The Donella Meadows Archive

Immigration Policy That's Practical As Well As Noble

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest...

score:8, 01/19/1995, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen

Nancy and the October Surprise

I have watched for ten years as rumors about the October surprise have started up and disappeared and started up again. Over the same time...

score:7, 04/25/1991, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen

A Week to Reflect Upon Leadership

In Iran the Ayatollah died. In Poland the people, voting semi-freely for the first time in 40 years, rejected their party leaders. In the...

score:6, 06/09/1989, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen

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:6, 07/12/1990, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen

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:6, 06/11/1992, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen

Cut off from Global Markets, Cuba Invents a New Agriculture

It's hard to believe anything we hear about Cuba. Some people, especially those in official positions, want us to believe that Cuba does no...

score:6, 06/12/1997, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen

Readers Roar Back with Varying Degrees of Politeness

Sending an opinion column into the world is a bit like tickling a sleeping bear. Sometimes you get back low rumbles. Every now and then...

score:6, 01/04/2001, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen

Poverty Causes Population Growth Causes Poverty

Everywhere in the world, in every kind of culture, the poorest people have the most children. Does having many children make people poor? Or does...

score:5, 06/19/1986, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen

The Bank of Crooks, Criminals, and Counterfeit Spirituality

In 1972 a group of people ... had a vision of a multinational, multilingual bank with a philosophy that would accommodate all nationalities, all races, all...

score:5, 01/16/1992, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen

All the Nations Can't Feed Themselves, but All the People Can Be Fed

In the "developing countries" there were 1.7 billion people in 1950. Now there are 3.6 billion. There will be 4.9 billion by...

score:3, 04/09/1987, Donella Meadows, Global Citizen