Who Needs Florida, Anyway? Scientists need to help us prevent climate change, not adapt to it
By Donella Meadows
–Summer 1989–
The urgency of climate change calls for leadership from some unusual quarters. Environmental author and columnist Dana Meadows comments here on the role scientists – a group generally not known for activism – need to play in averting global climate change. Her writing has been appearing regularly in IN CONTEXT, and she also writes a weekly column [...]
Thoughts While Cleaning The Living Room: Domestic work is undervalued – but it doesn’t need to be
By Donella Meadows
–Spring 1989–
Families are work, and most of the work gets done by women. In his classic book Home, Inc. (Doubleday, 1975), Scott Burns concluded that the total value of goods and services produced in households (but neither sold nor compensated with wages) was about one-third the value of the entire market economy. His prediction that the “household economy” would [...]
Dear Folks: February 19, 1989
Dear Folks, It’s a bright, sunny day, thermometer all the way up to 22 though it’s not even noon yet. It’s been below zero the past two nights, so today seems balmy. The household is hopping. Anna’s daughter Andrea and son-in-law Kevin are here for the weekend; so is Sylvia’s mother Joyce. Andrea and Kevin have brought along their dog Tess, [...]
The Future of the Army: Military institutions could be on the front lines in a very different kind of battle
By Donella Meadows
–Winter 1989–
The borders between differing groups do not always fall on national frontiers. Donella (Dana) Meadows, author of the classic Limits to Growthand a weekly newspaper column called “The Global Citizen,” ventured over one of these borders to meet a group of military planners charting the future for the U.S. Army. The result of this novel collaboration was a [...]
A Development Worth Watching
Costa Rica sets good example with its “Strategy for Sustainable Development”
By Donella Meadows
–Winter 1989–
After two years of research, Costa Rica has produced a remarkable national “Strategy for Sustainable Development.” Costa Rica already has a lot going for it – it is a fiercely democratic country, maintains no army, and spends the money that would go to the military on education and [...]
