Short Stories

Saturday 16th december 2023. Many of us view driving – so comfortable, isn’t it? – as a liberation from arduous walking. As for me, I’ve been fighting for years against the noise levels of the Algarve Autodrome, where at this time of day  test drives are once more taking place in preparation of some car race or other. It’s the combustion engine that transforms petrol into smelly exhaust fumes, deafening to boot when the south-westerly blows across from the Atlantic, by bringing with it the never-ending noise. These days, quiet, clean and environmentally-friendly alternatives are available in motoring. There just …

Saturday 9th December 2023. On Saturday, 25 November 2023, the Coopérnico Cooperative held its Electoral Assembly to vote in the executive organs for the coming 4 years, followed straight afterwards by an Extraordinary General Assembly, to discuss and approve the planned activities and budget for 2024. That day was also particularly significant as the cooperative was celebrating 10 years of life. After the electoral act, when the participants went to the auditorium, there was a particularly emotional moment with the send-off of Nuno Brito Jorge, President of the board since the beginning. Living in Barcelona for the past three years, …

Saturday 2nd December 2023. Picking up the story from last week… 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 the production of electricity, mobility, in 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 …

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 4th November 2023. Did you know that we’re currently celebrating our anniversary? It was in 2013 that we published the first edition, and right now we are working on the printed edition, at the same time as appearing online, too, on a weekly basis, every Saturday. In the autumn of 2023, we are doing all this without so-called SOCIAL media. You might well ask why ECO123 has not been using, nor felt the need to use, so-called „SOCIAL Media“ over the past ten years. Dear Readers What and who would you say is truly SOCIAL? We really should take …

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 14th October 2023. Peace – and maintaining peace – requires active seeds. Those who oppress a people for decades, taking away the soil to live on, stealing the resources necessary for survival, even cutting off its water supply, mustn’t be surprised if and when the moment arrives where things come to a head. Investing in hate and violence turns into a twisted spiral. At some point a threshold is crossed where patience or hope for better times cease to exist. Active seeds growing hate are when one human being takes away the chance of development from another person, and …