How Many Experts Do We Need Before We Heed Earth’s Warning?
by Donella Meadows
— August 19, 1999 —
Dr. Jane Lubchenco, a marine ecologist from Oregon State University, has received many scientific honors, one of which was the presidency of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. For her presidential address, she looked straight out at the huge assembly of scientists and delivered an unapologetic warning:
“During the last few decades, humans [...]
A Climate Scientist Takes His Computer Model Seriously
by Donella Meadows
— June 17, 1999 —
At the University of Wisconsin’s program on Climate, People and Environment Dr. Jonathan Foley makes computer models to study what might happen if the human economy continues to emit greenhouse gases. Like hundreds of other climate scientists, he is deeply worried about global warming. Unlike most scientists I know, he carries that worry into [...]
The Great North American Carbon Sink – Maybe
by Donella Meadows
— April 29, 1999 —
“Aha! We knew it!” a number of conservative columnists have been crowing lately. “Greenhouse, schmeenhouse, go right on driving those sports utility vehicles.”
The cause of their excitement is an article published in Science magazine, one of the most prestigious places a scientific article can be published, claiming that the North American continent is a [...]
Environmental Debates Have Science and Emotion on All Sides
By Donella Meadows
–May 1, 1997–
OK, that’s it.
I’ve heard that “science versus emotion” taunt just once too often.
Nuclear power proponents toss it out like a grenade to silence people who are “irrationally” worried about radioactivity. This is an industry whose wastes will be deadly for thousands of years after the last “scientific” spokesman accuses the last worried citizen of unjustified “emotion.”
Food [...]
How Environmentalists Ought to Talk
By Donella Meadows
–February 29, 1996–
Environmentalists are too gloomy. They invent catastrophes to attract attention and money. Bugs and trees are what they care about, not people. They want to lock up resources. They use long words, like “biodiversity” and “endocrine disrupters.” They’re elitist city folk who care about nature only as a place to go backpacking.
Accusations like these used to [...]
