We Don’t Need Leadership to Know Right From Wrong
By Donella Meadows
–June 4, 1987–
“Assaulted by sleaze, scandals, and hypocrisy, America searches for its moral bearings,” the cover of the May 25 Time magazine says. The essay inside describes how the Reagan administration has failed in moral leadership — or, more precisely, how it has succeeded in promoting “mindless materialism” and a “values vacuum”.
Given the national confusion on ethical issues [...]
We Don’t Need to Squander Oil and Lives
By Donella Meadows
–May 28, 1987–
Why were 37 young men killed on the USS Stark as it patrolled the Persian Gulf?
Because an Iraqi fighter plane fired an Exocet missile at their ship. Why did it do that?
We’ll probably never know.
Why was the Stark there in the first place?
It was protecting the sea lanes from interference, so oil-carrying ships could sail in [...]
Two Approaches to Sewage Treatment and to the World
By Donella Meadows
–May 21, 1987–
Down the slope from the condominiums at the Sugarbush ski resort near Warren, Vermont, are two sewage treatment plants, side by side. They are so different they are caricatures, not only of each other but of the different mindsets that created them.
One plant is a square, windowless structure with a sign at the entrance reading DANGER [...]
Dear Folks: May 18, 1987
Dear Folks,
The whole farm smells of lilacs. We inherited a lot of ancient lilacs that surrounded the barn when we moved in here. The sheep have pretty well killed off the ones in their yard, but outside it there are lilacs 20 feet tall. We’ve encouraged the growth of others around the place — there’s one by the back door, [...]
Gary Hart — The Hound is Brother to the Fox
By Donella Meadows
–May 14, 1987–
It’s awful to watch the pack close in on the fox right in your own back yard.
Until Gary Hart arrived in Hanover last week, I had never seen the full fury of the press pursuing a hot story. Private jets with network logos descended on our little airport. The streets were jammed by TV vans topped [...]
