An Introduction to American Politics for Melinda
By Donella Meadows
–November 14, 1991–
Welcome, Melinda, to the United States. Your Hungarian university sent you here to practice English, and since you’ve arrived at the beginning of a presidential election season, you’ll also get to see “democracy” in action. I know people in your country are very interested in democracy, so I’ll do the best I can to explain it [...]
He Who Frames the Question Determines the Answer
By Donella Meadows
–October 17, 1991–
The central question last week was, for awhile: why did the all-male Senate Judiciary Committee dismiss so lightly a charge of sexual harrassment? Then the question shifted to: who is Anita Hill? Then the question-manipulating machine of Washington recovered from its surprise and reclaimed the power to frame the question.
The real question, they said, is: who [...]
Improving Child Health Without Shifting the Burden
By Donella Meadows
–October 10, 1991–
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Louis W. Sullivan, wrote a newspaper column last week to celebrate Child Health Day. In it he told us what’s really wrong with our kids’ health. The reason their mortality is higher than that of other industrialized nations, he said, the reason they die in accidents, go unvaccinated, suffer [...]
Energy Ideas from Inside and Outside the Beltway
By Donella Meadows
–May 30, 1991–
Dozens of energy bills are before Congress just now, most of them astonishingly dumb. In spite of vivid demonstrations from the Persian Gulf and from the environment that we need to re-think our energy policy, Congress and the President are still pleasing vested interests and playing short-term politics, rather than designing a sustainable energy future.
George Bush, [...]
Kuwait’s Oil — The Future up in Flames
By Donella Meadows
–May 9, 1991–
“Kind of sick,” was President Bush’s response to the news that the Iraqis had opened an oil terminal and let it spill into the sea on the tenth day of the Gulf War.
We were told then that the spill amounted to 11 million barrels — 40 times the size of the Exxon Valdez spill in Prince [...]
