Can Ecology and Commerce Coexist?

[Richard D]

By Jay Walljasper, Ode. Posted March 8, 2007.

A new movement called "beyond organic" aims to save land and communities. Is it the next ecological and social revolution or just another marketing tactic?
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Our small boat bobs along the unimaginably wide Amazon River, then heads up a fast-flowing tributary the colour of tea with cream, and finally turns onto a stream leading into the heart of the rainforest. Monkeys scamper in the trees above us as the motorboat chugs more and more slowly until the stream becomes too narrow to travel. This is where José Luiz de Oliveira and his 17-year-old son Alex live on a small farmstead alive with bird calls. Piglets frolic in the cool mud below their dock while ducks march in formation.

In many ways this boat ride feels like a trip into the past. The forest is largely untouched here except for the sunny clearing around the house (although we did spot an illegal lumber operation downriver). The de Oliveiras live as people have for centuries -- drawing their daily meals and livelihood from the land, the river and the livestock. It's an enchanting place if you can get used to the mosquitoes. Yet beauty and peace do not translate into prosperity. The tiny house has no electricity, no telephone, no fans, no screens in the windows.

The great debates about sustainable development being waged in government assemblies and at environmental institutes, corporate headquarters and street protests around the world are really about this place. Is it possible to bring the de Oliveiras some of the advantages of modern life -- like high school and shoes for Alex -- without destroying other valuable things in the process? Valuable things like the Amazon rainforest itself, which is crucial to everyone on the planet as a source of ecological balance and potential new medicines.

Much More: http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/48269/

[Sammy Pepys]

1. Sure it can.

"Environmentally-friendly" is becoming a very popular marketing term.

[HereSince1628]

2. Classis example of confusing ecology and environmental awareness

They aren't the same. Although GOP'ers have severely curtailed ecological research funds as if they were.

Ecology is the study of interactions between organsisms and their environments.

Environmental science is a multi-disciplinary concern aimed at the identification, analysis and management of environmental risks.


A better question is can business exist without THE GOLDEN RULE? Christianity and environmental ethics and environmetnal law are both based on the notion of living a life in a way that does no harm to others.

[jpak]

5. Beat me to it - and ugh...

The late E. P. Odum used to define ecology as "the study of the house of nature" and economics as "the management and stewarts of the house of humans".

(both words are derived from "oikos" - Greek for house...)

[kestrel91316]

3. Can unfettered free market capitalism co-exist long-term with

a healthy planet? Clearly not.

As evidence, I present Planet Earth in the Year 2007. Just look at her.

[YankeyMCC]

4. They have to

They co-exist now it's just that the economy side of the existance has been allowed to grow unchecked using up and destroying the ecology that is the foundation of everything no matter how disconnected it may seem.

[garybeck]

6. Ecology is GOOD for the economy. Renewables will SAVE our economy.