After the Treaty What Happens to the Bombs?
By Donella Meadows
–January 14, 1988–
In their debate in Hanover last week the Republican candidates raised a question that’s been bothering me for weeks. What will happen to the nuclear bombs that are to be removed from Europe under the INF treaty?
I’ve been going around asking ever since Reagan and Gorbachev signed the agreement, and I’ve been getting all sorts of [...]
Who Needs Florida, Anyway?
By Donella Meadows
–January 14, 1988–
“The accelerating overheating of the earth has already begun,” says a Toles cartoon showing a semi-alert Ordinary Guy in his armchair watching the TV news.
The announcer continues, “Leading scientists warn that the pollution-caused runaway greenhouse effect is happening faster than previously believed.”
“The earth will bake, our farmlands turn to desert, our forests die, and our coasts [...]
Silent Spring and The Population Bomb — Can Books or Lives Make Any Difference?
By Donella Meadows
–January 7, 1988–
For middle-aged environmentalists like me this month marks the transition between 1987, the year we celebrated the 25th anniversary of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, and 1988, the year of the 20th anniversary of Paul Ehrlich’s The Population Bomb.
I guess most people’s calendars are not dominated by these milestones. But anyone over the age of forty will [...]
Have You Got a Minute?
By Donella Meadows
–December 31, 1987–
I read somewhere that 8500 McDonald’s hamburgers are sold every minute. How on earth could they know that? I wondered. What, if anything, does that number mean?
Of course it can’t mean that precisely 8500 hamburgers — no more, and not one Big Mac less — are sold each and every minute. The actual numbers each minute, [...]
Lines in the Mind, Not in the World
By Donella Meadows
–December 24, 1987–
The earth was formed whole and continuous in the universe, without lines.
The human mind arose in the universe needing lines, boundaries, distinctions. Here and not there. This and not that. Mine and not yours.
That is sea and this is land, the mind thinks, and here is the line between them. See? It’s very clear on the [...]
