Opinion

ECO is the search for meaning. Volkswagen AG should undertake this simple task in the deepest crisis in its history, where linear thinking and action destroys economies. Things just can’t keep going on like this. This realisation will probably make many millions of people unemployed. Even the fines for the fraud amounting to billions do not hide the fact that the whole car industry is in a cul-de-sac or make us think that the problem would thereby be solved. The fines will be paid and then what? Money could be invested more sensibly, in healthy, sustainable jobs. If we want …

If human beings define culture as something uniquely created by human beings, they will, when they look back, come across agriculture first of all. What humans discovered in their development on earth was a paradisiacal, but wild nature, which may well have been enchanting, but which they still remain afraid of today. Their culture therefore requires settlement in towns, and it is perhaps in that way that tourism developed over time because people continue to carry a nomadic existence in their genes – albeit for just a short time every year. Out of settlements, villages developed, and from them towns …

The word comes from long ago, but we who look at it closely can say that the concept only became popular in the 1960s, when young men let their hair grow down to their waists, and proclaimed the slogan that only what was natural was good. Make Love not War was a universal motto at that time, and the idea that, if we abandoned ourselves to nature we would be saved, appeared to be an achievable dream. A wonderful dream that was a lie. On the contrary, civilisation accelerated its confrontation with nature, increased human conflicts, and ECO became synonymous …

ECO is the prefix of a family of words, including ecology, ecosystem, ecological, ecologist, and others. Eco comes from the Greek oikos (house). Oikos is the origin of the word Ökologie, introduced from German in the 19th century, becoming Ecology in English, and being pronounced in most European languages in a similar way to the German or English word. Oikos, “house”, is an excellent metaphor for the environment: ecology (“eco” + “logia”) is “the study of interactions between living organisms and the environment where they live” or “the series of interactions of a specific organism with its environment”. Ecology is …

Thirty-eight kilometres off Portugal’s bathing and surfing beaches, four raw materials companies are searching for oil and gas in the sea. In itself, this would hardly merit a mention – after all, our planet’s raw materials are already being plundered everywhere – were it not for the fact that there have been protests, sometimes fierce ones, from all parts of society that are concerned about social and ecological issues. Even some areas of business are signalling a clear rejection, especially tourism, which is responsible for 10% of the country’s income. There’s an outcry. There are three questions. Why are companies …

This word “eco” comes from the Greek OIKOÇ for “house” or “household”. More recently it is a word that has entered our language through ecology and into the world of politics, economics, our cultural life and citizenship. It is a word that connects us with many different areas of human activity. Through this word, we can fly to some very interesting areas of human contemplation. It is clear that we don’t always realize this. There is nothing new about it. The frequency with which the word is used shows it has entered the everyday language of many people. This calls …

Commentary on “Laudato Si’” – Encyclical Letter by Pope Francisco I shall start by looking at the name of the text itself, “Laudato Si’” (Praise be to you, my Lord), which is taken from the Canticle of the Creatures written by St Francis of Assisi, which praises God through “our Sister Mother Earth”. So, from the outset, there is an attitude of exaltation of the planet on which we live. For readers who are unused to reading texts of the Catholic Church, I shall explain briefly what an Encyclical Letter by a Pope is. It is a text written for …

I identify this word, first of all, with ecology. I have two children and I am often worried about what they will have when they are 36. It also means recycling and the fight against pollution. As artists, we play instruments, and when we buy new ones, or at concerts, we don’t think about recycling what we have got. Obviously, the economy plays a part. We need to live. But I think that the economy should combine with ecology. Both can be combined, in a local approach: using alternative energies, living in a more sustainable way. Companies nowadays are starting …

I believe in and am hopeful about the European project, as well as projects that take place all over the world and which try to create a present and a future where we manage to create collective visions and implement concrete actions in response to the objectives of sustainable development. As regards the TTIP, I have noticed that the European Commission (EC) has worked to make “everything” available on the internet for citizens who are most interested, mainly activists. I wrote “everything” because even the EC mentions in a chapter on transparency that, for reasons of “trust” in its partners …

If I had to explain the word ECO to a child, I would tell him or her that the expression comes from the word ECOLOGY which basically means “friend of the environment”. I would also have to explain that, in one way or another, all the actions that we humans perform have consequences for the environment that surrounds us, that is for plants, animals, the air we breathe etc. … because we are all connected and we all share the same home, which is our planet earth. Obviously, I would also have to talk about pollution and its consequences, and …