Enclosure in an Eco-Boomerang Produces a New Way of Seeing
By Donella Meadows
–September 24, 1992–
The first media reports were glowing. There was Biosphere 2, a huge greenhouse in the Arizona desert, containing a miniature ocean, a rainforest, a savanna, a desert, a farm, and eight people who will live there, sealed in, for two years. A gee-whiz, hi-tech, Green experiment. All air, water, and food cycling and recycling through natural [...]
Dear Folks: August 16, 1992
Dear Folks,
It’s Sunday morning, gray and misty. The summer continues cool. The garden is in slow motion. Only a handful of cherry tomatoes have ripened. The pepper plants have not even set fruit. The melons sit and shiver. Some of the cucumbers are molding on the vine — something I have never seen before. The sweet corn has been on [...]
Over the Speed Limits
By Donella Meadows
–April 9, 1992–
“One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds,” said Aldo Leopold more than forty years ago. “Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must … be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes [...]
Some Practical Aid for the (Former) Soviet Union
By Donella Meadows
–October 3, 1991–
The United States is planning to respond to Mikhail Gorbachev’s repeated appeals for economic aid by sending in teams of experts in accounting, marketing and finance.
What? No LAWYERS?
I assume that our leaders are sincere in this offer — that it’s not part of a secret plot to bring the Soviet Union down the last step, from [...]
Corporations Tell Us All About the Environment
By Donella Meadows
–August 1, 1991–
The friendly folks at the U.S. Fertilizer Institute are waging a campaign against manure. The word “manure” has a wholesome connotation that is simply not appropriate, say the fertilizer makers. You should not think of manure as a “warm, fuzzy substance.” Henceforth please refer to it as “fecal contamination.”
I think that’s a funny story, because I [...]
