Who Causes Environmental Problems?
By Donella Meadows
–January 12, 1995–
To a small but influential bunch of global thinkers the abbreviation “IPAT” (pronounced “eye-pat”) says volumes. It summarizes all the causes of our environmental problems.
IPAT comes from a formula originally put forth by ecologist Paul Ehrlich and physicist John Holdren:
Impact equals Population times Affluence times Technology.
Which is to say, the damage we do to the earth [...]
Fifty Years Later–We Need Another Bretton Woods Conference
By Donella Meadows
–June 30, 1994–
Just weeks after D-Day, while the Allied armies were still battling their way toward Germany, a quieter event occurred that would shape the world as powerfully as the war in Europe.
On July 1, 1944, 730 delegates from 44 nations assembled at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. They stayed three weeks. When they [...]
L.A.–A Joke, A Basket Case, or a Leader Toward Sustainability?
By Donella Meadows
–March 17, 1994–
It will come as no surprise to the people of Southern California that L.A.-bashing is a favorite sport of anyone who lives north of Santa Barbara or east of the San Bernardino Mountains. We non-Angelenos love L.A. jokes. We call the place Lalaland. Here in the Northeast, even under three feet of snow, even when it’s [...]
Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff and Trust Your Common Sense
By Donella Meadows
–March 3, 1994–
Out there in readerland some folks live at an amazingly high level of environmental consciousness. For example, here’s part of a letter I got recently from a concerned Vermonter named Gretchen.
“I live on a steep hillside that no one wants to mow, and I’m using sheep to keep the land open. They fertilize the land as [...]
A Speech I’d Like to Hear from President Clinton
By Donella Meadows
–June 17, 1993–
Here’s a speech I dream of hearing from President Bill Clinton, given on the day he discovers his backbone and starts to fight for his ideas….
My fellow Americans,
I have just informed the leaders of the Congress that I will veto the budget bill we all have worked so hard to shape. I must do that, because [...]
