Accelerating with a Foggy Window on an Icy Road
By Donella Meadows
–April 16, 1992–
The human population grows by 95 million people a year and degrades its fertile land by 64 million acres a year. Any moderately intelligent Martian could take one look at those numbers and conclude, “That can’t go on very long.”
Each year 40 million acres of tropical forest fall to chainsaws and cattle. Overfishing has reduced the [...]
Over the Speed Limits
By Donella Meadows
–April 9, 1992–
“One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds,” said Aldo Leopold more than forty years ago. “Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must … be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes [...]
We Can’t Go On Growing This Way
By Donella Meadows
–April 2, 1992–
Twenty years ago there were 3.6 billion people in the world. Now there are 5.5 billion. In another twenty years, according to United Nations projection, there will be 7.5 and by the end of the next century 12.5 billion.
In 1970 the world had 250 million automobiles. In 1990 there were 560 million. Still only about 10 [...]
The Important News Is Breaking at U.N. Headquarters
By Donella Meadows
–March 26, 1992–
Far more important than Congressional rubber checks, Bill Clinton’s love affairs, or even a middle class tax cut, is an event that few reporters are following, though it is happening in the media capital of the United States. PrepCom IV, the fourth and final negotiating session for the Earth Summit, is going on now at United [...]
Dear Folks: March 22, 1992
Dear Folks, What, still ice-bound? Yes, still ice-bound.
It was zero last night. It’s expected to go up to 20 today. There is no snow, and the ground is still hard as steel. The daffodil and tulip bulbs have dared to push up only the tiniest nubbins of sprouts above the ground. There’s not a chance yet of digging, or even pick-axing, our [...]
