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You Are What You Put Through Your Mind
By Donella Meadows
–August 25, 1994–
Scores on the Scholastic Achievement Tests — the SATs that determine which of our high-school seniors go to college — have been going down so steadily that the College Board has shifted the scale. Now you can get a higher score with fewer right answers.
Only one out of five U.S. students can write a logical, well-developed [...]
Gandhi’s Seven Blunders–And Then Some
By Donella Meadows
–August 18, 1994–
A few weeks before he was assassinated, Gandhi the Mahatma had a conversation with his grandson Arun. He handed Arun a talisman upon which were engraved “Seven Blunders,” out of which, said Gandhi, grows the violence that plagues the world. The blunders were:
Wealth without work.
Pleasure without conscience.
Knowledge without character.
Commerce without morality.
Science without humanity.
Worship without sacrifice.
Politics without [...]
Impacting Nature — The Damage Isn’t Always Near at Hand
By Donella Meadows
–August 18, 1994–
As they trawl the seafloor for groundfish in the Gulf of Maine, fishing vessels scrape up everything on the bottom, including sponges. Sponges are nursery habitats for young cod. Therefore one fishery is destroying another. That same fishery is overfishing, so it’s also destroying itself.
Hunting whales, says a new report, may do more than eliminate whales. [...]
How to Fight Superstore Sprawl
By Donella Meadows
–August 4, 1994–
The Wal-Mart battle around here has simmered down for awhile. The planning board turned down the company’s application on the grounds that the store (plus another proposed discount store) would bring at peak shopping times 1300 more cars an hour to an already jammed area. Expanding access roads to handle that traffic would cost 3-4 million [...]
First Campaign Reform, Then Health Reform
By Donella Meadows
–July 28, 1994–
Last week, through a stroke of luck, I signed onto a $50-deductible health care plan and discovered how the other half lives — the folks with good health insurance.
Imagine! I don’t have to walk around for months with an ache or lump wondering if I can afford to take it to a doctor! I don’t have [...]
