Why We Shouldn’t Ask Economists About NAFTA
By Donella Meadows
–September 9, 1993–
More than biotechnology or weapons technology, more than any other change in our rapidly changing world, the globalization of the economy is affecting everyone on the planet, and not for the better. If we value democracy, the environment, or our jobs, we need to keep an eye not only on the North American Free Trade Agrement [...]
How the Ozone Story Became a Volcano Story
By Donella Meadows
–September 1, 1993–
F. Sherwood Rowland was surprised by all the volcano questions. As a distinguished atmospheric chemist, the discoverer of the cause of the ozone hole, he gives regular public presentations on how the ozone layer works and why it is being depleted. Recently his audiences have been asking, sometimes with confusion, sometimes with hostility: Don’t volcanoes cause [...]
How One Bit of Your Foreign Aid Money Was Spent
By Donella Meadows
–August 25, 1993–
Most Americans, according to opinion polls, believe that huge quantities of their tax dollars go to foreign aid, and that this money is largely wasted.
In fact our foreign aid budget, nearly $7 billion a year, accounts for roughly half a cent out of every dollar the government spends. It comes to, on average, $28 a year [...]
Dear Folks: August 22, 1993
Dear Folks,
The calm before the storm. I leave on Wednesday for Budapest and the Balaton meeting — always the high point and most exhausting week of my year — a week when I’m with 50 of my closest partners and best friends from around the world and it seems a shame to waste time sleeping — a 50-ring circus of [...]
How Many Species Are Endangered? How Do We Know?
By Donella Meadows
–August 19, 1993–
Species extinction is “a potential biological transformation of the planet unequaled perhaps since the disappearance of the dinosaurs,” says Thomas Lovejoy of the Smithsonian Institution. Biologist E.O. Wilson of Harvard calls the loss of species “the folly our descendents are least likely to forgive us.”
“Pure conjecture,” sniff Julian Simon and Aaron Wildavsky, professors of business and [...]
