Portugal

Saturday 25th November 2023. Implementing the goals stipulated in the Paris climate treaty of 2015, (COP 21), limiting global warming to significantly below two degree Celsius, if possible even to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial normal temperature, can only be achieved if humanity replaces fossil fuels by green, clean and sustainable technologies, for instance in electricity generation, mobility, food production, and so forth. However, climate neutrality cannot be achieved through technology and market dynamics. Involving citizens and local communities (cooperatives) in communal regions are decisive in shaping this transition in a democratic and fair way, and in order to …

Saturday, the 18th of November 2023. Fancy an ocean with a mountain view in the south of Portugal in early December, in the Monchique mountains, with the Atlantic stretching out at your feet? Starting Friday 1 December (public holiday) and Saturday 2 December through Sunday 3 December, the Monchique mountains are hosting their annual hiking festival. The town hall of this small mountain village is putting on over a dozen different hikes, well worth your while taking the train and bus to make an extended weekend out of it. Getting off the train at Portimão station, you take Line 94 …

Saturday 11th November 2023. Nearly everything has been said about the possible mining of lithium in northern Portugal. As far back as in autumn 2019, four years ago now, ECO123 was already taking an in-depth look at this issue. This is something you might want to read up on again? Clicking on https://eco123.info/portugal/entrevistas/o-legado-que-vou-deixar-aos-meus-filhos-e-o-que-a-mina-la-deixar/ will take you to our extensive ECO 123 archive. That’s when you’ll understand why Portugal’s Prime Minister has now stepped down, and why active and passive corruption rears its ugly head again and again with issues shaping our future, clean energy, the ability to live in a …

Saturday 28th October 2023. When it is winter in Europe, they fly to Chile: it is summer there and they spend their time extinguishing forest fires in South America. “Chile is tough,” says Carlos Arroyo Munõz. “There are many arsonists there. There is far greater political discontent in South America than in Europe. The effects of climate change and El Niño are more pronounced,” he says. Sleeping at night In Alvor, there are always three pilots and two Airtracker Fireboss AT 802 aircraft with a capacity of 3.8 tons of liquid. Somebody might get sick. They work for 22 to …

Saturday 21st October 2023. Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Yellow Machines  first came close to me on a Tuesday, 29 August. They came so close that they did get me a bit wet with the sheer quantity of water they offloaded from the sky, over 3,000 litres after all, weighing three tons.  Their intended target was of course not me, but the last remains of a forest fire up on the summit of the Picota Mountain in Monchique, in southern Portugal. Yet it did prick my curiosity. The pilots had spotted the remains of a fire from the sky, …

Saturday 26th August 2023. For a good while now, since the major forest fire of 2003 in Monchique, our ECO123 team has been looking at minimizing the risk of forest fires. You see, we live and work in a burnt-down forest near Monchique. In a way, we are also doing the job of a reinsurance company. As we speak, forests are burning in all southern countries of Europe on a daily basis. However, a country that has been particularly hard hit this year is a large country that normally doesn’t feature on the map as a high-risk area, namely the …

Saturday the 8th of July 2023. None of the following is a joke. You wanted to read a story by me? You will get this story. Right here, right now. Imagine you had an accident in your youth. Maybe a sporting accident, playing basketball, say – or a motorbike crash on a rural road – or an accident at work on one of the many constructions sites of the Algarve… or anywhere else between Beja and Faro. So you are taken to hospital, to be operated on the spine. An operation that is not straightforward, taking up many hours. When …

Saturday the 24th of June 2023. Those walking from Caldas de Monchique to Esgravatadouro, continuing on to Fornalha and taking the short PR5 route up to the summit of Picota cross what you could call a minefield of millions of acacia and mimosa trees. Some of them six feet high, others a little shorter still, some already taller, they reach the rim of the tarmac road. Hikers will be crossing the dead country left after the 2018 forest fires. This is where the wild shoots of acacia and mimosa grow on both sides of the tarmac, and no council whatsoever …

Saturday 17th June 2023. There is at least one of the 308 districts of Portugal where democracy was never really thought through to its logical conclusion. Despite the fact that in Monchique too the coming year will bring the fiftieth birthday of revolutionary celebrations, an important promise is being allowed to lapse – namely the narrative of a better future through wealth. For wealth is the exact lofty magic word and the cosy state of being that many citizens were hoping for (not only) in Monchique as a result of the Carnation Revolution 1974 and of membership in the great …

Saturday the 20th may of 2023. Part One. On 5 November Lenz was walking through the hills, all by himself. The summits and high mountain flanks were gleaming in the sun, and the valleys below were covered in green after the rain. Brooks were rushing across the rocks, and the eucalyptus trees were swaying in the wind. Temperatures had gone up a bit again. The clouds in the sky were scurrying from north to south, as if in a hurry. The umbrella pines above him were absorbing the strong winds. The air was humid and the long valleys stretching from …