Giving Away the Gold
By Donella Meadows
–October 19, 1995–
Want to buy a gold mine for five bucks an acre?
Actually you don’t need to buy it. You and I already own it as part of our citizens’ legacy of public land. We’re the ones offering the land at that price, and we’re getting lots of takers. We recently sold a gold deposit in northeast Nevada [...]
What Is Happening to the National Lands?
By Donella Meadows
–October 12, 1995–
There’s a virulent movement in the West and now in the Congress to give federal lands “back” to the states — as if the states had ever owned them.
Of course the original owners were the Native Americans. In the West the Spanish took the lands, then the American people either bought or fought for them. Those [...]
Politicians Have No Idea What People Really Want
By Donella Meadows
–October 5, 1995–
I should be writing about how the grinches in Congress are trying to eviscerate the Endangered Species Act, or about their latest tricks for stomping on the poor while handing the nation’s resources to the rich, or about their lack of interest in hearing public comment on these depredations.
But I get tired of being outraged. No [...]
Green-Washed Optimism: Reflections
By Donella Meadows
–Fall 1995–
I have before me four reviews of Gregg Easterbrook’s trendy book about the environment, A Moment on the Earth: The Coming Age of Environmental Optimism. All the reviews are written by scientists whom I know and respect, and all of them are scathing. The reviewers are more than negative; they’re frustrated, because it isn’t possible to list in [...]
Unserious and Serious Suggestions for Reclaiming Democracy
By Donella Meadows
–September 28, 1995–
Every week, every day, come news items that reveal the sorry state of our democracy. For instance:
– Because of a rider urged by timber companies, passed by Congress, and signed by Bill Clinton, an extra 2 million board feet of timber must now be cut in Vermont’s Green Mountain National Forest. (The present cutting rate is [...]
