Late Frost–A Leading Indicator of Climate Change?
By Donella Meadows
–October 13, 1994–
The first skim of frost came to my garden ten days late this year, on October 2. The squash leaves shriveled, the tomato vines turned black — but only on top. Underneath the plants stayed green and alive. Up by the house the marigolds and petunias were untouched. We had another week of grace before the [...]
You See the Greenhouse Effect When You Believe It
By Donella Meadows
–March 4, 1993–
Well, according to Rush Limbaugh and the Mobil Oil Corporation, we can stop worrying about global warming.
Says Mobil in an ad titled “Apocalypse no”: “Unfortunately, the media hype proclaiming that the sky was falling did not properly portray the consensus of the scientific community…. Subsequent colder than normal temperatures across the country cooled the warming hysteria…. [...]
Whatever Happened to the Greenhouse Effect?
By Donella Meadows
–July 16, 1992–
For 20 years I’ve recorded the date of every first frost, first robin, first apple blossom, first sweet corn on my farm. My records show clearly that springs have been coming sooner and frosts later. I’ve come to count on a growing season almost a month longer than when I first moved here.
What happens on one [...]
An Outrageous Proposal in Preparation for UNCED
By Donella Meadows
–June 20, 1991–
Next June fifty thousand people will assemble in Brazil for the biggest environmental conference the world has ever seen. About ten thousand of those people will be heads of state from 160 nations and their entourages, there to make official international policy. The rest will be representatives from nearly every environmental group on the planet. They [...]
Plus or Minus Two Hundred Billion Dollars
By Donella Meadows
–April 4, 1991–
There are two reasons, says our President, why the U.S. need not make an effort to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide:
The models that predict greenhouse warming are imperfect.
Cutting back would cost too much. A 20 percent reduction in carbon dioxide output would cost the nation $200 billion a year — about the amount [...]
