Dear Folks: November 21, 1999
Dear Folks,
I wondered last month whether I’d be writing this month from my old house or my new one. Well, the answer is neither. I’m in my office at Dartmouth, because things are chaotic at home — home still being Foundation Farm for another week. Actually my office there is still functional, except that I’m beginning to pack up books [...]
The People Meet the World Trade Organization
By Donella Meadows
–November 18, 1999–
The high priests of free trade are getting nervous. Corporate and government officials from the 134 nations that belong to the World Trade Organization (WTO) have long planned to meet in Seattle at the end of this month to negotiate the next round of global trade rules. Now they discover that thousands of angry citizens will [...]
Why Bother With Organic Flowers?
By Donella Meadows
–November 11, 1999–
Thank goodness for the agribusiness folks. The more they mess about with transplanted genes and toxic chemicals and irradiation, the better the market for local, fresh, organic, un-messed-about-with foods. When it comes to things we’re going to put into our mouths, things that are literally going to become us, we consumers are cautious, and rightly so.
But [...]
Poverty is Real, and it is Not OK
By Donella Meadows
–November 4, 1999 —
Almost thirty years ago I returned from a long stay in India with my mind, body, and senses full of dust and color, peace and violence, holiness and crassness, all the contradictions of a land so different from my own.
I thought I would remember always the faces of the villagers. I was pained by the [...]
A Question for Al Gore
By Donella Meadows
–October 28, 1999–
If you live in New Hampshire in the months before a presidential primary, you can’t help but get engulfed. Big politicians roll into small towns. TV trucks with satellite dishes squat in the few parking places. Self-absorbed people in suits pace village greens, shouting into cell phones. All this week, as Dartmouth College geared up for [...]
