173 Ecological Metaphors Andreas Hölzl I. Introduction Metaphors are not simply a matter of words but have very real conse- quences for how we conduct our lives and also for how we pursue scien- tific research. One of the most striking examples is the Metaphor in End of Life Care project led by Elena Semino at Lancaster University, which showed the important role of different metaphors in discourse about can- cer. 1 Similarly, discourse about environmental issues crucially depends on the use of metaphors. 2 Originally, ecology was defined as the science of organisms within their surroundings 3 and was later developed in many directions, one of which is Ecological Psychology. 4 But “the word ‘ecology’ in everyday lan- guage is more associated with a series of environmentally-oriented values than it is with an area of scientific inquiry.” 5 This everyday usage is usually associated with ecological movements or green political parties which aim at protecting and preserving nature. The two senses are not always easy to separate and are sometimes deliberately combined. Take the field of Eco(logical)linguistics, for instance, which Alexander and Stibbe recently defined as “the study of the impact of language on the life-sustaining rela- tionships among humans, other organisms and the physical environment. It is normatively orientated towards preserving relationships which sus- 1 Elena Semino: “Metaphor and Framing in Discourse”, Plenary Lecture at the 5th UK Cognitive Linguistics Conference at Lancaster University, 29–31 July 2014. 2 E.g., Arran Stibbe: Animals Erased. Discourse, Ecology, and Reconnection with the Natural World, Middletown 2012. 3 Ernst Haeckel: Generelle Morphologie der Organismen. Allgemeine Grundzüge der organischen Formen-Wissenschaft, mechanisch begründet durch die von Charles Dar- win reformirte Descendenz-Theorie. Zweiter Band: Allgemeine Entwicklungsgeschic- hte der Organismen, Berlin 1866, 286. 4 James J. Gibson: The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception [1979], New York, 1986; Edward S. Reed: Encountering the World. Toward an Ecological Psychology, New York/Oxford 1996. 5 Jacob Weiner: “The Two Meanings of Ecology”, in: KVL-Mosaik 6/6 (1998), 12– 13, here: 12.