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, ,

How Much Abuse Can Mother Earth Take?

Last week a spill from a pesticide plant turned the Rhine into a "dead river" the entire length of Germany. That's just one of...

score:9, 11/13/1986, ,

A Historic International Agreement on Ozone

There's an old joke that goes like this: if you think the prospect of the end of the world is likely to cause policy...

score:9, 08/08/1987, ,

The Ozone Agreement -- Many Kinds of Heroes

With rejoicing and relief 24 nations and the European Economic Community signed an agreement in Montreal in September to protect the ozone in the earth...

score:9, 10/15/1987, ,

Who Needs Florida, Anyway?

"The accelerating overheating of the earth has already begun," says a Toles cartoon showing a semi-alert Ordinary Guy in his armchair watching the TV...

score:9, 01/14/1988, ,

A Week in the Nation's Capital -- Who Will Win?

It was six whole days before Superbowl Sunday, but in the capital city of the most powerful nation on earth minds, eyes, and television cameras...

score:9, 02/04/1988, ,

The Greenhouse Effect Meets the Press

Thanks to the Midwest drought, reporters have caught on to the greenhouse effect. The phones of climatologists and environmentalists have been ringing off the hook...

score:9, 06/30/1988, ,

Astronauts and Cosmonauts Tell Us About Home

One of my objections to the manned space program has always been that the cosmonauts and astronauts are so terse and technocratic. They say "Roger...

score:9, 10/20/1988, ,

Burning Coal in Connecticut, Planting Trees in Guatemala

Applied Energy Services (AES) of Arlington, Virginia, has come up with a way to do something that everyone thought was impossible. It is building a...

score:9, 03/23/1989, ,

To Save the Environment Start by Saving Landsat

Over the next decade the world will critically need an eye on itself. We will need to keep track of greenhouse warming, forest damage from...

score:9, 02/16/1989, ,

High up Ozone Versus Low Down Ozone, and Other Atmospheric Confusions

A fat lady in apron and snow boots is out on her porch earnestly spraying an aerosol can out into space. The caption says, "Mrs...

score:9, 05/18/1989, ,

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 Sportscar of Showerheads

The best antidote to the greenhouse effect, to acid rain, to urban air pollution, nuclear wastes, and high energy bills is energy conservation. If we...

score:9, 08/31/1989, ,

The Greenhouse Effect, Left, Right, and Center

"High Cost of Greenhouse Hysteria" reads one recent headline. Another says "Greenhouse Effect Looks Like Just a Lot of Hot Air." And a third: "Environmentalists...

score:9, 09/28/1989, ,

The Costs of the Greenhouse Effect Will Be Unpayable

Forward-thinking people are preparing for the greenhouse effect. Barge companies on the Mississippi are acquiring railroads in case the river becomes permanently unnavigable. Planners...

score:9, 10/05/1989, ,

101 Things You Can Do About the Greenhouse Effect

By some stroke of providence, every step we need to take to reverse the greenhouse effect is worth doing anyway. Every step is technically possible...

score:9, 10/26/1989, ,

Greenhouse Extremists -- on Both Sides

We don't want to side with extremists on either side, says George Bush in defense of his wimpy stand on the greenhouse effect. He...

score:9, 02/22/1990, ,

So is the Earth Warming or Isn't It?

With an aha! gotcha! flourish a skeptical reader sent me a recent news release about global warming. "Scientists who analyzed 10 years of weather satellite...

score:9, 04/26/1990, ,

Paying the Third World to Save the Ozone Layer

Last week in Geneva the United States positioned itself for the fourth time in six months as an international pariah by refusing to go along...

score:9, 05/17/1990, ,

Working Toward a World Without Cfcs

It is the policy of our nation that by the year 2000 we will cease the use of the chemicals called CFCs. The reason for...

score:9, 05/24/1990, ,

A Letter to a Very Smart Man

Dear John Sununu, I know how smart you are. I know about your engineering degree, and I watched you perform as my governor all those...

score:9, 07/27/1990, ,

Letter to a Friend in Africa

I got a poignant letter the other day from a friend who works in the environment ministry of an East African nation. He was asking...

score:9, 07/12/1990, ,

Tough Planet or Fragile Planet?

Gaia, as I see her, is no doting mother tolerant of misdemeanors, nor is she some fragile and delicate damsel in danger from brutal mankind...

score:9, 08/16/1990, ,

It Takes a Lot to Run a Biosphere

Last week Space Biosphere Ventures, Inc. selected the four men and four women who will be locked for two years inside Biosphere II. On the...

score:9, 09/20/1990, ,

A Scientific Consensus on Global Warming

Is there a greenhouse effect or isn't there? In the United States that question has become political. Some people think global warming is an...

score:9, 10/11/1990, ,