Working Toward World Without CFCs
By Donella Meadows
–May 24, 1990–
It is the policy of our nation that by the year 2000 we will cease the use of the chemicals called CFCs. The reason for that policy is that CFCs escape into the stratosphere and destroy the ozone layer. Without that ozone as a shield, damaging ultraviolet light will reach the earth. There it will kill [...]
Paying the Third World to Save the Ozone Layer
By Donella Meadows
–May 17, 1990–
Last week in Geneva the United States positioned itself for the fourth time in six months as an international pariah by refusing to go along with a global environmental agreement. The issue this time was a fund to help Third World nations adopt measures to restore the ozone layer. The Bush administration refused to support the [...]
Cancer is a Learning Experience
By Donella Meadows
–May 10, 1990–
Six months ago I was diagnosed with Stage II Grade 2 endometrial cancer. Today I feel great. My doctors say there is no more evidence of malignancy.
It has been a heck of a six months. I went through the tortures modern medicine is so good at administering: two kinds of radiation therapy and surgery. I tried [...]
A McDonald’s in the Hospital?
By Donella Meadows
–May 3, 1990–
There’s a rumor going around that our new $217 million regional hospital will contain a McDonald’s restaurant.
The folks who told me this couldn’t believe it (but passed it on anyhow — that’s the way with rumors). They shouldn’t have believed it, I discovered as I checked the rumor out. The news is, at best, premature. There [...]
Dear Folks: April 29, 1990
Dear Folks, It’s Sunday morning, gray and cool after a hot, sunny week. The house is quiet. Sylvia and Heather have just left for a week with Sylvia’s mother in New York. (The absence of Heather quiets the house by an order of magnitude, but also takes away much of the charm). Karel is off with Stephanie. Don is in the [...]
