What does eco friendly actually mean

[Andy Hamilton]

Seems that many people are jumping on the eco-friendly bandwagon all well and good and sometimes quite refreshing. But it seems to me that it is becoming meaninless. Smart cars call themselves eco friendly but they still use petrol all be it much, much less than a hummer - some people say oh I am eco friendly as I got the train to Paris once instead of flying, negating to mention the flights to new york. I read somewhere (and can't vouch for it) that the average distance traveled to buy local veg is 70 miles is this eco-friendly.

This is perhaps a rant, but surley many should be using the term eco-friendlier than before and not eco-friendly. To be truley eco-friendly then the product(s)/lifestyle choices should be putting back in more than they are taking out??

[paradox]

It seems to me at the moment that its deemed cool to be green/eco freindly.
It also seems the marketing boys are taking advantage of this to sell products.
Just look at the amount of organic food in the supermarket then look where its grown.
When people now say i only buy organic they dont realise that that produce has come from abroad and the shipping cost in co2 terms is massive.


Its good that the message is getting out there but i think like everything else in this world its just going to be a fad that gets used and abused by people just looking to make them selves rich or even richer.


The best way to help the eco cause is education and not continuing in a consumerist manner.

[Andy Hamilton]

Just look at the amount of organic food in the supermarket then look where its grown.
When people now say i only buy organic they dont realise that that produce has come from abroad and the shipping cost in co2 terms is massive.

Sainsburys are making more profit this year due to the high demands for organic food, but it mostly comes wrapped in plastic too. They are using some degradable plastic made from corn starch but is this GM corn?? does not have to say on the packaging. Also the soil association used to grant licences to sustainable farms and this has changed due to the growth in the organic market they are now granting licences to fish farms and much bigger and not so sustainable farms. When a giant in the organic movement such as the soil association are watering down their policies you have to ask if it is becoming a sham.

[Muddypause]

'Eco-friendly' has only ever been a marketing slogan. The nearest most products can come to it is 'Less Eco-Un-Friendly'. That fact is that nearly everything we consume must, perforce, have some detrimental effect upon the ecology.

To talk about an eco-friendly car, or eco-friendly paint, or eco-friendly anything else is like talking about healthy cigarettes.

[Boots]

I consider myself an eco-friendly person - in that, I consider myself a friend of ecology. Ecology is an interaction. It is the way something works in relation to something else. When we sow and reap anything, we are putting in and taking out and this effects the relationship between living and non-living things (ecology). Being eco-friendly is about considering the interaction of our actions upon the bigger picture (larger environment).

Ecology is not measured in yesterdays. It is considered in the now.

Being eco-friendly is not about just minimising our draw on resources, its about considering the interaction and our draw on it, and how we can give back in a restorative or complimentary fashion.

We can all accept that our environment has declined as a result of previous mistakes or misadventures, but our actions NOW determine whether we are acting in an eco-friendly way, because the ecology (whether deemed diminished or not) is still functioning as it is. It is complete in the moment.

My apologies, but am not certain now who??? I think maybe it was fee.fairy... or was it Milms... Ah, really not sure. But SOMEONE recently felt it necessary to cut down a tree. In doing so, she also initiated a global tree planting action that had folks like me and my girls planting trees in another country. Her actions can be seen as eco-friendly. She took and also initiated restorative giving.

An eco-friendly car provides transport allegedly with a reduced enviro impact. Regardless, of the reduced emissions etc, it really depends upon what the car is used for, or how the car is used by consumers, as to whether it is really eco-friendly or not. It has to give back to complete the transaction, so to speak. A tractor would be more eco-friendly than a car really - at least it is more liekly to be used to improve and aerate the earth... but if someone used the car to educate, transport trees or worm farms, or get to gigs to sing songs about environmental good practice, then in a sense, the car owner is behaving in an eco-friendly manner, and giving back. It's difficult to actually measure whether what we give back ever really matches what we take, but it is the consideration of our own personal eco-debts that makes a person act in an eco-friendly way.

There is nothing eco-friendly about buying a 3 cylinder car, parking it in a garage and starting it every week to keep the engine in good order. That is an incomplete transaction - not eco-friendly at all. Yes, the term is being misused, but ultimately when it comes to products, it's what we do with them that determines their true eco-friendliness.

I have goats and donkeys. Both are considered environmental and ecological menaces in Australia. Yet, as I selectively confine and use their waste products and behaviours in an environmentally friendly way, they can be seen to be eco-friendly. They provide weeding, clearing, and contouring that would otherwise require machinery, and their by-products provide ample fertiliser way beyond that which I would be able to afford without them. Existing as they are here, they are eco-friendly. Release them to fend for themselves and their impact/transaction would not be considered friendly at all.

Hope that makes sense..

[bwaymark]

Why are goats considered to be ecological menances in Australia?

[Boots]

Goats are ruthless browsers and they (like donkeys) are also territorial. They will hammer an area until it is barren. Unlike donkeys, who prefer mature browsing and are unable to process the protective chemical emitted in many young plants, the goats have four stomachs and can process just about anything. They will target new growth and can set the ecology back several years in one afternoon! They are also high browsers, and will strip rises and peaks first. This contributes to erosion and salination. We have deserts over here, attributed to the release of donkeys and goats that took place when farmers walked off their farms in the early 1900's.