The Environment Can Support Bonfires — For Awhile, Anyway
By Donella Meadows
–October 24, 1991–
A bonfire on a crisp night at the darkening time of year is a heartwarming thing — especially a huge bonfire like the one they light for Dartmouth Homecoming every year. Freshmen labor for a week to erect its star-shaped wooden structure, three stories high. When it burns, showers of sparks fly up into the black [...]
He Who Frames the Question Determines the Answer
By Donella Meadows
–October 17, 1991–
The central question last week was, for awhile: why did the all-male Senate Judiciary Committee dismiss so lightly a charge of sexual harrassment? Then the question shifted to: who is Anita Hill? Then the question-manipulating machine of Washington recovered from its surprise and reclaimed the power to frame the question.
The real question, they said, is: who [...]
Improving Child Health Without Shifting the Burden
By Donella Meadows
–October 10, 1991–
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Louis W. Sullivan, wrote a newspaper column last week to celebrate Child Health Day. In it he told us what’s really wrong with our kids’ health. The reason their mortality is higher than that of other industrialized nations, he said, the reason they die in accidents, go unvaccinated, suffer [...]
Some Practical Aid for the (Former) Soviet Union
By Donella Meadows
–October 3, 1991–
The United States is planning to respond to Mikhail Gorbachev’s repeated appeals for economic aid by sending in teams of experts in accounting, marketing and finance.
What? No LAWYERS?
I assume that our leaders are sincere in this offer — that it’s not part of a secret plot to bring the Soviet Union down the last step, from [...]
Corporations Shape an Ozone-Friendly Coalition
By Donella Meadows
–September 26, 1991–
Some people in the corporate world see an absolute conflict between business and the environment. Industry wins or the environment wins, take your choice.
Fortunately, there are dissenters from that view. They see the environment as the playing field upon which all life, including corporate life, is supported. They even think there can be bottom-line gains from [...]
