Something There is That Doesn’t Love a Clearcut
By Donella Meadows
–October 31, 1996–
You have to be well trained by a forestry school or well paid by a lumber company to see beauty in a clearcut.
If you haven’t been so trained or paid, if you’re just an ordinary bloke looking at an expanse of slashed, rutted ground where recently a forest stood, you feel slightly sick. You know violence [...]
Dear Folks: October 27, 1996
Hi Dear Folks, Whew! What a month! You know, normally things around here are sort of leisurely and orderly, quiet, routine, almost boring. But this month everything has been in flux. No time for boredom. All up in a heaval. I have been constantly excited, delighted, shocked, saddened, working flat out, exhausted, having a totally great time, or pushing to meet [...]
What the American People Really Want
By Donella Meadows
–October 24, 1996–
Every day in this crazy cartoon campaign the politicians tell us what the American people want. A 15 percent tax cut. Welfare reform. Education. Whatever.
They pay fortunes for polls, these politicians, so you’d think they know what we want. But have you ever been polled? Did you notice what a cramped set of choices you were [...]
The System is Rotten, but Vote Anyway
By Donella Meadows
–October 17, 1996–
Bill Clinton says the Republicans want to cut Medicare.
Bob Dole says stop scaring old folks, I just want to make Medicare grow more slowly.
There, in the so-called “debates,” the matter rests. No neutral party says clearly that under either Clinton’s or Dole’s budget total expenditures on Medicare would go up, so technically that’s not a cut. [...]
How Do We Keep Pesticides Out of Our Foods, if the Government Doesn’t?
By Donella Meadows
–October 10, 1996–
“Have you ever known a pesticide to kill anyone?” a neighbor asked me the other day. She’s a good farmer. She uses pesticides lightly, only when she really needs them. I pick apples at her place, because on my own, where I use no pesticides, I do fine with every crop except apples.
No, I had to [...]
