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Let’s Have Some Hugs for John Sununu
By Donella Meadows
–August 22, 1991–
Much as I favor recycling and writing to Congress, deep down I know that’s not enough to end our environmental problems. Even if we all buy efficient light bulbs and have no more than two children, still I suspect we will be dealing only with the surface causes of our cultural tendency to devastate nature for [...]
Renewable Energy Comes of Adolescence
By Donella Meadows
–August 8, 1991–
“Wind Energy Comes of Age!” proclaims the lead article in the May/June 1991 issue of Solar Today. According to the article there are now over 18,000 commercial wind-powered turbines operating in the U.S. — 80 percent of them in California. The cost of electricity from wind has fallen from 25 cents per kilowatt-hour in 1981 to [...]
Corporations Tell Us All About the Environment
By Donella Meadows
–August 1, 1991–
The friendly folks at the U.S. Fertilizer Institute are waging a campaign against manure. The word “manure” has a wholesome connotation that is simply not appropriate, say the fertilizer makers. You should not think of manure as a “warm, fuzzy substance.” Henceforth please refer to it as “fecal contamination.”
I think that’s a funny story, because I [...]
Beware the Sloshing of Loose Capital
By Donella Meadows
–July 25, 1991–
The fashionable solution to the economic woes of a community, state, bank, or nation, is to open its boundaries. The idea is that somehow a larger system, more capital, bigger markets, the involvement of more parties will solve the problem.
It would be wise, however, to look out the door before opening it, to see what’s outside [...]
When All Nature Flows Through Human Hands
By Donella Meadows
–July 18, 1991–
In 1986 a group of ecologists at Stanford published a paper in the journal Bioscience that made scientists’ hair stand on end. They calculated that human beings now control 40 percent of the planet’s land-based net primary productivity.
That number would have hit the front pages, if more people had understood what it meant.
The “net primary productivity” [...]
