Today's interpretations of what language ecology is range widely. Many researchers use ‘ecology’ simply as a reference to ‘context’ or ‘language environment’, to describe language-related issues embedded in (micro or macro) sociolinguistic, educational, economic or political settings rather than de-contextualised. Here ‘ecology’ has often become a fashionable term for simply situating language or language study in some way, i.e., it is a metaphor. This essay uses Wendel's (2005) definition: “The ecological approach to language considers the complex web of relationships that exist between the environment, languages, and their speakers). ‘Environment’ here means the physical, biological and social environments. Many sociolinguists pay only lip-service to the first two. The essay starts with a discussion of definitions, first language-related, then ecology-related, and finally puts the two together. The connecting concept here is diversity, and the struggle for its maintenance, in nature and culture.