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An Assignment from the Anti-Barbaric Coalition
By Donella Meadows
— August 17, 1995–
“In spite of the horrors that assault us in the news each day, there are people all over the world who still have faith in the humanness of humanity. They have not lost contact with the specifically human sanity at their core.”
This brave statement comes from the Anti-Barbaric Coalition, which abbreviates itself A-BC. I never [...]
Unabomber is Crazy and Dangerous, but Only Partly Wrong
By Donella Meadows
–August 10, 1995–
The Unabomber is a murderer. He is crazy and dangerous. I have no intention of reading his 35,000 word screed against technology and industry. I’ll take the word of those who tell me it is pretentious and repetitious. (I have to read college student papers all the time; I don’t need any more of that kind [...]
An Endangered Species Story
By Donella Meadows
–August 3, 1995–
Political argument these days is conducted through stories. The woman who spilled hot coffee on herself and sued the coffee vendor. The prisoner let out on furlough who committed a horrible crime. The builder who was stopped from putting up a hundred homes, because an endangered Blue-gray Snailwort was found on his land.
Stories are useful. They [...]
Renewable Energy is in the Capable Hands of the People
By Donella Meadows
–July 27, 1995–
The myth prevails that renewable, solar kinds of energy are exotic, unworkable, expensive and undependable.
Meanwhile the 500 inmates of the Adams County, Colorado, jail use 20,000 gallons of sun-heated hot water a day. The investment to build the solar hot water system paid back within five years.
East Montpelier Elementary School in Vermont is heated with a [...]
You Fought for Freedom, Not for a Flag
By Donella Meadows
–July 20, 1995–
Dear, dear veterans,
I can imagine your fury when someone purposefully insults the flag. I feel some of that fury too, though I never saluted the flag in my country’s uniform, never followed it into the havoc of battle, never saw it draped over the coffin of a fallen friend. The flag to you stands for bravery, [...]
