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Let’s Take Back Christmas
By Donella Meadows
–December 7, 1995–
The holiday shopping season has gotten off to a bad start, they say. They don’t say it, actually, they moan it, as if no worse tragedy can be imagined. The problem is, they say, that too many of us have maxed out our credit cards. The solution is to send out more credit cards.
Correct me if [...]
An Early Morning Conversation with Gandhi
By Donella Meadows
–November 30, 1995–
This morning before daylight my radio clicked on and I heard, through a sleepy haze, that Congress has passed and the president has signed a little-noticed edict permitting the export of Alaskan oil.
I pulled the covers over my ears. The oil industry wins again, I thought. The export ban was passed in the 1970s to prolong [...]
An Instrument Panel to Help Seattle Fly Sustainably
By Donella Meadows
–November 23, 1995–
When you fly a plane, you need an instrument panel in front of you, with lights and dials telling you how well the parts are working, what direction you’re headed, whether there are obstacles ahead, and how much fuel you have.
If you’re guiding a complex social mechanism like a city, you need even more lights and [...]
Who Should Manage the National Lands?
By Donella Meadows
–November 16, 1995–
“The federal government is a lousy neighbor,” says Congressman Wes Cooley (R-Oregon). He’s speaking for a bunch of folks, mostly Westerners, who find it maddening to live near any of the 726 million acres of land owned jointly by them, you, me, and all other U.S. citizens.
Their complaint is that we collectively won’t let them do [...]
How Much Nature Do We Want to Leave?
By Donella Meadows
–November 9, 1995–
At some point the busy human economy will have to stop expanding into wilderness, either because we decide to leave some bit of nature untouched, or because there will be no untouched nature left.
For much of Europe the choice is long past. No place there is wild enough to teach us, as Wendell Berry says, what [...]
