无污染性的排泄物等成为可能，从而以消耗最小自然力的方式来支撑生产力的高度发展。三是在“最适合于他们的人类本性的条件下”进行物质变换。公有制不仅让人类摆脱“成为被侮辱、被奴役、被遗弃和被蔑视的东西的一切关系”而实现“自由的有意识的活动”,而且为人类平等地与自然界进行物质变换提供制度基础，使人类在发展生产力过程中能与自然界和谐共生，从必然王国进入自由王国。未来社会的绿色生产力将稳固地维持包括人类在内的有机生命与环境的交互作用关系，人与自然界的和解将得以真正实现。

III. New Quality Productive Forces Are Themselves Green Productive Forces

三、新质生产力本身就是绿色生产力

Capitalist countries have achieved certain results in addressing environmental pollution and ecological degradation by adjusting industrial structures and promoting technological innovation. However, so-called green policies, green technologies, and green economies based on capitalist private ownership ultimately cannot escape the logic that “capital has only one life instinct, which is to valorize itself and create surplus value,” and thus cannot fundamentally resolve the contradiction between the economic and ecological dimensions in the development of productive forces, nor can they completely solve ecological and environmental problems. It can be said that capitalist private ownership and green productive forces are always mutually exclusive. The reason some Western ecological scholars label the Marxist theory of productive forces as anti-ecological also stems from their stance of private ownership. Their error lies in failing to recognize the qualitative reshaping of production methods, science and technology, and lifestyles brought about by the historical transformation from private ownership to public ownership, and even more so in not understanding that public ownership is the institutional prerequisite for humanity to regard itself as part of the organic whole of nature and to coexist harmoniously with it. In essence, developing green productive forces and addressing the current ecological crisis must be based on public ownership of the means of production.

资本主义国家通过调整产业结构、推动科技创新等手段来解决环境污染、生态退化问题，确实有一定成效。不过，基于资本主义私有制的所谓绿色政策、绿色科技、绿色经济等终究逃不出“资本只有一种生活本能，这就是增殖自身，创造剩余价值”的逻辑，无法在根本上化解生产力发展过程中的经济性与生态性之间的矛盾，不能彻底解决生态环境问题。可以说，资本主义私有制与绿色生产力始终相互排斥。一些西方生态学者之所以给马克思主义生产力理论贴上反生态标签，其实也是源于这些学者的私有制立场。其错误就在于没有认识到从私有制到公有制的历史变革对生产方式、科学技术、生活方式等的质态重塑，更未明白公有制是实现人类把自身视为自然界有机整体之部分而与之和谐相处的制度前提。质言之，发展绿色生产力，应对当下生态危机，必须以生产资料公有制为基础。

