A Declaration of Independence from Junk Mail
By Donella Meadows
–December 6, 1990–
The competitive market economy can be counted on to turn any good thing to ridiculous excess. Commercial mail to my house once consisted of three Sears catalogs a year. Then a few L.L. Bean catalogs showed up. Now I get as many catalogs a day as I used to get in a year. I am a [...]
A New Role for the CIA
By Donella Meadows
–November 29, 1990–
Only when a new world order comes into being do we realize how deeply the old order permeated our existence. Nothing could be more welcome than the fall of the communist regimes of Europe. Yet their absence requires painful re-adjustment, not only there, but here. Consider, for example, the plight of the CIA.
According to a startling [...]
Dear Folks: November 18, 1990
Dear Folks, The big news of the month is that DON GOT HIS DEER. It was an ELEVEN POINT BUCK! He got it on the first day of muzzle-loader season, with a single shot through the heart.
To understand the import of that news, you have to understand more about Don than I have probably told you. The shooting of an eleven [...]
Nuclear Weapons Have Never Been so Dangerous
By Donella Meadows
–November 15, 1990–
Two months ago another piece of the Soviet Union became an ecological disaster zone. A nuclear fuel plant exploded, releasing a cloud of toxic beryllium over Ust-Kamenogorsk, a city of 300,000 people near the Chinese border.
In this country we are just beginning to understand that the Soviet Union practices advanced industrial technologies with a primitive level [...]
Three Case Studies for the Business Schools
By Donella Meadows
–November 8, 1990–
“This is a case study for the business schools,” said an environmentalist on the day McDonald’s renounced its polystyrene foam hamburger package.
In the November 2 New York Times where that quote appeared there were actually three case studies side by side. Together they raise deep questions about the environmental awareness, responsibility, and power of corporations.
The first [...]
