Earth Care Paper — Doing Well and Doing Good
By Donella Meadows
–March 17, 1988–
I like to collect stories of planet-conscious businesses, companies that run their affairs in ways that sustain the earth’s resources. There are more such stories than you might think, and they are more than mere curiosities. They are glimpses into the future. They show that there are still products and profits to be made after we [...]
The Academics Meet the Army to Plan Century 21
By Donella Meadows
–March 10, 1988–
When I was invited to a weekend workshop to help the U.S. Army think through its 30-year plan, I almost didn’t go. I live a peaceful, academic existence, and I had built up a set of prejudices about the Army of the sort that come from knowing absolutely nothing about it. I avoid things military. I [...]
Why Should We Be Glad When the GNP Goes Up?
By Donella Meadows
–March 3, 1988–
With that special, kindly sparkle in his eyes the President said in his news conference that there would be good economic tidings the next day. The tidings turned out to be the GNP figure for the last quarter of 1987, which had been revised upward to a growth rate of 4.5 percent. That is supposed to [...]
Not More Simple, Not More Fair
By Donella Meadows
–February 25, 1988–
Remember how the Great 1986 Tax Reform was going to make taxes more simple and more fair? That’s what the President and Congress told us, as they held press conferences to congratulate themselves for the wonder they had wrought.
Now the 1987 IRS forms have arrived and we can see exactly how all this simplicity and fairness [...]
Problems are Interconnected — And so are Solutions
By Donella Meadows
–February 18, 1988–
One of the favorite maxims of environmentalists is that Everything is Connected to Everything Else. That idea is usually delivered with a heavy charge of negativity — if you do something stupid in one place, it will lead to bigger problems somewhere else, or horrible disasters sometime in the future. Your ecological misdemeanors will come back [...]
