The Donella Meadows Archive

Living Green Isn't a Sacrifice, It's an Adventure

I'm one of those tedious people who try to "live green." I'm no beginner. I've been at it 30 years, since information...

score:9, 04/19/1999, ,

Is the Future Our Choice or Fate?

I was one of the team of people at MIT who wrote a book that created a worldwide burst of media foreboding. It began as a small report to the Club of Rome....

score:9, 12/31/1969, ,

Visit to the Maharishi Ayurvedic Health Center (Mahc)

By Dana Meadows Visit to the MAHC, April 1990 The Maharishi Ayurvedic Health Center in Lancaster, Massachusetts, occupies a gracious mansion on 200 acres of...

score:9, 04/01/1990, ,

A Time of Death, a Time of Life

The shepherd's new year begins in November. That's when we bring the sheep up from the pasture, butcher last spring's lambs and...

score:9, 11/27/1986, ,

E.B. White the Skeptic and Ollie North the True Believer

Last week while I was watching Oliver North testify before Congress, I was also reading a biography of the great American writer E.B. White...

score:9, 07/16/1987, ,

Being Homeless is More Than Being Without Shelter

Last Christmas I was homeless, in a way, for awhile. I FELT homeless anyway, and the pain was sharp enough to give me a small...

score:9, 12/22/1988, ,

A Lament from the Countryside

As I write, the sun, low in the west, is just shining out from beneath storm clouds. This is the third bank of clouds to...

score:9, 07/07/1988, ,

Cancer As a Learning Experience

Six months ago I was diagnosed with Stage II Grade 2 endometrial cancer. Today I feel great. My doctors say there is no more evidence...

score:9, 05/10/1990, ,

Shopping at the Coop: Anything That Exists is Possible

In the back of my car I keep a split-oak shopping basket. As we empty plastic containers, glass bottles, and paper bags in the...

score:9, 03/21/1991, ,

A Letter to a Great Teacher

Professor Anita Hill University of Oklahoma Law School Norman, Oklahoma Dear Professor Hill, The fuss has died down and you have gone back to whatever...

score:9, 10/31/1991, ,

My Three Minutes of Fame

The television people offered to pay my $400 plane fare to New York. Better come the night before, they said, in case there's a...

score:9, 02/20/1992, ,

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, ,

On Getting a 'macarthur'

This is how it happens. Out of the blue on a bright June morning you get a phone call from the John D. and Catherine...

score:9, 06/16/1994, ,

Peace on Earth, Good Will to Sheep and Men

As rams go, Wally was a real gentleman. Rams defend their territory by backing up to get a good run going, putting their thick necks...

score:9, 12/22/1994, ,

What Keeps You Going?

"Last month I got upset enough to ski 2.5 miles out of this remote cabin to send a letter to my Congressional delegates," writes...

score:9, 01/26/1995, ,

Stopping by Lambs on a Sunny Morning

I should be writing about the new Clean Water Act just passed by the House. It removes half the nation's remaining wetlands from federal...

score:9, 05/18/1995, ,

The Song of June in the Country (with a Lesson in Ecology)

The slugs ate the sprouting zinnias right down to the ground. So we put nine ducklings into the garden to eat the slugs. The ducklings...

score:9, 06/15/1995, ,

An Assignment from the Anti-Barbaric Coalition

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...

score:9, 08/17/1995, ,

An Early Morning Conversation with Gandhi

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...

score:9, 11/30/1995, ,

What I Can Be, if I Don't Watch Tv

I can see how television could be addicting. When I stay at a hotel, I can waste a whole evening surfing all those channels, letting...

score:9, 04/11/1996, ,

How to Add Twelve Years to Your Life

The average American spends more than 4 hours a day watching television. Hmmmm, let's figure here. Four hours a day, 28 hours a week...

score:9, 04/18/1996, ,

Gardening Brings out the Truth

Something about gardening gets me thinking about politics. Maybe it's the bending over with the blood running to my head. Maybe making a tiny...

score:9, 06/13/1996, ,

Waiting for the Frost

The sun rises in a new place every morning now. Its first beam hits the garden at a more southerly angle. It's equinox time...

score:9, 09/19/1996, ,

Feeling Our Feelings Might Not Be a Trivial Exercise

Anyone who travels the world is bound to experience not only wonders but also crowds, poverty, pollution, ugliness and cruelty. Anyone who looks at the...

score:9, 01/30/1997, ,

Where Does News Stop and Gossip Begin?

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

score:9, 08/29/1997, ,