Resisting the Advent of Ads
By Donella Meadows
–October 14, 1993–
In the Western world we’ve built up resistance to the visual, aural, and mental pollution of advertising. We doubt, we laugh, we turn off. The advertisers counter with brighter colors, louder noises, wilder images. We close down our senses.
Eastern Europeans had no chance to harden up before their ideological wall fell and multinational advertisers rolled over [...]
Tuning in to NAFTA
By Donella Meadows
–September 29, 1993–
“I have to admit, I’ve tuned out the whole discussion about NAFTA,” said my neighbor, who is not in the habit of tuning out discussions. “It all seems so complicated.”
“Here’s a good introduction,” I said, handing her Ross Perot’s book Save Your Job, Save Our Country. She looked at me as if I’d gone crazy. “I [...]
Dear Folks: September 26, 1993
Dear Folks,
I’m writing with a headache, a bad thing to do, because the world always looks impossible when I view it through a headache.
When I was younger I had terrible migraines once or twice a month. After endometrial cancer and a hysterectomy, they went away almost entirely. But I still get them occasionally — mostly when I give up caffeine, [...]
First Regulate Sweatshops, Pirates, and Casinos, Then Open Trade
By Donella Meadows
–September 23, 1993–
What is it about NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) that lines up such a wierd coalition as Jesse Jackson, Ross Perot, Pat Buchanan, and Greenpeace against it — and a wierder coalition of Bill Clinton, Bob Dole, the Mexican government, and the World Wildlife Fund for it?
It’s simple, the anti-NAFTA crowd would say. The [...]
Free Trade Can Work Against the Environment – Or For It
By Donella Meadows
–September 16, 1993–
Environmentalists who worry about NAFTA and other trade agreements like to tell the tuna-dolphin story — though the moral of that story is far from clear.
Schools of yellowfin tuna off the Pacific coast often swim below groups of dolphin. Fishermen look for the dolphin to find the tuna. With their powerful purse-seine nets, they used to [...]
