The Donella Meadows Archive

Greenhouse Myths

"High Cost of Greenhouse Hysteria." "Greenhouse Effect Looks Like Just a Lot of Hot Air." "Environmentalists, Not Pollution, are the Real Threat." The greenhouse backlash...

score:9, 10/03/1989, ,

Different Approaches to Sewage Treatment -- and to the World

Just below one bank of condominiums at the Sugarbush ski resort near Warren, Vermont, you can find three and sometimes four sewage treatment systems being...

score:9, 06/29/1988, ,

A Crack in the Mindset of Nuclear Madness

You could welcome the Reagan-Gorbachev summit as a historic breakthrough. The Intermediate Nuclear Force agreement, the first ever to reduce the nuclear arsenal, may...

score:9, 11/26/1987, ,

Six Fallacies of Modern Agriculture

Farm subsidies are over $20 billion a year, farmers go broke anyway, pesticides contaminate water and food, and topsoil washes down the river. Why is...

score:9, 07/02/1987, ,

Lines in the Mind, Not in the World

The earth was formed whole and continuous in the universe, without lines. The human mind arose in the universe needing lines, boundaries, distinctions. Here and...

score:9, 12/24/1987, ,

We're Not Choosing Values, We're Choosing Assumptions

"This election is about values," says George Bush, without mentioning which values. He can't mention them, because in fact the election is not about...

score:9, 10/27/1988, ,

The Planet is Not in Danger, Our Ideas Are

"Last Chance for the Planet!" "Can the Earth Be Saved?" "Requiem for Planet Earth." The language with which we describe our environmental situation throbs with...

score:9, 08/24/1989, ,

The Cave-Man Approach to Cancer, Pests, and Noriega

When modern doctors want to eliminate rogue cells that have formed a cancer, they bombard them with lethal radiation. They use linear accelerators, marvelous instruments...

score:9, 01/18/1990, ,

A Rohrschach Test in the Middle East

Iraq's aggression in the Middle East has provided a big, oily Rohrschach spot, in which we can all read the messages already ingrained in...

score:9, 08/09/1990, ,

To Solve the Energy Problem You Have to Want to

In the September issue of Scientific American is a graph that sums up beautifully why we are on the brink of war in the Middle...

score:9, 09/27/1990, ,

Making up a War

So this is how it happens. This is how the world convinces itself that war is inevitable, logical, and necessary. It's an age-old...

score:9, 01/17/1991, ,

Anyone Want to Bet the Planet?

Some of our most controversial scientists have taken up a new pastime -- making bets about the environmental future. One such bet was put forward by...

score:9, 03/28/1991, ,

Hair of the Dog That Bit You

"Growth!" promised the president when he showed up in depressed New Hampshire last week and posed for a photo-op with a cow. "Growth!" commands...

score:9, 01/23/1992, ,

Will the Clean Air Act Stop Growth, or Will Growth Stop the

"We will not, given the current level of science, technology and the economy, ... do something that could have serious effects on growth." A high official...

score:9, 04/17/1992, ,

What's a Scapegoat to Do?

A few weeks ago I was honored, I guess, to appear on National Public Radio with Dennis Avery, a self-described agricultural expert with the...

score:9, 06/04/1992, ,

Earth Summit Advice from a Gorilla

Watching my president argue with other leaders of nations about who shall own, patent, and collect the profits from the earth's biodiversity, I wish...

score:9, 06/11/1992, ,

You See the Greenhouse Effect when You Believe It

Well, according to Rush Limbaugh and the Mobil Oil Corporation, we can stop worrying about global warming. Says Mobil in an ad titled "Apocalypse no"...

score:9, 03/04/1993, ,

George Washington and I Are Subjects of Groundless Rumors

I'm using the space of a public column here to right a personal wrong, but bear with me. I also want to illustrate a...

score:9, 06/22/1995, ,

Don't Worry, Be Happy, the Environment is in Great Shape

I have before me four reviews of Gregg Easterbrook's trendy book about the environment (A Moment on the Earth: The Coming Age of Environmental...

score:9, 06/08/1995, ,

An Age-Old Choice Presents Itself Again

It's an ancient urge to want to destroy people who don't believe what you believe. People who think in strange ways seem even...

score:9, 01/18/1996, ,

How Environmentalists Ought to Talk

Environmentalists are too gloomy. They invent catastrophes to attract attention and money. Bugs and trees are what they care about, not people. They want to...

score:9, 02/29/1996, ,

Chemicals Are a Means, Not an End

We thought DDT was great, until we found robins dying on our lawns and eagle eggs broken in their nests. Thalidomide eased morning sickness in...

score:9, 03/14/1996, ,

Russia and China, Seen Through Fun-House Mirrors

We have a hard time seeing straight when we look at countries as large and potentially powerful as our own -- countries such as Russia and...

score:9, 05/15/1997, ,

The Secret Life of My Computer

Usually, as I boot up my computer to write this column, I'm thinking about the column, not the computer. Today, though, I've just...

score:9, 03/13/1997, ,

The Greenhouse Problem As Seen by Europe and the U.S.

Listening to climate change talk in the U.S. and in Europe, I have to wonder whether we're all living on the same planet...

score:9, 10/23/1997, ,