Opinion

The atmosphere, like the skin of any organism, protects and nourishes this living planet. It protects against cosmic radiation, to which life is very sensitive; regulates the surface temperature through the greenhouse effect; allows the circulation of nutrients and other natural elements; is part of the water cycle; and is the layer where we and many other living things live, …

According to the dictionary Priberam, the soil is defined as: “i) the face or surface of the earth; the ground; ii) the material comprising the thin top layer of much of the earth’s land surface, esp. such material as will support the growth of plants; iii) a piece or stretch of ground, a site.” As someone who has studied biology, …

In past cultures, the earth was holy. It was taboo to dig holes in it. Coal, ores and other mineral resources were regarded as organs of Mother Earth. They were honoured; people took no more than they gave, and lived embedded in a cycle of living and dying, and hence in a world of abundance, where everything was provided for. …

If love is the ultimate purpose of the universe, then we should finally invest in learning love. Yes, that’s right, learning! It’s certainly the case that we are all born with hearts that have full potential for love. But we were also born with ten skilful fingers without necessarily being virtuoso pianists. On the contrary: our capacity to love is …

Walking in Nature is one of our simplest physical unwinders. Our muscles and nervous systems are soothed immeasurably by something we have done as a species for so long. Walking is a forgotten, primeval unwinder. When we stood up and became bipeds, we needed to bring in a lot more spirals to help keep a walking, talking, gregarious tower from …

The unconditional basic income is a payment made to every citizen, irrespective of their financial, family or professional situation, and is sufficient to allow a person to live with dignity. I have reflected on this topic with a degree of perplexity because the Unconditional Basic Income seems unrealistic to me. Despite this, it is still an interesting starting point for …

The Unconditional Basic Income quite simply proposes the following: living with dignity has no price. There can be no financial excuse at all for a fifth of the population living on the brink of poverty, of whom many hundreds of thousands are genuinely poor, or for many people watching their circumstances change without warning. Without essential goods and services and …

In the autumn, a new president of the local council will be elected in my village. It’s now seven years (4+3) since the opposition withdrew into its cave to sleep. It has woken up, bang on time for election year. I never thought that their hibernation would come to an end. Whoever is in charge of a village has no …