Insuring the Usefulness of Models in Forecasting Human Needs
by Donella H. Meadows & Jennifer M. Robinson
Unesco Programme on Research and Human Needs
Tbilisi, 6–10 December, 1981
Introduction
Mathematical modeling is already used for day-to-day, operational
decisions such as route scheduling and inventory management. But the
systems problems that most urgently need improved understanding and
management are strategic global and universal problems, such as
long-term global energy supply, the poverty and hunger of a large
portion of [...]
Surprise-rich Futures for New England’s Land
Fall Assembly on A Land Conservation Strategy for New England. Fairlee, Vermont October 18-20, 1987 (A reflection on the future as a choice)
Managing land is managing the future
Land is a permanent asset. To deal with it in any way is,
inescapably, to deal with time and continuity, with the past and the
future.
The rocks, the soils, the forests, the minerals and fuels [...]
A Reaction From A Multitude
Donella H. Meadows
Summary comments on a Symposium on Biotic Impoverishment
held at Woods Hole, Massachusetts
October 20-23, 1986
Capitalized and bold letters reflect Donella Meadows’s emphasis and formatting choices in the original typewritten notes.
Who is talking here?
“I am large. I contain multitudes, ” said Walt Whitman to explain why he sometimes contradicted himself. Every human being contains multitudes. I have never been more [...]
History of the Ideas Underlying the Balaton Group
By Donella Meadows, 1982
In 1980 I organized an international workshop on approaches for ending hunger in the world. Two of my colleagues there, Vernon Ruttan, a distinguished agricultural economist from the University of Minnesota, and John Todd, a marine biologist who founded an institute focused on sustainable agricultural technologies, made two comments that led eventually to the program of The [...]
Food and Population: Policies for the United States