China has made accelerating the formation and development of green productive forces a major issue of the times. “The Communists can sum up their theory in one sentence: the abolition of private property.” [26]26 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, *The Communist Manifesto* (1848). Guided by Marxism, the Communist Party of China eliminated various forms of private ownership in the old society during the process of revolution and construction, gradually establishing public ownership of the means of production. China adheres to public ownership as the mainstay while also leveraging the positive role of capital in developing productive forces. However, while achieving the goals of enriching the country and benefiting the people, it has also faced a situation of tightening resource constraints, severe environmental pollution, and ecosystem degradation, highlighting the contradiction between the economic and ecological dimensions of labor productivity. Entering the New Era, Chinese Communists, with Comrade Xi Jinping as their chief representative, have proposed a new strategy of promoting high-quality development with new quality productive forces. “New quality productive forces are advanced productive forces with high technology, high efficiency, and high quality, led by innovation, breaking away from traditional economic growth models and paths of productive forces development, and conforming to the new development philosophy.” [27]27 Xi Jinping, “Accelerating the Development of New Quality Productive Forces” (2024). New quality productive forces have an economic dimension aimed at meeting the people’s growing needs for a better life. Developing new quality productive forces requires continuously fostering new technologies, developing high-tech, accelerating the transformation and application of scientific and technological achievements, transforming traditional industries, strengthening emerging industries, and solidifying the foundation of the modern industrial system, thereby enhancing the efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of economic development and creating ample wealth to improve people’s living standards. At the same time, new quality productive forces also have an ecological dimension aimed at meeting the people’s growing needs for a beautiful ecological environment. “Green is the symbol of life, the background color of nature, and even more so the foundation of a good life and the expectation of the people.” [28]28 Xi Jinping, “Speech at the National Conference on Ecological and Environmental Protection” (2018). Developing new quality productive forces also requires protecting the integrity of ecosystems, building a community of life where humans and nature coexist harmoniously, promoting high-quality development where “green becomes the universal form,” and safeguarding the people’s most inclusive well-being. As General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “Green development is the background of high-quality development, and new quality productive forces themselves are green productive forces.” [29]29 Xi Jinping, “Speech at the 20th National Congress of the CPC” (2022). New quality productive forces have the background of green development and are advanced productive forces capable of maintaining the coordination and unity of economic and ecological dimensions. China’s current stage of accelerating the formation and development of new quality productive forces is precisely about following the green productive forces development blueprint of the Marxist theory of productive forces, unswervingly taking the path of ecological priority and green development, promoting the green transformation of production methods, green innovation in science and technology, and a green revolution in lifestyles, and cultivating and developing green productive forces.

我国把加快形成和发展绿色生产力作为重大时代课题。“共产党人可以把自己的理论概括为一句话：消灭私有制。”中国共产党以马克思主义为指导，在革命和建设进程中消灭了旧社会各种私有制，逐步确立生产资料公有制。我国坚持以公有制为主体，同时发挥资本对发展生产力的积极作用，但在实现富国裕民目标的同时也出现了资源约束趋紧、环境污染严重、生态系统退化的形势，劳动生产力的经济性与生态性的矛盾凸显。进入新时代，以习近平同志为主要代表的中国共产党人提出以新质生产力推动高质量发展的新战略。“新质生产力是创新起主导作用，摆脱传统经济增长方式、生产力发展路径，具有高科技、高效能、高质量特征，符合新发展理念的先进生产力质态。”新质生产力具有以满足人民日益增长的美好生活需要为目标的经济性，发展新质生产力要求不断催生新科技、发展高科技、加速科技成果转化应用，改造传统产业、壮大新兴产业、夯实现代化产业体系根基，从而提升经济发展的效率、效益和质量，为提高人民生活水平创造充裕的财富。同时，新质生产力也具有以满足人民日益增长的优美生态环境需要为目标的生态性。“绿色是生命的象征、大自然的底色，更是美好生活的基础、人民群众的期盼。”发展新质生产力还必须保护生态系统的完整性、构建人与自然和谐共生的生命共同体，推动“绿色成为普遍形态”的高质量发展，保障人民的最普惠民生福祉。正如习近平总书记指出的：“绿色发展是高质量发展的底色，新质生产力本身就是绿色生产力。”新质生产力具有绿色发展的底色，是能够保持经济性与生态性协调统一的先进生产力。我国现阶段加快形成和发展新质生产力，就是在按照马克思主义生产力理论的绿色生产力发展图景，坚定不移走生态优先、绿色发展之路，推动生产方式绿色转型、科学技术绿色创新、生活方式绿色革命，培育发展绿色生产力。

