How Much Abuse Can Mother Earth Take
By Donella Meadows
–November 13, 1986–
Last week a spill from a pesticide plant turned the Rhine into a “dead river” the entire length of Germany.
That’s just one of hundreds of human-generated assaults upon the environment. Acid rain falls on Scandinavia. Oil spills destroy the coral reefs of the Red Sea. Air pollution kills vegetation in the Los Angeles basin. Radioactive waste [...]
A Glimpse of Freedom for the World’s Hostages
By Donella Meadows
–November 6, 1986–
With 50,000 nuclear weapons in the world, everyone is a hostage. We are innocent targets, held in constant jeopardy to prevent one group of men from forcing their will upon another group of men. Those men, the ones who control the nuclear weapons, hold not only our bodies and lives in hostage, but our civilization, all [...]
Population Growth – The Last and the Next 35 Years
By Donella Meadows
–October 30, 1986–
The world’s population problem is over. That’s what one would gather from the silence on the subject in the media, in politics, in academic forums.
There never was and never will be a population problem. That is the official position of the Reagan administration.
Population growth is an enormous and worrisome force in the world. That’s what I [...]
How to Get Along with Seabrook
By Donella Meadows
–October 23, 1986–
If the Seabrook nuclear power plant does not open soon, we are told, there will be brownouts all over New England, maybe as soon as next summer.
That’s the kind of false choice the power companies have been offering us all along. Go along with the plan (Seabrook) or suffer some dire consequence (brownouts), as if no [...]
Dear Folks: October 18, 1986
Dear Folks,
It’s Saturday night, a nearly-full moon shining in my bedroom window as I type this. Dennis has just left for a trip with the craziest itinerary I ever heard — Ottawa, Seville (yes, the one in Spain), New York, Mexico City, Los Angeles and then home. All in two weeks. Suzanne is working in Boston this weekend. We’re hoping [...]
