Iskra Stojkovska “What ecology are you talking about? We have more important issues!” This is an attitude I face every day. When I ask an interlocutor what the more important issues are, the first answer is, with no exception: “the economic development”. When I received the invitation to write my “views”, I thought about the topic “what ‘hurts’ me most”. There are surely a few things, but what hurts me most is certainly the public’s behavior towards the topic my organization deals with – ecology, not only as an ecological activist, but more as a parent. There are a few “angles” that the ecology’s relevance can be analyzed from. I decided to take the economic one, just because of the abovementioned attitude and “massive hypnosis” with the topics about economic development, foreign investments etc. While the developed world has finally realized the many decades “mistake in evaluation” on which the last century’s economy was based upon and which has brought the whole world to the edge of disaster (drastic decrease of natural resources, climate changes etc.) to a great extent, we have missed the incredible chance for economic development that opens the change of the global market. “History will teach us nothing” – sings Sting. If we take a look at the global movements throughout the history, the centers of power and dominant empires, the basic moving force can be clearly seen. With no exception “the main world players” are those who own and/or have control upon what is required on the market. In 19th century the biggest and the most influential empery was the British and the most wanted “goods” were gold, coal, wooden stuff, steel and weapons. In the 20th century it is the States. Why? Because they have control and they own the most wanted market products: oil, microchips, planes, weapons, movies. (You can find the analysis in Time Millennium, Collector’s Edition 31.12.1999). “Back to the future”: last summer I went on holiday to Japan. They say, if you want to see what the future will look like, you don’t need a time machine – go to Japan. In the Science and Innovations Museum, in the most progressive metropolis (Tokyo) of the most progressive country in the world, a whole floor is dedicated to ecology and the material that is promoted as ultimate material of the future is – hemp. Moral: what is mostly wanted on the market (and in the future that demand will undoubtedly grow) is the nature. There is not an area in which this trend is not more than obvious: renewable sources of energy in energetics, organic agriculture in the food industry, ecotourism, certified forests…And we think that “the economic development is far more important than ecology”. Today’s economy is closely related to ecology, the future will be inconceivable without it! At the moment we are in a very important period and whether we will deepen the gap between us and the developed world or we will realize the rare opportunity that opens to us and make a big leap in getting closer to it,  depends to a great extent on the road we choose. There is a saying: “The darkest hour comes before the dawn”. The long period of transition and closure of many industrial capacities have caused great damage to the economy but it can be the basis for economic development in the real direction – the green one. One of the first projects of the new British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is the project “One million green job positions”. “The Job and Environment Alliance” in Germany has joined its efforts with trade unions, employers, the government and ecological organizations and it has started a program for improving the insulation in the existing buildings. So far the project has been implemented in 265.000 homes. It has also opened 190.000 new job positions, has saved emission of 2 million tons of carbon dioxide and has drastically reduced the heating bills. The final gain of the reduced unemployment, decreased heating costs and increased tax incomes is about 4 billion dollars. The governmental investments are 1.8 billion dollars. The developed ones are not developed without a reason. Macedonia has an unrepeatable chance of becoming a rich “green oasis” in Europe. The first step is to change the underestimating behavior towards the importance of ecology.   (the author of the text is a president of the Citizens’ Association “Front 21/42”)