1. Green Transformation of Production Methods

1.生产方式绿色转型

Marx pointed out, “With the acquisition of new productive forces, people change their mode of production.” [30]30 Karl Marx, *The Poverty of Philosophy* (1847). New quality productive forces require corresponding new production methods. The production methods of mass production, mass consumption, and mass emissions that emerged during China’s process of solving economic shortages have placed pressure on the carrying capacity of ecosystems. Promoting the green transformation of production methods, preventing and avoiding the phenomenon of production for the sake of production, is an inherent requirement for cultivating and developing new quality productive forces. In this regard, based on the idea of communal control over material metabolism, the advantages of the socialist system should be leveraged to macro-control the production process. The current focus is on adjusting structures, optimizing layouts, strengthening industries, and completing chains. First, adjust the economic structure and energy structure, change the situation of excessively large and rapidly developing extensive economies, eliminate high-energy-consumption, high-pollution, and low-efficiency production capacity, and develop renewable and clean energy. Second, prioritize the planning of ecological industries and emerging industries, optimize the industrial layout of regional, river basin, and territorial areas, and manage energy-rich areas and ecological security barrier zones with high quality. Third, strengthen energy-saving, environmental protection, and clean industries, cultivate modern agriculture with high output efficiency, product safety, resource conservation, and environmental friendliness, develop high-end, intelligent, and green modern industries, promote the green upgrading of the service industry, and form ecological industry clusters. Fourth, establish integrated green industry chains for technology development and application, commodity production and circulation, and resource recycling, promote environmental protection and resource conservation throughout the entire chain, and achieve a circular connection between production and living systems. The green transformation of production methods will enable China to extract resources from nature at a minimum level and utilize resources efficiently in a circular manner. At the same time, based on platforms such as the green Belt and Road Initiative and South-South cooperation, China extends the development path of adjusting structures, optimizing layouts, strengthening industries, and completing chains internationally, assisting developing countries in the green transformation of their production methods. Green productive forces are gradually taking shape with the green transformation of production methods.

马克思指出，“随着新生产力的获得，人们改变自己的生产方式”。新质生产力需要与之相适应的新生产方式。我国在解决经济短缺问题过程中衍生出的大量生产、大量消耗和大量排放的生产方式对生态系统承载力造成了压力。推进生产方式绿色转型，防范和规避为生产而生产的现象，是培育发展新质生产力的内在要求。对此，应根据物质变换的共同体控制思想，发挥社会主义制度优势，对生产过程进行宏观调控，现阶段的重点是调结构、优布局、强产业、全链条。一要调整经济结构和能源结构，改变粗放型经济规模过大和发展过快状况，淘汰高耗能高污染低效率产能，发展可再生清洁能源；二要优先规划生态产业和新兴产业、优化区域流域地域产业布局、优质管控能源富集区与生态安全屏障区；三要壮大节能环保清洁产业，培育产出高效、产品安全、资源节约、环境友好的现代农业，发展高端化、智能化、绿色化的现代工业，推动服务业绿色化升级，形成生态产业集群；四要建立技术开发应用、商品生产流通及资源循环利用等一体化绿色产业链，推进全链条环境保护和资源节约，实现生产系统和生活系统循环连接。生产方式的绿色转型将使我国做到最低限度地从自然界摄取资源与高效循环利用资源。同时，我国基于绿色“一带一路”、南南合作等平台将调结构、优布局、强产业、全链条的发展路径向国际延伸，助力发展中国家生产方式绿色转型。绿色生产力随着生产方式的绿色转型正逐步形成。

