Moments of Shocked Silence About Biotech
by Donella Meadows
— March 16, 2000 —
Biotech stocks plummeted this week as President Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair requested that companies make their data on the human genome public.
Private firms are racing madly to read and patent the genetic code that makes you you and me me. They are trying to beat publicly funded labs, which are required [...]
A Nasty Campaign Against Organic Food
by Donella Meadows
— March 9, 2000 —
The strangest news items about organic food have been popping up. It isn’t good for you after all. It’s full of bacteria and insect parts. You folks who pay a high price for it are not only suckers, you’re risking your health.
ABC’s John Stossel recently interviewed Dennis Avery, “a leading critic of organic produce,” [...]
Who Has a Right To Do What with the Land?
by Donella Meadows
— March 2, 2000 —
Last week the Vermont Environmental Board denied a permit to a developer for a project in Hartland. It was a typical interstate-exit gas/food stop — the kind of place no one likes to look at but we’re all glad to find when we’re on a long trip and running low on fuel.
Hartland’s I-91 exit [...]
Dear Folks: February 26, 2000
Dear Folks,
What a lot can happen in a month! Even a short month like February.
I just looked back at what I wrote to you a month ago:
I was complaining about oil at $1.30 a gallon; now it’s $1.90.
It was 20 below with no snow. Today it’s 60 degrees warmer than that, the huge snowpiles around us are melting, and Ken [...]
A Climate-Protection Technology But Not a Magic Bullet
by Donella Meadows
— February 24, 2000 —
The February issue of Scientific American tells of a new technology that makes me both rejoice and worry. It looks so great, so likely to relieve a massive environmental problem that there’s no way I could oppose it. But on second, third, and fourth thought, I have some doubts.
The technology is called carbon sequestration. [...]
