Short Stories

Saturday 9th September 2023. Sunday, 3 September. So I’m driving my electric car from São Brás de Alportel to Monchique, located in southern Portugal. At 10.54pm I become a witness, by chance and inadvertently, to a kind of spectacle that can really only take place under cover of darkness. I have to stop my car behind the refuse truck of the Camara Municipal de Loulé, as they are in the process of emptying a recycling container at the side of the road … Hang on though – … … what are they doing? The scene is playing out in front …

Saturday 2nd September 2023. If you are able to provide the police (GNR) in Monchique or the CID (PJ) in Portimão with relevant information on the forest fires that occurred on Tuesday, 15 August in Chilrão (near Marmelete) and on Monday, 28 August at Picota (near Alferce), information leading to the identification, arrest and incarceration of the arsonists, ECO123 magazine will pay you a 1,000 euro reward. This is only the beginning – we do hope that Monchique City Hall will join us and increase the reward, so the arsonists may be caught. In times of climate change any native …

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 19th August 2023. Communication between two people can only work well if they speak a common language. Isn’t that right? So, if a British guy strikes up a conversation in English with a Portuguese lady, without being able to speak Portuguese or any other language himself (as is usually the case), and the Portuguese lady doesn’t want to speak English, then the conversation will hit a dead end. End of story? Far from it. This story is only just starting. Communication is a fascinating topic. As a reader of ECO123, you are free to choose the language you prefer. …

Saturday the 12th of August 2023. Gallows’ humour in our own backyard? ECO123 and the new Botanical Garden at Caldas de Monchique: it’s not that easy to be close to a forest fire and write a story about possible solutions to climate change. Where should this story begin, and where can it end? Baiona, Alentejo. A barbecue triggers this gigantic conflagration. So this time it’s a wood-fired grill. The list of stories surrounding the reasons behind forest fires is long. If no-one has deliberately started the fire, it was not caused by intent but by gross negligence; in any case …

Saturday the 5th of August 2023. And now for something completely different. Last March, biologist Sónia Soares fulfilled a long-held dream in her own garden. Taking a plot of 100 m² (5 x 20m) she planted a new young diverse forest consisting of 19 different species of trees and plants. How did she go about it, why did she do it, and what kind of methods did she employ, and not least what did this all cost, were questions ECO123 asked her during a visit to Algoz. Planting small forests the size of a tennis court in cities and towns …

Saturday the 29 July 2023. Young people are our societyꞌs most valuable resource. Is that true? If young people choose to glue themselves to the tarmac it is always for a deeper reason. It is something we adults have to face and not belittle their actions as just a pubescent or even terrorist act of violence. Reason is always connected to stages in development. Reason has to mature. Sometimes young people in groups will do things they would never do on their own. And sometimes these things are simply necessary. Cognitive control only develops in puberty. For us as adults …

Saturday the 22nd of July 2023. My lemon tree is trying to tell me something: „look at me, I’m thirsty, my roots are no longer finding any water.“ My fig tree is showing a similar reaction. Its leaves are taking on an ever lighter colour before falling to the ground: for lack of water. Everything is drying up. The large umbrella pine is laying on a kind of red carpet. Yet it’s not showing the way to the Cannes film festival. Temperatures are rising and rising, and it’s throwing half of its needles at my feet. Too much weight, too …

Saturday the 15th of July 2023. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the use of fossil fuels has released enormous quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This is a gas that reduces heat reflection from the Earth, leading to the rise in temperatures on our planet. Every year sees the addition of several billions of tons of carbon dioxide. Today we know that these will remain for centuries in the earth’s atmosphere. The speed of the earth heating up has long been underestimated. Its consequences are dramatic: ice melting, rising sea levels, devastating forest fires and ever worse …

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 …