*3.2.5. Ecology in our mind: Eco-concepts matter*

The vision of an "eco-policy" in which the society is in harmony with nature, has led to several new eco-concepts. The prefix "eco-" is often used in the sustainability debate: eco-friendly products, eco-food, eco-tourism, eco-efficiency practices designed to reduce waste, energy consumption, and resource use, etc. Within eco-effectiveness, the concept "cradle-to-cradle" is creative. Earlier, "cradle-to-grave" was a paradigm illustrating the linear use of resources resulting in waste, while "cradle-to-cradle" regards waste as a resource that can be recycled.

Sometimes, the term "green" is used as a substitute: an environmentally friendly economy may be called green economy. The term "ecological footprint" has also become universal: It represents the amount of biologically productive land and sea area necessary to supply the resources a human population consumes, and to assimilate associated waste, see [26].

Perhaps we should use, more often, the strong moral force in the eco-prefix to *warn*. Political decisions of today are often "eco-unfriendly". The term "ecological crime" is already in use, often shortened as "eco- crime". In Norway, eco-crime is in fact used for both ecological and economical crime, and an official body termed "ecocrime" was erected in 1989. On our journey towards a sustainable future we should probably have a stronger focus on environmentally unfriendly activities.

Literature has already produced a number of "eco-thrillers", describing how nature strikes back when ecological limitations are crossed. Recently, the term "eco-angst", or "eco-fear", was presented in a Norwegian magazine [27]. Originating from the USA, the concept describes a new mental anguish which seems to be spreading: Bad forecasts for the future, for instance due to climate change, cause depression [28,29]. This is a serious signal to us all, both to politicians and consumers. Eco-fear is due to our eco-crimes. Overconsuming societies led by short-sighted economical profit are not only ecologically unsustainable, but also *mentally unsustainable.*
