There Are Limits to Growth, But No Limits to Love
By Donella Meadows
–April 30, 1992–
From corporate boardrooms to primary classrooms to the World Bank to the poorest villages, people know that the human economy is taking too great a toll on nature, growing beyond sustainable limits. We know that, and we mourn the disappearing forests, soils, clear streams, clean air — and we worry. Some retreat into denial, but most [...]
What Does Sustainability Mean?
By Donella Meadows
–April 23, 1992–
As the world prepares for the Earth Summit in June, the global buzz-word is “sustainability.” Governments and people are working not only to define that concept, but to achieve it, just about everywhere except the United States, where there seems to be a determined effort not to join the conversation.
A sustainable society, said the World Commission [...]
Let’s Have Some Hugs for John Sununu
By Donella Meadows
–August 22, 1991–
Much as I favor recycling and writing to Congress, deep down I know that’s not enough to end our environmental problems. Even if we all buy efficient light bulbs and have no more than two children, still I suspect we will be dealing only with the surface causes of our cultural tendency to devastate nature for [...]
What Does it Mean to be Green?
By Donella Medaows
December 13, 1990
The trouble with being politically Green is that you don’t fit on the left-right spectrum. You intersect that spectrum from an angle, agreeing with parts of both the conservative and the liberal agendas and objecting to other parts. “Not left, not right, but in front,” say the Greens. Since the traditional left and right have a [...]
Tough Planet or Fragile Planet?
By Donella Meadows
–August 16, 1990–
“Gaia, as I see her, is no doting mother tolerant of misdemeanors, nor is she some fragile and delicate damsel in danger from brutal mankind. She is stern and tough, always keeping the world warm and comfortable for those who obey the rules, but ruthless in her destruction of those who transgress,” says James Lovelock, originator [...]
