All Global Citizens columns are licensed under a Creative Commons License. DMI encourages you to share this content by following these easy steps.
The Earth and the Nation Do Not Need More Plutonium
By Donella Meadows
–June 16, 1988–
The element called plutonium did not exist on earth until 1941, when Glenn T. Seaborg made the first measurable amounts of it by bombarding uranium with neutrons. Soon the government was working feverishly to accumulate enough plutonium for an atomic bomb.
It took just 13 pounds of plutonium to level the city of Nagasaki.
Plutonium is deadly not [...]
Out of the Mouths of the Babes
By Donella Meadows
–June 9, 1988–
Given what’s at stake, the world’s people can be grateful for a summit at which superpower leaders practice politeness with one another, even if no other progress is made. But as the recent summit was taking place, I happened to pick up a small journal called “Nuclear Concerns and Humankind”, which reminded me that we who [...]
A Negabarrel Saved is a Barrel Earned
By Donella Meadows
–June 2, 1988–
Amory Lovins shuttles around the world carrying a small suitcase that contains, he says, the equivalent of 200 large power plants plus all the oil that runs through the trans-Alaska pipeline.
What it really contains is energy-saving lightbulbs, motors, showerheads, and other devices. They help Amory get across the most basic points about energy, namely:
1). No one [...]
Why Choosing a President can Change a Nation
By Donella Meadows
–May 26, 1988–
How can the simple change of one leader make much difference to a huge nation? Here we are, 240 million of us, toiling along, fairly constant in our daily activities and our many beliefs. We produce the goods, pay the taxes, educate the kids, clean up the messes. WE are the nation. WE don’t change. How [...]
Alaska Oil vs. Alaska Wildlife: Many Voices
By Donella Meadows
–May 19, 1988–
“The North Slope is a flat, crummy place. Only for oil would anyone want to go there,” says an official of the Arco Oil & Gas Company.
The May issue of Audubon shows picture after glorious picture from that “flat, crummy place” — muskox, tundra swan, Arctic fox, snowy owl, brilliant wildflowers, braided rivers, and magnificent mountains, [...]
