In addition to being a brilliant scientist, Donella Meadows was a truly gifted communicator. Her talks and writing displayed a consistent optimism and a unique ability to reach and inspire people. Our video archives of Dana continue to expand, and we hope to add more video links in the near future! 

The following videos are currently available:

Envisioning a Sustainable World

“Envisioning a Sustainable World” is a moving example of Donella Meadows’ gift for teaching and an important reminder of the vital role that vision plays in science and social progress. Presented in 1994 at the Third Biennial Meeting of the International Society for Ecological Economics, “Envisioning a Sustainable World” remains an important message for anyone striving for change.

Read a transcript of Envisioning a Sustainable World.

For the full lecture of Sustainable Systems, click here.

For a summary of Sustainable Systems with links to lecture clips, click here.

Systems: Overshoot and Collapse, a lecture at Dartmouth College

Donella Meadows uses two examples of socioecological systems to convey concepts of overshoot and collapse. Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, Spring of 1977.

Systems Dynamics Model: Kaibab Deer Population

Donella Meadows introduces the foundational systems knowledge needed for a course on modeling. While students will be using computers to conduct modeling in the future, she emphasizes the natural presence of systems in our lives. Our mental models shape our worldviews. And computer models can help deepen our understanding, as these are more formal methods of modeling. She presents the systems dynamics model with the example of the historic overshoot and collapse of the Kaibab deer population. Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, Spring of 1977.

A Philosophical Look at Systems Dynamics

In this lecture at Dartmouth College, Donella Meadows takes on a more philosophical concept. How can we bring ourselves to be aware of the assumptions we make as systems thinkers? She asserts that models are a set of assumptions. Donella Meadows defines some of these systems dynamics assumptions (such as causal relationships and feedback loops) in this lecture. Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, Spring of 1977.

Creating Models from Scratch

In this lecture, Donella Meadows has a lively discussion with her students at Dartmouth College as they create a model to express the relationship between epidemic diseases and mosquitoes. Donella engages with her students and reminds them that they can make models however they want. Models never express the full complexity of real systems; they will always have some simplification. Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, Spring of 1977.