Short Stories

Saturday 5th October 2024. Jane Goodall, a British scientist and environmental activist, asked the German doctor and scientific journalist Eckart von Hirschhausen: “If we as humans claim to be the smartest species on the planet, why are we destroying our own home?” This question can be found in the new bestseller ‘Unlearn CO2 – Time for a climate without crisis’, edited by Klaudia Kemfert, Julian Gupta and Manuel Kronenberg. The book, in which 14 authors from very different walks of public life guide readers towards a climate-friendly future in 14 different essays, is very special. And because the question posed …

Saturday  28th September 2024. Ten steps to climate neutrality Part 2 100 multinational corporations emit around 80% of the world’s CO2. Thinking seriously about your own individual carbon footprint is an important part of solving the climate crisis on our planet. Of course, we must also finally find a transnational exit strategy for the big climate cheats: the end for BP, Shell and Exxon-Mobil, the end for Gazprom, Aramco, China-Coal and Rio Tinto and the other 93 multinational corporations that do business with fossil fuels and the extraction of minerals and ores, to the detriment of humanity, at the expense …

Saturday the 21st september 2024. Thinking about our individual carbon footprint can be an important part of the solution to the environmental threats that we face. Of course, we also need to talk about the big climate criminals and find a transnational exit strategy for them: for BP, Shell and Exxon, for Gazprom, Aramco, China-Coal and Rio Tinto, and for the other 93 multinationals that do their business and make their money with fossil fuels and the extraction of minerals at the expense of humankind, at the expense of the habitability of our blue planet. These 100 multinationals emit 80% …

Saturday 14th September 2024. He should not be completely forgotten. 20 years ago, the great economist of the Prague Spring in former Czechoslovakia, Professor Ota Šik, died in exile in Switzerland. His ideas and conceptions of employee-owned companies could now be applied to the case of Volkswagen. Labour is a very important factor in the manufacturing process, together with capital, land and machinery (production facilities), and it should therefore enjoy at least a 25% share of the profits. For example, you use labour to make a car, or something else – a wardrobe, a pair of shoes, a colourful dress. …

Saturday 7th September 2024 684,000 is the number that ultimately matters. That’s how many people work for a multinational company in the automobile industry: worldwide and not just in Germany, but also in Portugal, Spain, Belgium, the Czech Republic, the USA, Brazil and China, and not just at Volkswagen AG, but also at Seat, Skoda, Audi, Cupra and Porsche: 684,000 employees. Everything is connected to everything else. Decisions made somewhere in a company will have an impact at a completely different end of the same business or even in a different company. A government’s decision to phase out premiums for …

Saturday, 31th august  2024. “We don’t want another Miami here,” says local resident Vítor Lopes (43), from Caramujeira near Lagoa. “Don’t we already have enough tourism?” ECO123 talked to Vítor Lopes (43) and Luís Lopes (64), his father, at a meeting in Lagoa. ECO123 had asked its readers three questions about the proposed building of a hotel on a nature reserve: Firstly, which nature reserve? Secondly, which district of the Algarve are we talking about? Thirdly, which banks are involved in the financing? Vítor Lopes (43) was the first to send the right answers to the questions. And then he …

Saturday 24th August 2024. The housing crisis in Portugal is getting worse, and there is a lot that needs to be changed politically in order to resolve it. Until then, we have to contribute in whatever ways we can. Specifically, by helping CASA – Support Centre for the Homeless, which provides aid and support to hundreds of people every day… With these words, the cabaret artist Diogo Faro’s crowdfunding campaign begins on the platform https://ppl.pt/causas/faro, which is open until Monday 2 September at 6pm and aims to raise 3,500 euros for the Portuguese support centre for homeless people, ‘CASA’, in …

Saturday 17th August 2024. If a strip of land on the south coast of Portugal has been designated as a nature reserve, surely there should be no power on Earth to describe this region as a development area that can be used for the construction of yet another hotel. Correct me if I am wrong. A nature reserve is a nature reserve – or are there some exceptions? When a bank grants a loan for a house, it normally checks all the facts. It wants to know whether it is throwing money down the drain (to put it bluntly), and …

Saturday 10th August 2024. In the southernmost mountains of Portugal, the groundwater is beginning to run out. Monchique’s springs and streams have already dried up. The situation has never before been as drastic as it is this summer. At the end of July, ECO123 contacted the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF) in Lisbon and asked to be informed about the emergency measures that the authority has in place for dealing with this situation. Since the forest fires of 2018, there has been an explosive growth in the spread of invasive trees, with acacias and mimosas now engulfing an …

Saturday 3rd August 2024. I imagine a friend of mine is celebrating his birthday and invites his 20 best friends to his birthday party. He prepares a cold buffet and provides enough food and drink for 20 people: a few crates of beer, some bottles of good wine and, of course, non-alcoholic drinks. His birthday gradually draws nearer, and, on the evening of the party, he suddenly finds there are lots of people at his door: instead of his 20 friends, 500 people have turned up. He is overwhelmed. In a very short time, all the drinks are finished, and …