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A Billion-Dollar Primer
By Donella Meadows
–April 23, 1987–
The President is requesting $6 billion for Star Wars. U.S. farmers received $23 billion in subsidies last year. Congress overrode the veto on the $88 billion highway plan.
All these billions of dollars whizzing about in the news are vitally important, I’m sure. As taxpayers and citizens we ought to keep our eyes on them. But personally, [...]
Land Protection Is More than Champagne and Quiche
By Donella Meadows
–April 16, 1987–
Some people here in New England say that land protection is a “champagne and quiche” issue. They clearly doesn’t understand land economics. Land protection is an issue for hunters, fishermen, hikers, snowmobilers, anyone who is a tourist or has a tourism-related job, anyone who has a groundwater well, anyone who uses paper or lumber, drinks milk [...]
All the Nations Can’t Feed Themselves, but All the People Can Be Fed
By Donella Meadows
–April 9, 1987–
In the “developing countries” there were 1.7 billion people in 1950. Now there are 3.6 billion. There will be 4.9 billion by the year 2000 and 8.8 billion by 2100, according to U.N. projections.
Can all these people be fed? Are the soils and waters of the earth sufficient to provide for them? Or are overpopulation and [...]
Rambo Still Rules the White House
By Donella Meadows
–April 2, 1987–
There was reason to hope that after the Iran-contra affair the Administration would deal with foreign policy in a manner a bit less swashbuckling. But its decision about IIASA last week, while a minor matter, just a small omen, suggests that the White House is still dominated by the Rambo mentality.
IIASA is the International Institute for [...]
Creeping Degradation in a Viennese Park
By Donella Meadows
–March 26, 1987–
Every time I walk in Laxenburg Park, which I have been doing off and on for ten years now, I’m charmed and I’m depressed. More depressed and less charmed as time goes on.
For 200 years the park, 20 miles south of Vienna, was the private hunting preserve of Austria’s Hapsburg emperors. Now it’s open to any [...]
