The Globalization of Ben and Jerry’s
by Donella Meadows
— April 13, 2000 —
So Unilever has gobbled up Ben & Jerry’s. The $45 billion megacompany that rose from the British and Dutch colonial empires (turning palm and coconut oil into soap and margarine) has acquired Vermont’s outrageous little ice cream maker for $326 million. The American dream at work. A couple of hippies invent wild new ice [...]
Japan Beats America to the Twenty-First Century Car
by Donella Meadows
— April 6, 2000 —
Well, there she is. Sleek and silver, dealer plates still on, got her two days ago. Seventy miles per gallon, seven hundred miles a fill-up. so they say.
Last time I bought a new car — a 1987 Honda Civic wagon that got 35 mpg at its best — I swore I’d keep it until [...]
Begging, Whining, and Getting Sensible About Oil
by Donella Meadows
— March 30, 2000 —
What an upset! Oil-burning New Englanders watch their heating bills double. Truck drivers protest higher diesel costs by jamming Washington streets with their rigs. Congress, in its wisdom, offers to combat a sixty cent jump in gasoline price with a four cent tax cut. Our Energy Secretary runs around the Middle East begging for [...]
Dear Folks: March 26, 2000
Dear Folks,
Last month we were in the depths of winter, and Stephen drew his Spanish-speaking mouse riding on a snowmobile. Last weekend we had a blizzard. Today it’s sunny and sixty. There’s snow only on the north sides of buildings. Robins and bluebirds have returned to the valley. The mud has nearly dried up. I have to go out and [...]
Now Let Us Complain About Catalogs
by Donella Meadows
— March 23, 2000 —
In what appears to be an uncoordinated campaign, three friends have brought me three different mail-order catalogs, asking me to condemn them publicly.
At first I resisted, because I prefer to dump on catalogs as a class, rather than singling some out, which might leave the mistaken impression that others are OK. However, three requests [...]
