Lessons From the Soft Path: Denmark’s Energy Policy
By Donella Meadows
–September 13, 1990–
The energy wars are back. Not the ones in the deserts of the Middle East, but the ones in national capitals the oil-using world around, where energy policies are again being formulated in an atmosphere of panic and conflict.
The battle is the same everywhere. It is between the hard path (oil, coal, nuclear, and defense of [...]
Solar Hydrogen — A Fuel for Avoiding a Greenhouse Future
By Donella Meadows
–November 23, 1989–
If George Bush were an environmental leader, he would not have blocked an international agreement this month to curtail emissions of greenhouse gases.
He would see that the greenhouse problem is in fact an opportunity — to move beyond fossil fuels, oil spills, air pollution, and enthrallment to the Middle East, toward clean, renewable energy we can [...]
When We’re Ready for Fusion Energy, It’s Ready for Us
By Donella Meadows
–May 4, 1989–
If the chemists at the University of Utah have indeed achieved nuclear fusion in a bottle on a tabletop, their discovery could open a new age in human history.
The economy could run on deuterium, a component of seawater that is vastly abundant. It is available to poor countries as well as rich ones. We could cool [...]
Burning Coal in Connecticut, Planting Trees in Guatemala
By Donella Meadows
–March 23, 1989–
Applied Energy Services (AES) of Arlington, Virginia, has come up with a way to do something that everyone thought was impossible. It is building a coal-burning electric plant that will not add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere — which means it will not worsen the greenhouse effect and hasten global climate change.
The plant will also be [...]
A Mixed Message from Bush on Energy
By Donella Meadows
–February 2, 1989–
Environmentalists, waiting hopefully to see whether George Bush is indeed one of them, got a puzzling mixed message this week.
Bush’s Secretary of State James Baker, in a rousing speech to delegates from 40 nations, said that the world cannot wait for solid evidence before acting on the greenhouse problem. The U.S. and the world must focus [...]
