Who Has a Population Problem?
By Donella Meadows
–September 8, 1994–
There’s a general belief in this country that the global population problem exists Over There somewhere, or maybe Down South of our border. But certainly not here.
If we could see ourselves as the other 95.5 percent of the world sees us, we’d know that nothing could be farther from the truth.
U.S. family size is going up, [...]
Numbers, Myths, Misconceptions About World Population
By Donella Meadows
–September 1, 1994–
Every day, as the International Conference on Population and Development meets in Cairo, the headlines could read, “World Population Grows by 250,000.”
That could be the headline every day of every week, of course. Human population growth is the biggest happening in our world. But it works like a glacier, inexorable, overwhelming, boring. It’s every day’s news, [...]
You Are What You Put Through Your Mind
By Donella Meadows
–August 25, 1994–
Scores on the Scholastic Achievement Tests — the SATs that determine which of our high-school seniors go to college — have been going down so steadily that the College Board has shifted the scale. Now you can get a higher score with fewer right answers.
Only one out of five U.S. students can write a logical, well-developed [...]
Dear Folks: August 21, 1994
Dear Folks,
Sunday morning, gray sky, gentle breeze, preparing for a rain. Another rain. It’s like a tropical rainforest around here this summer. Inside and outside things droop and sweat and mold. Outside the vegetation is so thick it’s almost overbearing. Squash vines with leaves the size of umbrellas are traveling over the garden, over the lawn, taking over the world. [...]
Gandhi’s Seven Blunders–And Then Some
By Donella Meadows
–August 18, 1994–
A few weeks before he was assassinated, Gandhi the Mahatma had a conversation with his grandson Arun. He handed Arun a talisman upon which were engraved “Seven Blunders,” out of which, said Gandhi, grows the violence that plagues the world. The blunders were:
Wealth without work.
Pleasure without conscience.
Knowledge without character.
Commerce without morality.
Science without humanity.
Worship without sacrifice.
Politics without [...]
