{"id":69959,"date":"2024-01-12T20:52:15","date_gmt":"2024-01-12T20:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eco123.info\/en\/?p=69959"},"modified":"2024-01-12T20:52:15","modified_gmt":"2024-01-12T20:52:15","slug":"where-in-gods-good-name-are-we-headed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eco123.info\/en\/short-stories-en\/where-in-gods-good-name-are-we-headed\/","title":{"rendered":"Where, in God\u2019s good name, are we headed?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday 13th January 2023.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Right now, in wintertime, is a good moment to start thinking about the coming summer and to take some decisions on how we citizens in Monchique and elsewhere in Portugal should prepare for the coming drought and forest fires. Personally, I\u2019m someone who likes to combine my experiences from yesterday and the day before with a perspective for the future. Monchique is a case in point here. It is ourselves who have provoked the high number of forest fires, because some large-scale landowners have planted monocultures nearly everywhere, thus destroying the traditional, long-established, organically grown forest, sacrificed on the altar of Mammon. And if I argue with the owners of eucalyptus monocultures, they will claim without batting an eyelid that eucalyptus cannot burn. What kind of cleverclogs do I have to discuss these issues with? it\u2019s a bit like conducting an interview on the roots of lung cancer with Doctor Marlboro, where he states that \u2018smoking is healthy!\u2019 Ah well, happy New Year!<\/em><\/p>\n

Now let me suggest the following. I won\u2019t discuss the one-dimensional plan with you of earning easy money, by cutting down fast-growing, quick-turnaround trees every eight years for instance, selling them to the paper factory. I\u2019ll cast my mind towards a viable future, a future worth living without forest fires, without drought. For both forest fires and droughts are not a God-given fate, but created by humankind. We can change this at any moment and we are able to protect ourselves if we wish to do so. However, first we have to switch on our brains and make use of this valuable tool, instead of constantly and exclusively thinking about easy money. For earning money is not quite as easy as the paper industry planting eucalyptus monocultures would have us believe. Who pays for the devastating damage wreaked by disastrous forest fires, who pays for the losses? All of us bear some responsibility inside of us. Can you feel it?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s like what happened after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011 or after Tschernobyl in 1986. You could take these things down and build solar-power plants in their place or produce energy with wind turbines. In fact, they should never have been built. Nor is it necessary to plant eucalyptus.<\/p>\n

Experience tells us that you have to place a seed into the soil, knowing which kind of seed. Then of course you need to know how to look after the seed and treat it well, so it can become a tree for example, a large tree in a varied forest to be sustainably managed – a forest that keeps the humidity in the soil – so the forest is less likely to catch fire. That would be sustainability. And sustainability takes time. Sustainability is not up for discussion nor up for sale. Let\u2019s stay frugal.<\/p>\n

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S<\/em>u<\/em>stainability\u00a0<\/em>is a difficult sell. Many people don\u2019t know what\u00a0\u201esustainable\u201c<\/em> means. It\u2019s just a handy phrase, used any which way, because it sounds good. Language too is only a means to an end. Those who truly want to live sustainably will manage resources and work, and be already thinking in winter of the coming summer, thinking … of the future. Continually reducing risks, so the forest doesn\u2019t burn again and the good soil stays humid – all that is part of sustainable politics – year in, year out Thinking about the future and learning from past mistakes. That\u2019s only one aspect of sustainability. Another aspect is reforestation planting mixed forests. That too is sustainable. Something that burns down is immediately replanted, not with eucalyptus however. This is something we in ECO123 have woven into all levels of our life.<\/p>\n

Let me give you another example: in 2016, ECO 123 created the Monchique shoemaker\u2018s project. At the time there were only three elderly shoemakers left, all aged around 80 and long since retired. Thinking about the future, we could foresee that soon there would not be a single shoemaker left in the former shoemaking capital of Monchique. Now, in 2024 there is no shoemaker left. It\u2019s hard to believe but the profession has died out. These days, people buy their new shoes from the China store, and when they\u2019re broken, something that can happen pretty quickly, the shoes are thrown away, because no-one repairs them – thrown onto the rubbish heap…<\/p>\n

The story from that time goes like this: in the winter of 2015, I made my way to City Hall and spoke with the mayor, who at the time was still Rui Andr\u00e9<\/strong>, about the idea and the plan to send two young people to the GEA shoe factory (Waldviertler Schuhe, https:\/\/www.gea.at<\/a>) located in Schrems, Austria, to learn the trade as part of a proper traineeship with a certificate at the end. We do live in the EU, and both Austria and Portugal belong to the EU. Easy, I thought. There \u2013 in Austria – each of them gets a proper contract and a proper salary ranging between 800 and 1,000 euro, depending on the year. This is something you can only dream of in Portugal. You learn the shoemakers trade in a two-to-three year dual training course in the workshop and at school, and after successfully taking your exam receive a certificate of apprenticeship.<\/p>\n

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