What is it to be ECO?

The word comes from long ago, but we who look at it closely can say that the concept only became popular in the 1960s, when young men let their hair grow down to their waists, and proclaimed the slogan that only what was natural was good. Make Love not War was a universal motto at that time, and the idea that, if we abandoned ourselves to nature we would be saved, appeared to be an achievable dream. A wonderful dream that was a lie. On the contrary, civilisation accelerated its confrontation with nature, increased human conflicts, and ECO became synonymous with a battle. A continuous battle that demands vigilance, intellectual effort, discussion and persuasion, so that co-existence between human beings and other species can be balanced and not destructive. ECO is thus a battle of intelligence against appropriation and stupidity, so that a state of harmony can be reached.

At the start of 2000, Barry Gifford wrote a poem about the future of the world, entitled Note to a friend far away – Cranes slowly / settle on / nearby pond / clouds blow through / no lovers / or friends / birds, weather / will do  In this way, the American writer reproduced the feeling of giving up that many of us have. But we must not hold back, and surrender. The battle for respect for the Earth and its species is the same as the one that leads the battle for the dignity of human beings. And that is ECO. We need to defend our home, our Oikós, that home that commences in the valves of the heart and yet spreads out to the constellations that populate Celestial Space.