The Last Word

Memory. What will we remember of the weekend of 17th and 18th June 2017 in a year’s time, in two years’ time, in ten years, in other words in the summer of 2027? What will we change in our lives during that period; and do we want to do so in view of the ghastly pictures and the many deaths in the forest fires? Because, previously, it was only the forests, the animals, nature that went up in smoke every year – and they of course have no voice. Nature has no lobby. Next question? Next topic? However, the key …

If we want to ensure that future generations enjoy a reasonably good life, we need a new, modern tax system quite soon that will make sustainable life possible. It must be easy to understand and be fairer than the current one, promote environmentally-friendly behaviour and make the plundering of resources unattractive. Its goal must be to bring climate protection and social justice into harmony with each other. This would work if each citizen received a tax account from the state with a credit for a sustainable life. It would work like this: On 1st January in a calendar year, a …

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 …

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 …

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 …