The Global Citizen

The bi-weekly column by Donella H. Meadows (1941-2001), director of the Sustainability Institute and an adjunct professor of environmental studies at Dartmouth College.

• Polar Bears and Three-Year-Olds on Thin Ice, February 1, 2001
• An Ode to the Cow and the Milk, January 25, 2001
• Electricity Restructuring and Faith in the Market, January 18, 2001
• Trying Hard Here to Work Up Some Feeling of National Unity, January 11, 2001
• Readers Roar Back With Varying Degrees of Politeness, January 4, 2001
• An Ounce of Precaution, December 28, 2000
• The Senator, The President, and the Sea Lion, December 21 2000
• Closing the Barn Door on POPs, December 14, 2000
• The 2000 Election in the Cool Light of History, December 7, 2000
• No Point in Waiting Around for Leadership, November 30, 2000
• Things Are Getting Better or Worse, Depending On What You Count, November 23, 2000
• The Power of a Vote, November 16, 2000
• A Message to New Leaders from a Fallen Giant November 9, 2000
• The Brothers Foley Develop a Sense of Humus, November 2, 2000
• The Campaign Glass is 95 Percent Empty, October 26, 2000
• Hard Questions for the Candidates, October 19, 2000
• Scientists, Flouride Loonies, and the Evidence, October 12, 2000
• "Debating" All the Way From L to P, October 5, 2000
• Consumer Power Reforms Chicken Factories -- But Not Enough, September 28, 2000
• The Death Tax Does Not Deserve to Die, September 21, 2000
• An Environmentalist Encounters an Environmental Law, September 14, 2000
• Let's Stop Racing Each Other and Go for Bear Instead, September 7, 2000
• There's "Survivor" and Then There's Real Survival, August 31, 2000
• Taking Over From God on the Seventh Day, August 24, 2000
• How It Happened That We Don't Regulate Biotech, August 17, 2000
• A World Food Production Quiz, August 10, 2000
• Getting Beyond the Choice Between Tweedledum and Tweedledee, August 3, 2000
• Mad Cows, Mad Sheep, Mad Elk, Mad People, July 27, 2000
• Forget Camp David, Forget Survivor, Watch Capitol Hill, July 20, 2000
• Le monde n'est pas une marchandise. Moi non plus, July 13, 2000
• Being Civil About Civil Unions, July 6, 2000
• Things Are Getting Worse at a Slower Rate, June 29, 2000
• How's a Green Group to Survive Without Junk Mail?, June 22, 2000
• The Good is the Enemy of the Perfect, June 15, 2000
• Three Companies Say 'Oops' in Different Ways, June 8, 2000
• The Catbox Guide to Business Success, June 1, 2000
• What To Do With Your Single, Precious Presidential Vote?, May 25, 2000
• Ecological Destruction and a Vermont Farm in May, May 19, 2000
• Kalle Lasn is Mad as Heck and Isn't Going to Take It Any More, May 11, 2000
• Give Me Feedback And I Will Change The World, Or At Least My Own Habits, May 4, 2000
• Rhetoric About Taxes, Facts About Taxes, April 27, 2000
• Earth Day Plus Thirty, As Seen By The Earth, April 20, 2000
• The Globalization of Ben and Jerry's, April 13, 2000
• Japan Beats America to the Twenty-First Century Car, April 6, 2000
• Begging, Whining, and Getting Sensible About Oil, March 30, 2000
• Now Let Us Complain About Catalogs, March 23, 2000
• Moments of Shocked Silence About Biotech, March 16, 2000
• A Nasty Campaign Against Organic Food, March 9, 2000
• Who Has a Right to Do What With the Land?, March 2, 2000
• A Climate-Protection Technology But Not a Magic Bullet, February 24, 2000
• Trying to Measure Which Nations Are Sustainable, February 17, 2000
• Globalization Hits Hungary with a Wave of Cyanide, February 10, 2000
• Watching the Primay from Across the River, February 3, 2000
• Y No Y2K Disaster, January 27, 2000
• How Campaign Reform Could Clean Up a log of Hog Manure, January 20, 2000
• AOL, Time Warner and the Dalai Lama's Millennium Greeting, January 13, 2000
• The New Century As Seen From More Serious Places, January 6, 2000
• A Disappointing Turn of the Millennium, December 30, 1999
• A New Kind of Organization Based on Purpose and Principle, December 23, 1999
• Saying It Straight, December 16, 1999
• Close Encounters With A Lifetime of Stuff, December 9, 1999
• The WTO Protesters and the Powers That Be, December 2, 1999
• Why Greens Don't Love the WTO, November 25, 1999
• The People Meet the World Trade Organization, November 19, 1999
• Why Bother With Organic Flowers?, November 11, 1999
