The Forest is More than a Collection of Trees
by Donella Meadows
— July 8, 1999 —
About 40 years ago a young Dartmouth biology professor named Herb Bormann took a tomato plant, gently pulled its roots apart into two bunches and planted it in two pots, one clump of roots in each pot. He watered both pots until the plant got established. Then he watered only one pot. The tomato [...]
Dear Folks: March 28, 1999
Dear Folks,
Foundation Farm has just invented a cartoon strip, the first installment of which you will find in this newsletter.
It started on the “white board” in our kitchen, the place where we write up the shopping list and the “to fix” list and the “to do” list. Sometimes random comments, announcements, or complaints appear on this board, but normally it [...]
Dear Folks: February 21, 1999
Dear Folks,
My mom complained that I used two unfamilar words in my last letter, so I just looked back to see what they were. I guess “entropy” and “Enneagram” are the most likely candidates. Sorry about that. Let me explain.
Entropy is a word physicists use to refer to the tendency of the universe to fall into disorder. If you pour [...]
Dear Folks: January 23, 1999
January 23, 1999
Dear Folks,
Have you ever noticed that entropy travels in waves? Things don’t fall apart in a steady or random pattern; rather when one thing breaks down, somehow the disorder is catching, and all sorts of other things break down, and you find yourself doing nothing but running around trying to get things fixed.
Maybe this phenomenon is only noticed [...]
Our Michael Dorris
By Donella Meadows
–April 24, 1997–
On the Sunday after Michael Dorris committed suicide, the news was announced, gently and sadly, in a church here in the valley where he lived.
A bit of the story came out that Sunday morning. Our neighbor, teacher, favorite writer was separated from the woman we knew as the love of his life, the even more celebrated [...]
