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A Letter to a Very Smart Man
By Donella Meadows
–July 27, 1990–
Dear John Sununu,
I know how smart you are. I know about your engineering degree, and I watched you perform as my governor all those years before you went to the White House. I’ve seen your mind snap up information, quick as a trap. Therefore I was surprised the other day when you made a statement unworthy [...]
The G-7 Environmental Scorecard
By Donella Meadows
–July 19, 1990–
“I’m not too happy with them. I think their grading system is absolutely essentially absurd,” said President Bush at the Houston summit last week. He was speaking of the international coalition of over 150 environmental groups, which had just ranked the Group of Seven governments on their environmental policies.
He was mad because the U.S. flunked.
When he [...]
Letter to a Friend in Africa
By Donella Meadows
–July 12, 1990–
I got a poignant letter the other day from a friend who works in the environment ministry of an East African nation. He was asking for help:
“Of late my government has taken interest in global environmental issues, namely the depletion of the ozone layer and the greenhouse effect. But when I graduated in environmental studies in [...]
The World’s First Electronic Magazine
By Donella Meadows
–July 5, 1990–
Once every two weeks the computer in my office gives me a beep to say the ESD News has arrived.
When I click back, the masthead of a 15-page magazine comes up on my screen. I can scroll through it, read what I’m interested in, skip over or even wipe out what I’m not. If there’s a [...]
Not Seeing the Forest for the Dollar Bills
By Donella Meadows
–June 28, 1990–
The Fish and Wildlife Service has finally declared the spotted owl an endangered species. The decision will, if the administration enforces the law of the land, drastically cut back logging in the owl’s habitat — old-growth forest in the Pacific Northwest.
The logging companies are fighting back. They will go to court to “dispute the science” behind [...]
