Highlight

ECO123: Are you working in Braga at present? Roberto Merrill: Yes, I came back to Portugal as a post-doctoral researcher funded by the FCT (Foundation of Science and Technology). I did research in political philosophy and two weeks ago I went to live in Braga, because I managed to arrange a miracle there: a post as a lecturer, so I’m …

An essay by Theobald Tiger Do you know the feeling? You do something just for your own sake. Simply because it’s fun. Because you’re interested in it. Or because it represents a challenge. The best example: an author writes a story. A fashion designer creates a hat. A painter paints a picture. Then the other side of the coin: you …

Words can be interpreted in different ways. The same does not apply to numbers. Numbers are just numbers, and that’s it. Statistics from the year 2012 show that Portugal imports about 80% of the energy it consumes. Most of this comes from fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas. There should be more arguments against these facts so …

ECO123: What is Proforbiomed? Architect Inês Duarte (CICAE): Proforbiomed was a project financed by the MED programme lasting from 2010 to 2014, so it was concluded at the end of last year and the aim of this project was to promote the use of residual forest biomass in the Mediterranean area; it covered the whole of the Mediterranean basin, which …

The number of people who take care to enquire where and how their food is produced is growing steadily. More and more people want a guarantee that their foodstuffs, whether vegetables, salads or fish, are produced locally, in an ecologically impeccable manner, and in harmony with nature. Fruit and vegetables produced oneself or grown in the region, ok; but fresh …

Portugal is increasingly becoming a first-choice destination not only for the rest of Europe but also for the Portuguese themselves. And while this is good news from the economic perspective, in environment terms, there is the impact stemming from the footprints left both by travelling and by accommodation. Such simple details such as the consumption of water, foodstuffs, recycling or …

Pathways to restoring a non-tourism dependent Algarve. The small village of Ameixial1, located in the council of Loulé, hosted the presentation ceremony for the final projects resulting from last autumn’s Permaculture Design Course. This presentation counted on the participation of its fifteen students and the attendance of many of the local citizens who, with a certain degree of reluctance but …

According to numbers published by the World Tourism Organisation and covering international travel across the planet, 2013 sawged a total of 1.087 billion arrivals. The specialists expect these numbers to top 1.4 billion in 2020 and 1.8 billion in 20301. With the plane providing the most common means of transport, the quantity of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere is …

People who are addicted to drugs are mostly in a bad way. They actually need some therapy to get off the poison. But not every addict takes the decision to detox and then have therapy: not with heroin, nor with alcohol and even less so with smoking, whatever it is that is being smoked. Many people maintain their dependencies and …

This story is set here, on our planet Earth. It is fairly certain that, in 30 years, there will be ten billion people living on the planet. +++ Population growth is going up in a negative spiral. +++ With every additional citizen on Earth, diversity and space are decreasing. +++ With the continuous growth in the world’s population, the consumption …