2. Green Innovation in Science and Technology

2.科学技术绿色创新

Every technological revolution in history has, to varying degrees, caused changes in production methods, and the green transformation of production methods cannot be separated from green innovation in science and technology. Ecology has become a frontier science in technological innovation. Developing and applying technologies in fields such as agriculture, industry, and forestry based on ecological principles is an inherent part of green technology innovation. Promoting the integration of ecology into scientific and technological innovation, and using the ecologization of science and technology as a guide to accelerate green technological innovation and the promotion and application of advanced green technologies, is the basic path to achieving material metabolism “with the least expenditure of force.” [31]31 Karl Marx, *Capital*, Volume 3 (1894). Currently, innovation in various key generic technologies, cutting-edge leading technologies, modern engineering technologies, and disruptive technologies must take the protection of ecosystems as a precondition, achieving the integration of innovation and green concepts, and solving the problems of high energy consumption, high risk, and high pollution in development and application. Although capitalist countries have promoted the rise of green technology, green innovation in science and technology is still constrained by capital valorization and follows the logic of technology for technology’s sake, facing insurmountable barriers similar to the “Jevons paradox.” [32]32 The Jevons paradox, named after 19th-century economist William Stanley Jevons, holds that technological improvements increasing resource efficiency can lead to higher overall consumption of that resource. China’s development of new quality productive forces must fully leverage the advantages of the new nationwide system for mobilizing resources, and use innovations in the economic and technological systems to avoid the development and application of technology for technology’s sake. First, regulate and guide the healthy and benign development of capital, free science and technology from the control of capital, and make it a booster for green technology innovation. Second, endow technological innovation with the goal of common prosperity, so that “green technology becomes the basic direction of technology serving society.” [33]33 A phrase from Chinese policy discourse emphasizing the social orientation of technological development. Third, coordinate the economic and ecological effects of technological innovation based on the common interests of humanity, systematically advance the supervision of technological innovation, and pre-control the long-term impacts of technological activities on ecosystems.

历史上每一次科技革命都不同程度地引起生产方式变革，生产方式绿色转型离不开科学技术绿色创新。生态学已成为科技创新中的前沿科学，基于生态学原理开展农业、工业、林业等诸领域的技术开发与应用，是创新绿色科技的题中应有之义。推进生态学在科学技术创新中的融贯，以科学技术生态化为引领加快绿色科技创新和先进绿色技术推广应用，是实现“靠消耗最小的力量”进行物质变换的基本路径。当前，各种关键共性技术、前沿引领技术、现代工程技术、颠覆性技术的创新必须以保护生态系统为前置条件，实现创新和绿色的理念融合，解决开发应用中的高耗能、高风险及高污染问题。资本主义国家虽然推动了绿色科技的兴起，但科学技术绿色创新受资本增殖制约依旧遵循为技术而技术的逻辑，存在类似于“杰文斯悖论”等无法克服的壁垒。我国发展新质生产力必须充分发挥新型举国体制优势，以经济体制、科技体制创新来规避为技术而技术的开发与应用。一要规范和引导资本健康良性发展，解除资本对科学技术的挟制并使之成为创新绿色科技的助推器；二要赋予科技创新以共同富裕目标，使“绿色科技成为科技为社会服务的基本方向”;三要基于人类共同利益协调科技创新的经济效应和生态效益，体系化地推进科技创新监督，预控科技活动对生态系统的长远影响。

3. Green Revolution in Lifestyles

3.生活方式绿色革命

General Secretary Xi Jinping has stressed the need to advocate a green lifestyle throughout society, “using a green revolution in lifestyles to force a green transformation in production methods.” [34]34 Xi Jinping’s remark, made in the context of promoting ecological civilization, calls for a shift in consumption habits to drive changes in production, reflecting the CPC’s emphasis on lifestyle as a lever for environmental policy. In the course of economic and social development, China has given rise to materialistic forms of consumption such as large-scale construction, extravagance and waste, dissipation and luxury, and the indiscriminate consumption of wild animals. Many industries have exhibited tendencies toward accelerated consumption, including excessive consumption stimulation, debt-based consumption, and advance consumption. For a long period, there has been tacit acceptance of discharging untreated waste and failing to pay for pollution, which has increased resource consumption and environmental burdens, creating numerous bottlenecks and blockages for the development of productive forces. Therefore, cultivating new quality productive forces must initiate a green revolution in lifestyles. First, it is necessary to promote a transformation in consumption concepts, enabling the entire population to establish a philosophy of life characterized by diligence and thrift, health and civility, simplicity and moderation in daily life, study, work, and social interaction, and to foster a mindset of resource conservation, environmental protection, and pollution reduction, thereby providing spiritual impetus for the development of new quality productive forces. Second, it is necessary to accelerate the innovation of consumption patterns. On the one hand, a green, low-carbon, and circular consumption model should be established to raise the level of greenness, pollution-free status, and low-carbon content of consumer goods, as well as the re-resourcing, degradability, and zero-emission level of waste. On the other hand, an intelligent, shared, and inclusive consumption model should be created to realize the digital allocation of production factors, the shared use of social resources, and the inclusive enjoyment of ecological products, thereby empowering new quality productive forces. Third, it is necessary to promote the optimization of the consumption environment, improve regulatory and control mechanisms for the formulation of green consumption standards and the handling of waste materials and hazardous substances, construct market mechanisms that reflect the supply and demand of green consumption, the degree of resource scarcity, and the cost of pollution control, and perfect incentive and constraint mechanisms for green consumption, thereby creating favorable conditions for the formation of green productive forces. The popularization of a green lifestyle will effectively reconcile the contradiction between economic growth and environmental load, and the conflict between accelerated consumption and resource conservation, enabling the people’s needs for a better life and a beautiful ecological environment to be genuinely satisfied, and assisting in the early realization of the goal of people’s free and all-round development.

