Talking to a friend the other day, he mentioned that the biggest satisfaction he had in times of lockdown was to bake a good loaf of bread. He made me laugh, of course, but then I realised that there was something deeper to his words. Like my friend, many of us have been discovering new passions, and, more importantly, are starting to appreciate the more important things in life.

We have been gaslighted by decades of brand marketing brainwashing us to seek happiness by buying status symbols, and we might have lost sight of the fact that meeting our essential…

We are in a public health emergency. An estimated 4.5 million people around the world die each year from causes directly attributable to air pollution from burning fossil fuels a recent study shows. Meanwhile, the leading contributors to air pollution — coal, oil, and car companies — are profiting while we pay the price with our health and that of the planet.

In addition to contributing to air pollution, the burning of fossil fuels is the leading cause of global climate change. …

As we live through this unprecedented climate crisis — a crisis that threatens our very survival as a species — I think of the words of Einstein: “in moments of crisis, only imagination is more important than knowledge.”

Climate change is the most visible symptom of a disconnect felt at the core of our societies, environment and spirits. And as with any symptom of imbalance or oppression, it is the most vulnerable and poorest communities who will be — and are already — affected the most.

We must address this crisis in a holistic way that connects the dots between…

Like most people living in Indonesia, Greenpeace photographer Jurnasyanto Sukarno is used to the toxic smoke of the annual haze season, in which forests and peatlands are cleared and drained to make way for new palm oil plantations. But when he went to document an “oxygen house” at the heart of the country’s current forest fires crisis, it became too much for him. This is his story:

My watch says nine in the morning, and I’m riding on the back of a motorcycle taxi heading to Doris Sylvanus General Hospital in the city of Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. The air…

Four million. That’s how many of you turned out last Friday to stand up for our planet and all the lifeforms who call it home.

It was the biggest climate protest the world has ever seen. And it was truly global; from Jakarta to Johannesburg, Bogotá to Berlin, Wolverhampton to Washington DC — it even reached Antarctica. One 15 year-old’s simple act of courage last year launched a movement big enough to get the world’s attention.

We couldn’t all take the day to strike at Greenpeace; someone has to stay behind their desks and share these stories with the world…

When the first shot glass was thrown, nobody involved had any idea they were going to alter the course of history. No one knew that the one act they took to stand up to discrimination had the power to change peoples’ lives.

This was 50 years ago, when the Stonewall riots put gay rights on the map.

Since then, the story of the LGBTQI+ has certainly evolved. I live as an openly gay man, a father and a husband, and work in a safe and protected workplace. I’m lucky and I’m privileged. …

Europe is changing, let’s make it for the better

As a human rights lawyer from Romania, I had the chance to live and study both within and outside the EU and witnessed my country change as it attempted to assimilate EU values and norms. The transformation was radical, my country went from a dictatorship which brutally oppressed any dissent, to a democratic state which, with all of its imperfections, allows for basic freedoms, such as the possibility to travel and speak one’s mind. …

About Matthias Kail

After several years of working as head chef in well-known Amsterdam high end restaurants, Matthias and two of his former colleagues chose to leave the traditional restaurant setting and open vanVeg, a take away and catering business in Haarlem, offering a 100% plant based menu. Matthias has always been surprised at the general lack of creativity when it comes to using only plant based ingredients. Most traditional cuisines already comprise a wide range of vegan examples, that have either been forgotten or are considered to be of inferior interest. In their business, Matthias and his colleagues try…