The Donella Meadows Archive

The Nafta Debate -- More Than Al Gore and Ross Perot

Sending a pair of gladiators like Al Gore and Ross Perot into the ring is not the way to illuminate a complex issue like NAFTA...

score:9, 11/11/1993, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen

Cutting Back Too Much

The scramble to complete a GATT world trade agreement by December 15 is an act of desperation. There is 12 percent unemployment in France, 22...

score:9, 12/09/1993, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen

After Rio: the Governments' and the Citizens' Energy Plans

The Earth Summit in Rio, the largest global meeting ever held, is nearly two years behind us but still very much alive. Heads of state...

score:9, 04/14/1994, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen

Preparing for the Birth Summit

Two years ago the official name of the big conference was UNCED -- the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. Everyone called it the Earth...

score:9, 04/21/1994, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen

Fifty Years Later -- We Need Another Bretton Woods Conference

Just weeks after D-Day, while the Allied armies were still battling their way toward Germany, a quieter event occurred that would shape the world...

score:9, 06/30/1994, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen

The Silence About Gatt

If NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) was controversial, GATT (the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) should be inflammatory. NAFTA linked the economies...

score:9, 10/20/1994, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen

Gatt Concentrates Too Much Power in the Wrong Hands

There's one huge, discussible reason why GATT (the world trade agreement that will come before Congress next month) should not be passed. There's...

score:9, 10/27/1994, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen

How to Talk About Changing a System

Most of what government does makes little long-term difference, thank goodness. Spend more money here and less there; strengthen a regulation here, weaken one...

score:9, 12/01/1994, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen

Ice Cracks in Antarctica, Delegates Dither in Berlin

Stunning news from Antarctica arrived last month just before the world's nations gathered in Berlin to discuss global climate change. It was as if...

score:9, 04/13/1995, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen

Hitler Needed a Chamberlain, Milosevic Needed a Bush and a Clinton

At our behest, under our supervision, the Bosnians go to the polls this weekend, or fear to go because they are refugees far from their...

score:9, 09/12/1996, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen

Foreign Policy on the Scale of a Neighborhood

Suppose you lived in a diverse neighborhood -- rich folks, poor folks, people of all kinds and colors, most of them eager to keep the peace...

score:9, 12/05/1996, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen

Rio Plus Five and Going Backward

Five years ago the leaders of 120 nations assembled at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and signed a list of environmental pledges called...

score:9, 06/19/1997, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen

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, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen

The Black Helicopters Are Coming!

The folks who warn us about the black helicopters of the United Nations swooping down and taking over the world might maybe be a bit...

score:9, 08/21/1997, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen

Trade on the Fast Track -- What's the Hurry?

There were plenty of bad reasons why Congress turned down President Clinton's "fast track" trade bill -- the normal "do anything to humiliate Clinton" stuff...

score:9, 11/13/1997, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen

Mother Gaia Reflects on the Global Climate Conference

I may have made a mistake when I evolved that two-legged, large-brained life-form. They have a wonderful intelligence, those creatures, my first...

score:9, 12/04/1997, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen

Meeting the Kyoto Standards -- Piece of Cake

The Kyoto climate conference is over, the holidays are over, it's the morning after. Our government, with other governments, has promised to cut back...

score:9, 01/08/1998, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen

Multibillion Dollar Global Markets Aren't the Answer

"Vermont to Grab Its Share of Multibillion Dollar Global Environment Market," said the press release announcing a meeting I attended last weekend. The organizing body...

score:9, 06/18/1998, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen

Why Kosovo is a Battleground Again

Surprised citizens are flooding Congress with calls asking how this Kosovo mess came about and why we're involved in it. When I heard that...

score:9, 04/01/1999, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen

The People Meet the World Trade Organization

The high priests of free trade are getting nervous. Corporate and government officials from the 134 nations that belong to the World Trade Organization (WTO...

score:9, 11/18/1999, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen

Why Greens Don't Love the WTO

Last month The Economist ran a frustrated editorial wondering why environmental groups would picket the upcoming World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Seattle. The headline...

score:9, 11/25/1999, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen

The WTO Protesters and the Powers That Be

All week I've been cringing at the news. Tear gas. Broken windows. Bloody faces. The National Guard called in to defend Seattle against the...

score:9, 12/02/1999, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen

Globalization Hits Hungary with a Wave of Cyanide

Here's a story of the global economy at its worst and maybe also at its best. In early February a cry of alarm came...

score:9, 02/10/2000, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen

The Globalization of Ben and Jerry's

So Unilever has gobbled up Ben & Jerry's. The $45 billion megacompany that rose from the British and Dutch colonial empires (turning palm and coconut...

score:9, 04/13/2000, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen

What Use is It to Be a Superpower?

Were you as dismayed as I was by the public debate about whether, and under what conditions, this nation should invade Haiti? The discussion revealed...

score:8, 09/22/1994, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen