eco-
(iːkəʊ)
shortening of ecological, ecology, as in eco-ˈactivist, one who actively opposes the pollution, or destruction by other means, of the environment; ecocaˈtastrophe, major damage to the environment, esp. when caused by human activity; ecoˈcidal a., designed or tending to destroy the environment; ˈecocide, destruction or damage of the environment, esp. intentionally; ˈecofreak colloq., a fanatical conservationist or environmentalist. See also ecoclimate, ecophene, etc.
| 1969 Time 10 Oct. 70/1 Last week *eco-activists staged a ‘Damn DDT Day’ in San Francisco's Union Square. 1975 Weekend Mag. (Montreal) 6 Dec. 28/3 The Greenpeace eco-activists, noted for their campaigns against nuclear testing and the slaughter of whales, are by no means alone in expounding the new planetary morality. |
| 1969 New Scientist 2 Oct. 18/2 Some major *eco-catastrophes seem bound to occur in the coming decades. 1973 Science 12 Oct. 173/2 An ecocatastrophe of serious magnitude to the seaward fringe of the Everglades National Park and adjacent areas appears to be in progress. |
| 1970 Guardian Weekly 15 Aug. 18 Beyond that lie the use of *ecocidal weapons—herbicides in Vietnam—and ‘humane incapacitants’. 1973 Bull. Peace Proposals IV. i. 84/2 It is also important to distinguish between specific occasions of environmental warfare and persistent patterns of warfare that produce cumulative effects on ecosystems that can be properly called ‘ecocide’ or policies that can be designated ‘ecocidal’. |
| 1969 Encycl. Sci. Suppl. (Grolier) 159 Discarded automobiles, old newspapers and telephone books, tin cans, nonreturnable bottles—all add to the growing problems of solid-waste disposal... *Ecocide—the murder of the environment—is everybody's business. 1972 Punch 1 Mar. 298/2 The new word for bravado is custerism. Wilful destruction of the environment is now ecocide. 1982 New Scientist 3 June 663/1 Olof Palme denounced the Americans for ecocide in Vietnam. |
| 1970 Natural Hist. Oct. 22/3 I've been an *ecofreak for 30 years. 1980 Guardian Weekly 11 May 14 Alexandre Hebert,..a staunch anarchist trade unionist, has nothing but disdain for ‘those eco-freaks who want to turn back the wheels of history’. |
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ˈeco-art, art which has an ecological message or purpose.
| 1971 New Scientist 2 Sept. 537/3 (heading) *Eco-art. 1990 Independent 29 May 13/4 Iraqi Neo-Conceptualism (a copy of The Satanic Verses enigmatically sandwiched between marble slabs) neighbours Brazilian Eco-Art (a stand of felled trees that looks like a reproof to the loggers). |
ˈecodoom, ecological disaster on a large scale.
| 1973 Times Lit. Suppl. 5 Jan. 18/1 (heading) *Ecodoom in Eden. 1989 Lit. Rev. Aug. 41/2 That is not to say doom-laden culture-pessimists are right, any more than the green ecodoom fanatics. |
ˈecoˌdoomster, one who makes pessimistic forecasts about the environment; a prophet of ‘ecodoom’.
| 1972 Times 31 May 14 (heading) Flaws in *ecodoomsters' arguments. 1977 Time 6 June 53/2 Wilfred Beckerman..has emerged as a kind of St. George against those he calls ‘the eco-doomsters’. |
ˌecogeoˈgraphic(al a., pertaining to or regarding location and environment.
| 1962 Biol. Abstr. XXXVIII. 981/2 *Ecogeographic mechanism of the structural variability of imported plants. 1983 E. C. Minkoff Evolutionary Biol. xiii. 234/1 The same type of cline, responding to the same climatic variable, may exist in a large number of species and be recognizable in the form of an ecogeographic rule. 1956 E. Mayr in Evolution X. 105 There is no good, generally accepted collective term available for such rules as Bergmann's rule, Allen's rule, etc... The term *ecogeographical rules, although by no means ideal, will be used.., being less inclusive than the term ecological rules. 1973 Nature 31 Aug. 575/2 In spite of reproductive and ecogeographical isolations in the late and post-Pleistocene period. 1988 Evolution XLII. 278/2 These 121 stocks were obtained from various hosts and types of transmission cycle in a broad ecogeographical range. |
ˈeco-label, a label (on manufactured goods) used to identify products which satisfy certain environmental conditions regarding manufacture, biodegradability, etc.
| 1989 Daily Tel. 7 Apr. 5/6 (heading) *Eco-labels on nappies ‘are often misleading’. 1990 Earth Matters Summer 8/2 Official ‘eco-labels’ have been used in West Germany since 1978. |
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ˈeco-ˌlabelling, the practice of labelling goods in this way.
| 1989 Daily Tel. 7 Apr. 5/6 An official, standardised ‘*eco-labelling’ scheme, on the lines of that established in West Germany. 1990 New Scientist 16 June 66/3 MPs will follow with interest the progress of the recently formed Eco-Labelling Advisory Group. |
ˈeco-nut colloq. = ecofreak above.
| 1972 Analog Aug. 4/1 In a world where the ‘*econuts’ rage against science and technology, and the scientists dither in dignified confusion.., we have a conflict. 1979 Radio Times 5 May 89/1 I'm a farmer who's interested in biological husbandry, not an eco-nut who's interested in farming. 1990 Daily Tel. 14 Aug. 14/5 So the econuts have finally noticed that petrol contains substantial benzene (a suspect carcinogen) and that ‘green-approved’ unleaded petrol contains even more. |
ˈeco-raider U.S., a person who takes part in (
usu. collective) attacks on the property of institutions whose activities are supposedly harmful to the environment.
| 1975 E. Abbey Monkey Wrench Gang iv. 48 The newspaper stories mentioned ‘organized bands of environmental activists’, a phrase soon shortened to the much handier and more dramatic ‘*eco-raiders’. 1987 Chicago Tribune 2 Aug. i. 21/1 Oftentimes..the costumed crusaders will get a chuckle from onlookers who accept the pamphlets signed with such names as ‘Bolt Weevils’, ‘the Tucson Ecoraiders’ or ‘the Bonnie Abbzug Feminist Garden Club’. |
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eco-ˈterrorism, violence carried out to further environmentalist ends; also, politically motivated damage to the natural environment.
| 1990 A. Toffler Powershift v. 377 A second wing [of an environmental pressure group]..might well step up from eco-vandalism to full-scale *eco-terrorism to enforce its demands. 1991 Time 27 May 50/2 Saddam's eco-terrorism raised the amount of carbon dioxide that humans are pumping into the atmosphere by up to 2{pcnt}. 1992 New Scientist 25 Apr. 8/1 (caption) The Earth Observation Satellite Corporation, which operates the Landsat satellites, has released these infrared images showing the extent of the world's worst act of ecoterrorism. |
eco-ˈterrorist, one who participates in or supports eco-terrorism.
| 1988 Arena Autumn/Winter 35 He came up with the idea for Tourist Season, the story of *eco-terrorists taking on the grossness of the tourist trade. 1993 Coloradoan (Fort Collins) 16 Jan. a9/5 Hagar's group flooded the local media with ads deriding the wolf supporters as ‘eco-terrorists’ who are pouring into this frigid subarctic settlement from ‘the outside’. |
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eco-warrior n. a person actively involved in protecting, or preventing damage to, the environment,
esp. one involved in campaigning, protest activities, and direct action.
| 1987 Sunday Times 31 May 25/3 After it became clear that whalers had virtually wiped out the great whales, the ‘*eco-warriors’ of Greenpeace and other groups dramatised the plight of the warm-blooded intelligent creatures. 1990 Los Angeles Times (Nexis) 7 Jan. (Bk. Review section) 1 There is the ‘Code of the Eco-Warrior’, admonishing that proper actions result in no one getting hurt, no one getting caught, and ‘if you do get caught you're on your own’. 1996 C. J. Stone Fierce Dancing ix. 133 Andy was giving lessons in tree-climbing to all the wide-eyed trainee eco-warriors who looked upon these two as the epitome of anarchist revolutionaries. |