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Congress is Playing the Ugly Rider Game Again
by Donella Meadows
— July 22, 1999 —
“ACTION ALERT. This week the Senate is expected to vote on an Interior Appropriations bill that has a dirty baker’s dozen of anti-environmental riders. Now is the time to step up our opposition to these undemocratic attacks on the environment.”
I get so darn sick of these emails.
I get sick of the whole cynical rider [...]
Who Needs Germ-Fighting Vacuum Cleaner Bags?
by Donella Meadows
— July 15, 1999 —
My trusty Electrolux dealer dropped off a box of vacuum cleaner bags the other day. What stopped me from ripping it right open was not the label, I’m sorry to say, but the price.
Thirty bucks for 24 bags. A dollar and a quarter each. Electrolux bags have always been pricey, but even with handy [...]
The Forest is More than a Collection of Trees
by Donella Meadows
— July 8, 1999 —
About 40 years ago a young Dartmouth biology professor named Herb Bormann took a tomato plant, gently pulled its roots apart into two bunches and planted it in two pots, one clump of roots in each pot. He watered both pots until the plant got established. Then he watered only one pot. The tomato [...]
Rewriting the Story of the Ant and the Grasshopper
by Donella Meadows
— July 1, 1999 —
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper plays his fiddle and dances the summer away. Come winter the ant is warm and fed. The grasshopper dies in the cold.
This tale is attributed to Aesop, a Greek ex-slave who lived around 600 B.C. [...]
Ethnic Cleansing in the Chicken Coop
by Donella Meadows
— June 23, 1999 —
I didn’t plan it this way, but I have birds of three different sizes in my chicken coop, which is a bad idea.
The coop has a floor-to-ceiling chicken-wire divider down the middle. One on side are 40 full-grown layers plus a handsome Buff Orpington rooster. All is peaceful there, except for a constant low [...]
