How Long Does It Take to Make the Air Clean?
By Donella Meadows
–July 30, 1992–
The history of the Clean Air Act is worth knowing, not just to avoid repeating it, but to get a sense of how long it takes to solve environmental problems — or not solve them, as the case may be.
The first smoke control act was implemented in Los Angeles in 1905. It was strengthened thereafter at [...]
Ross Perot, Jesse Jackson, and the Politics of Protest
By Donella Meadows
–July 24, 1992–
Though I hadn’t made up my mind to vote for Ross Perot, I was sorry to see him leave the campaign. I like him, for the same reasons that I like Jesse Jackson.
They are both delightfully unprofessional. They won’t submit to the grooming and polishing of party machines. They don’t need polls to know what to [...]
Dear Folks: July 19, 1992
Dear Folks, Summer began yesterday, the first hot, muggy, lazy day of the year, the first one where I wanted to do nothing but sit in the shade, or the brook. The lettuce and peas and spinach — the spring-season plants — had been going on and on, well past their appointed time, in the cool and wet of the previous [...]
Whatever Happened to the Greenhouse Effect?
By Donella Meadows
–July 16, 1992–
For 20 years I’ve recorded the date of every first frost, first robin, first apple blossom, first sweet corn on my farm. My records show clearly that springs have been coming sooner and frosts later. I’ve come to count on a growing season almost a month longer than when I first moved here.
What happens on one [...]
Al Gore for Vice President
By Donella Meadows
–July 9, 1992–
Until now it was hard for people who care about the environment to get excited about the presidential election. We had a choice between George Bush, whose performance on environmental matters is graded D by the League of Conservation Voters, Bill Clinton, who gets a C, and Ross Perot, who says, when asked about the environment, [...]
