Short Stories

The other day I was asleep, and dreamed of waking up; however, all around me was darkness. Did I find myself in the world of a blind man or simply in a space in the universe without any light whatsoever, not even stars on the horizon? In that dream, I had lost something valuable in the forest and was looking for this… something, I didn’t even know what it was. I could sense life around me, everywhere, but I couldn’t see it. I became unsure of myself. What happens when you are in a public space where you can’t see …

  Are trees able to communicate with one another? Working independently from each other, the Canadian forest ecologist Suzanne Simard and the German forester warden Peter Wohlleben have discovered that trees are highly individual beings that have feelings, understand friendship, possess a mutual language and look after each other. This documentary examines the different ways in which trees communicate with one another, combining scientific research with the observations of a practising forest warden. The film also looks at how this knowledge may influence our relationship with the forest. Just below the forest floor lies the ‘Internet of the Forest’ , …

Saturday, the 12th of December 2020 How about we prepare a little field trial? Let’s think this experimental setup through theoretically? Let’s assume we stay within our own four walls, or on the plot of land that we own. So we move as little as possible, don’t meet anyone, don’t go to school, nor to university. Life goes on, but a little differently. The Internet has been switched off. There is no Facebook, no Instagram and no WhatsApp. The TV screen is set to freeze frame. All we have available is the landline, in case we break a leg or …

Saturday, 5th December 2020 Eight Portuguese youngsters from Lisbon and Leiria, between eight and 21 years of age, have taken Germany, France, Great Britain as well as another 30 states including Russia to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg. Their complaint claims that the states they are suing aren’t doing enough against climate change. Surprisingly, the ECHR has admitted the legal action. Given the importance and urgency of the issues raised, the complaint would be given priority, the ECHR said on Monday. A lack of climate protection is a violation of human rights. In the context of …

Saturday 28th November 2020 The answer is easy. You make friends with a tree by planting it yourself. Choose a species of tree that you like: an oak or an olive tree, an umbrella pine or a fig, a chestnut or an apple tree. The choice is yours, the selection is huge. How do you go about it? Visit a tree nursery and take a look at those  little trees… It’s late November now, the best time to plant a young tree. For this your fingers have to enter into close contact with the earth. Pick up a handful of …

Saturday, 21st November 2020 Following years of negotiations, 15 countries formed the world’s largest trading bloc on Sunday. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is composed of the ten ASEAN states (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam), as well as South Korea, China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. The agreement, which is the result of intense and lengthy negotiations that first started in 2012, is seen as an extension of China’s influence in the region. Although it is relatively limited in scope, the RCEP covers more people than any previous trade agreement, with China …

Saturday, 14th November 2020 Personally, I always take the path of least resistance. You too? This week I read in the paper that a vaccine has been found against climate change, with a 90% effectiveness rate. The INCF has applied for the vaccine to be licensed, the journalist said. I have to say I can’t wait. When, oh when, will it be available? And who gets the vaccine first? Well, I’ll get that jab, right? Or maybe I should wait for an even better one that would offer 100% effectiveness? No one can say yet whether the active ingredients will …

Saturday, the 7th of November 2020 That is indeed the question. We are rapidly approaching the end of the year 2020; in fact, here we are in November already. Now, I don’t want to say that time is of the essence; on the contrary, good ideas always take time to sprout and grow inside us. And, more often than not, their weaknesses become apparent when it comes to implementing them. So, hands up anyone who has a good idea every single day. I believe we should at least act consistently and have a good idea every week. I do feel …

Saturday, 31st October 2020 Good to live outside of cities. According to a study by research website Comparitech*, most of the world’s most surveilled cities are located in China. The country has been making headlines for its generous use of surveillance technology and is featured heavily throughout the whole ranking that looked at the 150 most populous cities worldwide, excluding those for which insufficient data was available. The Chinese city of Taiyuan, located in the Shanxi province roughly 300 miles Southwest of Beijing, tops the list with 120 public CCTV cameras per 1,000 inhabitants. The highest-ranked non-Chinese city is London, …

Saturday the 24th of October 2020 If you take a closer look at the latest OECD statistics about the consumption of antidepressants  and compare these with figures from the other 26 EU member states, you will find that Portugal is the country with the highest number of users of this kind of prescription drug. Germany, France and Italy consume only about half that amount. And even Denmark with 77 and Spain with 75 daily doses per 1000 inhabitants remain far behind the European champion Portugal with 103.6 units. On the one hand, we find these figures quite astounding, but yet, …