Closing the Barn Door on POPs
by Donella Meadows
— December 14, 2000 —
However environmentally permissive a Republican-controlled United States may be, other parts of the world are pioneering attitudes, technologies, and laws that could carry us safely through the 21st Century. As this week’s happy example, I offer the new global agreement on POPs, plus Sweden’s even better policy on the same topic.
POPs is the hot [...]
Globalization Hits Hungary with a Wave of Cyanide
by Donella Meadows
— February 10, 2000 —
Here’s a story of the global economy at its worst and maybe also at its best.
In early February a cry of alarm came over email from my friend Zoltan Lontay in Hungary. The Hungarian news had just announced an enormous fish kill in the Szamos river on that country’s eastern border. A wave of [...]
Sludge By Any Other Name Can Still Be A Problem
By Donella Meadows
–February 20, 1997–
“Biosolids” is what they call it now. It used to be called “sludge.” By any name, it comes out of a sewage treatment plant, and here in the countryside it can cause raging battles.
Wastewater treatment managers, who have tons and tons of the stuff to get rid of, like to spread it on forests or fields. [...]
What the American People Really Want
By Donella Meadows
–October 24, 1996–
Every day in this crazy cartoon campaign the politicians tell us what the American people want. A 15 percent tax cut. Welfare reform. Education. Whatever.
They pay fortunes for polls, these politicians, so you’d think they know what we want. But have you ever been polled? Did you notice what a cramped set of choices you were [...]
You’re Only Half the Man Your Grandfather Was
By Donella Meadows
–January 25, 1996–
“Downward Motility” is the title of a January Esquire magazine article about declining human sperm counts. A similar piece in the New Yorker is called “Silent Sperm.” The press is beginning to pick up the endocrine disrupter story. Of all environmental scare stories, this one really hits home.
Over the past two generations sperm counts in many [...]
