Readers Roar Back with Varying Degrees of Politeness
By Donella Meadows
–January 4, 2001–
Sending an opinion column into the world is a bit like tickling a sleeping bear. Sometimes you get back low rumbles. Every now and then you stir up a roar.
Who would have guessed that fluorine would touch such a nerve? Last year I wrote about the wisdom (which I was beginning to doubt) of fluoridating drinking [...]
Forget Camp David, Forget Survivor, Watch Capitol Hill
by Donella Meadows
— July 20, 2000 —
I don’t get it. Why are the 24-hour news media, always desperate for gripping stories, reporting every hour on the Camp David summit, where, as I write this column, they have no access to what’s really going on? Why don’t some of those eager reporters move over to Capitol Hill to cover the constantly [...]
The New Century as Seen From More Serious Places
By Donella Meadows
–January 6, 2000–
I was bewailing the short-term, sound-bite, soul-less way in which the U.S. media greeted the turn not only of a century, but of a millennium. (You know — lists of the top ten athletes of the century, ads for the soft drink of the new millennium.) Then in from the Internet came welcome news of intelligent [...]
The Dow Passes Ten Thousand – Hooray?
by Donella Meadows
— April 15, 1999 —
Wow! The Dow-Jones average is over ten thousand! And still, as of this writing, rising. Judging from the media celebration, here is proof positive that America is thriving.
But who or what is actually thriving?
There are two ways to answer that question. One is to travel around America — all of it, the inner cities [...]
Why Kosovo is a Battleground Again
by Donella Meadows
— April 1, 1999 —
Surprised citizens are flooding Congress with calls asking how this Kosovo mess came about and why we’re involved in it.
When I heard that, my first thought was, “Where has everyone been?” This storm cloud has been darkening the horizon for weeks, as genocide broke out in Kosovo and negotiations dragged to a predictable impasse [...]
