Eco is Such a Dirty Word

Eco is such a dirty word

And now for a diversion! These things happen when you read language columns in the Herald on Saturday. Specifically I read a column by Susan Butler, a Dictionary writer, called Do you hear an eco? It’s the language of a green revolution. (November 28-29, 2009). And of course she’s telling us about the new terminology that’s helping us to cope with new green technologies. Words like biochar, carbon sequestration, ecological sustainability, ecotherapy, ecowarrior, green footprint, peak oil and so on. These are the easy words in her list. No wonder we’re all having trouble grasping the concepts when the vocabulary is so difficult. I’m currently working out my carbon footprint and sunpower credits, but the language use just makes me want to give up. The words put you off doing anything positive.


Why haven’t I been hearing these words anywhere else? Or words like them? Being a sci fi fan I went to McKenzie’s Dictionary for some answers. Here are the entries for ‘eco’:


Eco Jak II The dark form of this substance was used to experiment on Jak by Baron Praxis.

Eco Accelerator Red Dwarf: Rimmerworld Rockets used to accelerate the terraforming of a world.

Ecoban Wonderful Days City which powered itself on pollution in the Earth’s future.

Ecologarium The Star Pit A glass enclosure created by the procreation group for the children to observe life natural to Sigma.

Ecomancer PoDW People with a variety of magical
abilities including: ability to make plants grow faster, control the weather, wind or water, communicate with animals and send psychic messages. Originally from Andorus, where they protected the land and animals.

Eco Phantoms Game, 1990. Published by Electronic Zoo. DOS. Player returns to Earth to find Eco Phantoms draining life from the planet. Objective is to steal an alien craft, fight through their three domes, freeing prisoners and learn how their technology works. Player then invades the mother ship to reprogram the computers to return the life to Earth.

Ecos, The Invasion Earth Group of friendly aliens who warned Earth about invasion.

Ecotopia SQ2032 Place. Ideal underwater city, which was actually a fraud. [< ecology + utopia.]

Pardon me? Eight entries? And dark eco is a disappointing use of the prefix, sticking in your mind like mud.

What about Gaia?


Gaia 1. Greek name for Earth, representing her as our mother.
2. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within The spirit of Earth.
3. Appleseed Self propagating network of computers forming a supercomputer running Olympus, combined wisdom and intention. Discussed issues with the Elders to work out solutions to problems, tricked by them into causing trouble between the Army and Athena.
4. Deep Space Nine Children of Time Name the descendents of the DS9 runabout gave their home planet.


FOUR entries!


When I looked up green it got worse – there were lots of entries , but most of them were for bad forms of green. Remember the bright green goo in the old Doctor Who? You could never touch it without drastic consequences. Green is usually bad, even green thumb who you would think would be all about growth, is evil. Bio is about the same, with lots of entries with scientific meanings, plus bio hazards and biogenic weapons. And the latest biodome in Doctor Who The Waters of Mars produces bad carrots which turn the crew into alien monsters.
Hydroponics doesn’t do any better, even though it is more mainstream than biodomes with two entries:

Hydroponic dome B7 Power Structure under which food was grown by the Cesca.

Hydroponics Chamber SQDSV Vapors Area of seaQuest developed by Captain Bridger as a sanctuary. Climate controlled, tropical, with jasmine and bird song.



Where are the movies and TV Series?


After coming to such a bad end with green words I wondered just how many ‘ecological’ type films there are around.

Sci fi is good at disaster movies, with lots of post nuclear holocaust films, none of which have positive endings, so they don’t count. Possibly The Day After Tomorrow has more positive spin, but in that scenario we have gone into a nasty ice age and we know we can survive that.

Dune and its sequels demonstrates how to survive on a dry planet, and the risks of terraforming the planet into something greener or bluer. You should never feel the same about water again after reading the book or seeing the Television movies.

Final Fantasy the Spirits Within argues that life is within us all, but it works together not individually. But it’s theme is shadowy and difficult, not really inspiring you to go out and take plant cuttings. It gets worse in Final Fantasy: Unlimited. Princess Herba uses her powers to create chaos rather than growth.

Silent Running posited that we could save ourselves by sending biospheres into space with all the vegetation needed to feed us. Of course the military wanted to put a stop to that idea.

Um, are there any more?

In children’s TV there was The Girl from Tomorrow where teenagers from three different time zones defeated evil men who wanted profit at the expense of the environment.
Fern Gully stopped the bulldozers razing the rainforest (we wish).

Star Trek Insurrection showsedthe Ba’ku living an idyllic rural life where no-one got a bad back or hammered their thumb. There are other scenes like this in Star Trek, but when you get to Farscape any idyllic scenario is sure to have Peacekeepers behind it for profit.
As for more nitty gritty items, Star Trek Next Generation: Transfigurations had an arboretum, Jupiter Moon had a dome over a greenhouse on the Ilea, there were agro or agron ships in the old Battlestar Galactica fleet, and there is an arboretum on Stargate Atlantis. At least some programs acknowledge humans have to eat ( and breath).

What About Non-Sci Fi Land?


Ordinary films and TV programs are no better really. We had Erin Brokovitch saving a community already poisoned and sick and Medicine Man finding cures for diseases in the rainforest.


The English TV program The Good Life presented an environmentally aware couple, although you can pick holes in it now. (How do the lights work at night when the power has been cut off? Did they have cold baths?)


Modern Designs and other architectural programs have had shows on environmentally sensitive houses, with the definition of sensitive varying a lot from minimising the use of concrete to just having dual flush toilets.


For kids, Round the Twist had environmental concerns at its heart, sending up developers and focussing on the spirits of place as saviours of the environment.

What Can We Use for Inspiration?


There are no movies based on Greenpeace, the Rainbow Warrior, the Franklin Dam protests, Paul Ehrlich’s early predictions, eco-warriors etc. At best there have been some documentaries on the results of oil spills like the one from the Exxon-Valdez. But there’s a lot of real life stuff out there to turn into film, documentary or otherwise.

And buried in libraries out there, there are stories waiting to be turned into modern media. Like LeGuin’s The Word for World is Forest.

And as for kids – there’s got to be someone writing stories about eco-warriors, hasn’t there? We get a lot of silly superhero stuff for kids, its time for something better.

Who’s to Blame?

It would be easy to say that sci fi writers and other film writers have been negligent, and yes they have in some ways. But I noticed in Gardening Australia recently that people are concerned that the phrase ‘ common garden variety’ is used in a negative way, to show how ordinary and not-special things are. Where gardeners believe all ‘garden varieties’ are special in their own way. Ordinary people have to adopt a different philosophy to the planet and its ecology. When respect for the environment percolates through all society, then writers will do better by it. It's pity they're not leading the way.