Many Opinions on Whether Wilderness Matters
By Donella Meadows
–January 4, 1990–
How much of the earth’s surface would you guess is still wilderness? According to a Sierra Club survey, about one-third of the earth’s land area can still be called wilderness (defined as at least one million acres upon which there is no road, powerline, airport, dam, or other major human construction). Over 60 percent of this [...]
Trading Debt for Nature Instead of Nature for Debt
By Donella Meadows
–April 14, 1988–
It is a tragedy, but not an accident, that the world’s most threatened tropical forests are in some of the world’s poorest and most indebted countries. The very poverty of those countries destroys the forests. Governments, to pay at least the interest on their debts, encourage logging companies to take timber. Forests are turned into pasture [...]
