Dear Folks, It’s Saturday night, windy and wet outside. The Glory has come and gone and we’re into the late fall of bare trees, bleak skies and storm. But I’m sitting here at FOUNDATION FARM, BACK HOME, in the study, with the woodstove aglow, Basil curled up at my feet, Simon purring in a gray fuzzy ball on my desk. It’s [...]
By Donella Meadows
–October 20, 1988–
One of my objections to the manned space program has always been that the cosmonauts and astronauts are so terse and technocratic. They say “Roger” and use plenty of technical jargon, but they never talk about what I want to hear. What’s it really like up there? How is it to be so detached from, distant [...]
By Donella Meadows
–October 13, 1988–
My European friends are watching our election with mystification. They see a young, powerful country with a massive deficit, a negative trade balance, a quarter of its children growing up in poverty, an eroding environment, an opportunity for a turnaround in nuclear arms — and its Presidential candidates are talking about the FLAG.
Is someone threatening your [...]
By Donella Meadows
–October 6, 1988–
The members of the International Olympics Committee pointed out clearly and calmly, after they stripped Ben Johnson of his gold medal, that if they don’t enforce fair competition, the whole game will fall into ruin. Referees have to be present at every match to call fouls. Candidates who soup up their performance with drugs must be [...]
By Donella Meadows
–Autumn 1988–
Dana Meadows is a well-known pioneer in the field of sustainability. She is a Dartmouth educator, a co-author of the ground-breaking Limits to Growth, and now a principal organizer of the Balaton Group. She writes a column called The Global Citizen which should be carried by your local newspaper. If not, write to your editor – and to Dana at [...]
Donella Meadows Legacy
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About The Donella Meadows Project

The mission of the Donella Meadows Project is to preserve Donella (Dana) H. Meadows’s legacy as an inspiring leader, scholar, writer, and teacher; to manage the intellectual property rights related to Dana’s published work; to provide and maintain a comprehensive and easily accessible archive of her work online, including articles, columns, and letters; to develop new resources and programs that apply her ideas to current issues and make them available to an ever-larger network of students, practitioners, and leaders in social change. Read More
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