Dear Folks: March 26, 2000
Dear Folks,
Last month we were in the depths of winter, and Stephen drew his Spanish-speaking mouse riding on a snowmobile. Last weekend we had a blizzard. Today it’s sunny and sixty. There’s snow only on the north sides of buildings. Robins and bluebirds have returned to the valley. The mud has nearly dried up. I have to go out and [...]
Dear Folks: October 24, 1999
Dear Folks,
It’s a brisk Sunday morning, 40 degrees, half-cloudy. The sun, just lifting over the eastern hill, is turning Mount Ascutney brilliant red. As I look out my window (probably the last time I will be looking out this window as I write this newsletter), the land is revealing itself again, as the leaves stream down and the long views [...]
The Latest News From the Ozone Layer
by Donella Meadows
— September 2, 1999 —
Twenty-five years ago there appeared two obscure scientific papers that rocked the industrial world. One of them, by Richard Stolarski and Ralph Cicerone, said that if chlorine atoms ever got wafted high up into the stratosphere, they could eat up the ozone layer. The second, by Mario Molina and Sherwood Rowland (who got the [...]
Whom Do We Blame, As We Watch Nature Dry Up?
by Donella Meadows
— August 12, 1999 —
Early this summer, long before the word “drought” was mentioned in the media, our household of farmers was ready to strangle the weather forecasters. “A gorgeous sunny day coming up,” they’d warble. “Another beeyootiful weekend!” To us that meant a day of blistering sun, a beeyootiful weekend of irrigating.
“City folk!” we’d mutter, as the [...]
The Hottest Year Yet
by Donella Meadows
— January 28, 1999 —
OK, all you movers and shakers and impeachers in Washington, here’s a hypothetical scenario that I hope might shift your attention to something important.
Suppose the stock market starts to sink, slowly, subtly, with ups and downs, but the dominant direction is down. Suppose over an extended, agonizing time the Dow-Jones drops by 30 percent. [...]
