Turning Off The Hype: Czech schools say “no” to commercial hype
By Donella Meadows
–Winter 1994–
In the Western world, we’ve built up resistance to the visual, aural and mental pollution of advertising. We doubt, we laugh, we turn off. The advertisers counter with brighter colors, louder noises, wilder images. We close down our senses.
Eastern Europeans had no chance to harden up before their ideological wall fell and multinational advertisers rolled over their [...]
Producing like there is a tomorrow: Patagonia mixes low growth with high ideals
By Donella Meadows
–Winter 1993–
There’s an astonishing page in the latest Patagonia sports clothing catalog, written by Yvon Chouinard, president of Patagonia, Inc. It tells why he’s decided that his company should stop growing.
“Last fall,” he says, “we underwent an environmental audit to investigate the impact of the clothing we make…. To no one’s surprise the news is bad. Everything we [...]
Rio’s Success: Asking the Right Questions
By Donella Meadows
–Fall 1992–
Last issue, we promised a wrap-up on the long awaited “Earth Summit” – the UN’s huge Conference on Environment and Development that was held this June in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
We liked this (excerpted) analysis by IC contributing editor Donella (Dana) Meadows. Her weekly column, “The Global Citizen,” is one of the most reliable places we know for holistic [...]
Hope And Ozone
What is the basis for hope – and action – in the face of climatic catastrophe? A “multilogue” among the editors of IN CONTEXT
–Summer 1992–
At the end of 1991, In Context executive editor Alan AtKisson sent out a brief electronic mail message to several contributing editors. The message – about a small news item mailed in by IC readers and computer [...]
Beyond The Limits To Growth
By Donella Meadows, Dennis Meadows, and Jørgen Randers
–Summer 1992–
“Grow or die,” goes the old economic maxim. But in 1972 a team of systems scientists and computer modelers challenged conventional wisdom with a ground-breaking study that warned that there were limits – especially environmental limits – to how “big” human civilization and its appetite for resources could get. Beyond a certain [...]
