Number Seventeen in Infant Health, Number One in Garbage
By Donella Meadows
–December 8, 1988–
Throughout the past campaign the United States was Number One, the Envy of the World, the Strongest Nation on Earth. The candidates would have been stopped in mid-rhetoric if anyone had asked: In what sense are we Number One? Exactly what about us do others envy?
Now it’s transition time, a fleeting period when harmony rules the [...]
Depopulation Is Not a Problem: Population Growth Is
By Donella Meadows
–September 29, 1988–
“If we don’t change our direction,” says a Chinese proverb, “we’ll end up where we are headed.” If population trends continue to unfold the way they’ve been going, the world population will grow from five billion to eight billion over the next 35 years. Ninety percent of that growth will occur in the Third World.
Over the [...]
The Population Bomb has not Stopped Ticking
By Donella Meadows
–September 22, 1988–
“Every human society is faced with not one population problem but with two,” said Margaret Mead. “How to beget and rear enough children, and how not to beget and rear too many.”
We don’t hear much about either of these problems lately, but they haven’t gone away. The world population will grow by roughly 85 million people [...]
Have We Finally Come to the Limits of Growth?
By Donella Meadows
–September 9, 1988–
In 1972 I co-authored a book called The Limits to Growth, which raised what was to me a surprising ruckus. The book was based on a computer model of global population and economic growth. It said, in essence, that the kinds and rates of growth we’re accustomed to cannot go on forever, or even very much [...]
Singapore Leads the Good Life Under a Benevolent Dictator
By Donella Meadows
–May 5, 1988–
Singapore has achieved the American dream, but not in the American way. It is a prosperous, clean city, with imposing skyscrapers and glittering shopping centers. The multinational corporations of the world are welcome here; you can buy any brand name you’ve ever heard of. The highways are lined with tropical flowers and crowded with BMWs. And [...]
