What, More on Global Warming?
By Donella Meadows
–February 7, 1991–
“Don’t write any more about the greenhouse effect,” some of my editors are saying. “It’s an old, boring story.”
Sorry, but I think there’s no story more new or exciting. We’re living through climate events of tantalizing uncertainty, which could challenge our ingenuity far more than any war. There are political angles: will George Bush maintain his [...]
Dear Folks: December 23, 1990
Dear Folks, It’s two days before Christmas, it’s fifty degrees, it’s drizzling, the grass is green, and I’m depressed. I know that one can’t really ask for “normal” weather in variable New England, but this is ridiculous.
A week ago I thought the greenhouse curse had finally been lifted from us. It snowed all Sunday, a luxuriant, beneficent snow of the sort [...]
A Scientific Consensus on Global Warming
By Donella Meadows
–October 11, 1990–
Is there a greenhouse effect or isn’t there? In the United States that question has become political. Some people think global warming is an enormous threat; therefore we should change our polluting ways. Some think that is pernicious poppycock. Several of each persuasion whisper into the ear of the President.
The discussion should not be political, of [...]
Letter to a Friend in Africa
By Donella Meadows
–July 12, 1990–
I got a poignant letter the other day from a friend who works in the environment ministry of an East African nation. He was asking for help:
“Of late my government has taken interest in global environmental issues, namely the depletion of the ozone layer and the greenhouse effect. But when I graduated in environmental studies in [...]
So is the Earth Warming or Isn’t it?
By Donella Meadows
–April 26, 1990–
With an aha! gotcha! flourish a skeptical reader sent me a recent news release about global warming. “Scientists who analyzed 10 years of weather satellite data found no evidence that the earth has warmed from the so-called greenhouse effect,” it said. “The northern hemisphere goes up slightly during those 10 years and the southern hemisphere goes [...]
