All Global Citizens columns are licensed under a Creative Commons License. DMI encourages you to share this content by following these easy steps.
Keeping Up With the Politicians Via Internet
By Donella Meadows
–June 6, 1996–
There’s what they say in political campaigns and then there’s what they do. How does a busy voter ever sort out the difference?
In a proper democracy we wouldn’t have to. Politicians would not be able to buy the public airwaves to propagandize us. We would learn about their actions from an independent press, just the facts, [...]
The Sperm of New York Men Is Not the Issue
By Donella Meadows
–May 30, 1996–
It’s fascinating to watch the reaction to “Our Stolen Future,” the book about endocrine disruptors, which is rapidly coming to be known as the book about sperm.
If you’ve heard of “Our Stolen Future” at all, you’ve likely heard that it blames modern chemicals for the declining sperm count of human males. You may have heard denials [...]
The Water is Someone’s Home
By Donella Meadows
–May 23, 1996–
“What difference does it make?” a student asked me the other day, when I was talking about ways to use less water. “Water is a renewable resource. It isn’t a pollutant. Who cares how much I use?”
He saw about as far as the average citizen sees into his own environmental impact — the immediate [...]
What Happened to the Geographer?
By Donella Meadows
–May 16, 1996–
May is “sweeps month” in the world of commercial television. Sample counts of how many people watch which programs determine advertising rates for the coming season. It’s a time when network news programs get splashy and move their anchors around the world. Last week NBC’s “Today” was broadcast from Ireland. This week ABC’s “Good Morning America” [...]
The Republican Rider and the Mt. Graham Squirrel
By Donella Meadows
–May 9, 1996–
Mount Graham soars ten thousand feet out of the Arizona desert. As it rises its slopes get cooler and moister, until on its peak a forest grows. Biologists call that forest a “sky island,” a 615-acre scrap of never-logged Engelmann spruce and Douglas fir. Below it are transition zones of heavily cut forest interrupted by roads, [...]
