The Environment Can Support Bonfires — For Awhile, Anyway
By Donella Meadows
–October 24, 1991–
A bonfire on a crisp night at the darkening time of year is a heartwarming thing — especially a huge bonfire like the one they light for Dartmouth Homecoming every year. Freshmen labor for a week to erect its star-shaped wooden structure, three stories high. When it burns, showers of sparks fly up into the black [...]
Drift to Low Performance
By Donella Meadows
–August 29, 1991–
At least 1400 times last summer authorities closed U.S. ocean beaches or warned swimmers away from them because of pollution. There were 338 beach closings in California, 228 in New Jersey, 218 in Connecticut.
The states with the most closings weren’t necessarily the ones with the most polluted beaches. States have different beach policies. New York declared [...]
Environmental News Proves No One Right or Wrong
By Donella Meadows
–April 18, 1991–
You may have seen the recent and ominous headlines: SCIENTISTS FIND OZONE DISAPPEARING FASTER THAN EXPECTED. OZONE LOSS RAISES RISK OF CANCER.
Is this news terrible, or simply bad? What does it mean?
Some of the more excitable environmentalists say it means they have been right all along. The human race is unravelling the earth’s systems. We must [...]
A New Role for the CIA
By Donella Meadows
–November 29, 1990–
Only when a new world order comes into being do we realize how deeply the old order permeated our existence. Nothing could be more welcome than the fall of the communist regimes of Europe. Yet their absence requires painful re-adjustment, not only there, but here. Consider, for example, the plight of the CIA.
According to a startling [...]
It Takes a lot to Run a Biosphere
By Donella Meadows
–September 20, 1990–
Last week Space Biosphere Ventures, Inc. selected the four men and four women who will be locked for two years inside Biosphere II. On the day the announcement was made I was climbing around inside that Biosphere along with strategic planners from several multinational corporations. Depending on which of us you asked, we would say we [...]