习近平总书记强调要在全社会倡导绿色生活方式，“通过生活方式绿色革命，倒逼生产方式绿色转型”。我国在经济社会发展过程中，滋生大兴土木、铺张浪费、骄奢淫逸及滥食野生动物等物欲式消费，很多行业出现过度的刺激消费、借贷消费和超前消费等加速式消费趋向，很长一段时间内存在默许排放未经处理的废物、排污不付费等问题，加大了资源消耗和环境负荷，给生产力发展造成不少堵点卡点，所以培育新质生产力必须发起生活方式绿色革命。其一，促进消费观念变革，使全民在日常生活、学习、工作、社交等活动中树立勤俭节约、健康文明、简约适度的生活理念，建立节约资源、保护环境、减少污染的思维方式，为发展新质生产力提供精神动力。其二，加快消费模式革新，一方面创建绿色低碳循环的消费模式以提升消费品的绿色化、无污化、低碳化和废物的再资源化、可降解化、零排放化水平，另一方面创建智能共享普惠的消费模式以实现生产要素的数字化配置、社会资源的共享化使用、生态产品的普惠化享有，赋能新质生产力。其三，推动消费环境优化，健全绿色消费标准体系制定、废旧物资与公害物处理等方面的调控管控机制，构建反映绿色消费供求、资源稀缺程度及污染治理成本等的市场机制，完善绿色消费激励约束机制，为绿色生产力的形成创造良好条件。绿色生活方式的普及将有效协调经济增长和环境负荷的矛盾、消费加速和资源节约的冲突，使人民美好生活需要和优美生态环境需要获得切实满足，助力人的自由全面发展目标尽早实现。

The ecological narrative contained in the Marxist theory of productive forces—concerning the ecological character of labor productivity, the anti-ecological mode of wealth creation under capitalist productive forces, and the developmental prospect of green productive forces—is a theoretical treasure for understanding the causes of the ecological crisis, establishing strategies to address the ecological crisis, and carrying out actions to protect the ecological environment. The Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, based on the advantages of the socialist system, vigorously cultivates and develops new quality productive forces, promotes the green transformation of production methods, the green innovation of science and technology, and the green revolution in lifestyles. This is precisely the practice of the Marxist developmental prospect of green productive forces. On this basis, new quality productive forces are themselves green productive forces.

马克思主义生产力理论蕴含的关于劳动生产力的生态性、资本主义生产力反生态的财富创造方式、绿色生产力的发展图景等内容的生态叙事，是当下认识生态危机成因、确立应对生态危机方略、开展保护生态环境行动等的理论宝藏。以习近平同志为核心的党中央立足社会主义制度优势，大力培育发展新质生产力，推动生产方式绿色转型、科学技术绿色创新和生活方式绿色革命，就是在实践马克思主义的绿色生产力发展图景。基于此，新质生产力本身就是绿色生产力。