• Poverty is Real, And it is Not OK, November 4, 1999
• A Question for Al Gore, Ocotober 28, 1999
• Americans Are the World's Guinea Pigs for Bioengineered Foods, October 21, 1999
• What Happens When You Believe the Prophets of Doom?, October 14, 1999
• Six Billion of Us: Boo? Hooray?, October 7, 1999
• Shining a Light On Dark Corners of the Budget Process, September 30, 1999
• So Everyone Wants Peace, So What?, September 23, 1999
• If the Government Says It's Safe, It's Safe. Right?, September 16, 1999
• There's What They Tell Us -- And What They Don't Tell Us, September 9, 1999
• The Latest News From the Ozone Layer, September 2, 1999
• Seven-Plus Wonders of Sustainability, August 26, 1999
• How Many Experts Do We Need Before We Heed Earth's Warnings?, August 19, 1999
• Whom Do We Blame, As We Watch Nature Dry Up?, August 12, 1999
• The World's Top Five Consumers in Many Categories, August 5th 1999
• Two Mindsets, Two Visions of Sustainable Agriculture, July 29, 1999
• Congress is Playing the Ugly Rider Game Again, July 22, 1999
• Who Needs Germ-Fighting Vacuum Cleaner Bags?, July 15, 1999
• The Forest is More Than a Collection of Trees, July 8, 1999
• Rewriting the Story of the Ant and the Grasshopper, July 1, 1999
• Ethnic Cleansing in the Chicken Coop, June 23, 1999
• A Climate Scientist Takes His Computer Model Seriously, June 17, 1999
• Clustering -- Good Idea, Hard To Do, June 10, 1999
• There's Farming and then There's Farming, June 3, 1999
• What's the President Worth? For Doing What? , May 27, 1999
• Nevermind Paper vs. Plastic Bags, How Did You Get to the Grocery Store?, May 20, 1999
• A Tale of Two Fisheries, May 13, 1999
• Amory Lovins Sees The Future and It Is Hydrogen, May 4, 1999
• The Great North American Carbon Sink -- Maybe, April 29.1999
• Song for the Bluefin Tuna, April 22, 1999
• The Dow Passes Ten Thousand -- Hooray?, April 15, 1999
• Social Security is No Problem, Unless We Make It One, April 7, 1999
• Why Kosovo is a Battleground Again, April 1, 1999
• Genetic Engineering is Not Just More of the Same, March 25, 1999
• Monsanto Gets Pie In The Face, March 18, 1999
• So What Can We Do -- Really Do -- About Sprawl?, March 11, 1999
• If We Don't Like Sprawl, Why Do We Go On Sprawling?, March 4, 1999
• Urban Growth Means Lower Taxes -- and Other Myths, February 25, 1999
• Sprawl By Any Other Name Is Still Out of Control, February 18, 1999
• A Battle Not of Snippets But of Moral Mindsets, February 11, 1999
• The State of the World As Seen By Its Babies, Febuary 4, 1999
• The Hottest Year Yet, January 28, 1999
• Sand County Almanac Fifty Years Later, January 21, 1999
• Join in Nonviolent Resistance to a World Takeover Plot, January 14, 1999
• Weeping for the Shrimp and the Zambians and the Macaques, January 7, 1999
• Chicken Little, Cassandra, and the Boy Who Cried Wolf, December 31, 1998
• The Politicians, the Teacher, and the People, December 24, 1998
• The Ski Store and the Real Cost of Fun, December 17, 1998
• Where Have All the Frogs and Toads Gone?, December 10 ,1998
• The World's Billionaires and the Game of Giving, December 3, 1998
• Mad About Ads, November 26, 1998
• Y2K and The Great Hawaiian Toilet Paper Panic, November 19, 1998
• Thomas Jefferson and Donella Meadows, Slave-Owners, November 12, 1998
• Fred and Pat Have Cookies and Milk, November 5, 1998
• Just a Few Simple Questions for the Politicians, October 29, 1998
• Michael Moore's Revolution — Everybody Vote, October 22, 1998
• The Lorax and the Truax — Hey, Can We Talk?, October 15, 1998
• 200 Years Since Malthus and We Still Haven't Proved Him Wrong, October 8, 1998
• Financial Meltdown -- Many Theories, Many Futures, October 1, 1998
• It's Not About Sex, It's About Civil Rights, September 24, 1998
• Advice From Abroad on Restructuring Electricity, September 17, 1998
• Chemical Company Arguments That Don't Quite Connect, September 10, 1998
• We Can All Hardly Wait for Electricity Deregulation, September 3, 1998
• The Environmental Legend and the Real Tongass, August 27, 1998
• Presidents and Citizens and Responsibility, August 20, 1998
• Sending Air Conditioners to Texas, and Other Vicious Circles, August 13, 1998
• Lewinsky, Schmewinsky, Could We Have Some Real News?, August 6, 1998
• The Peasant's Bank and the Multinational Corporation, July 30, 1998
• Neatniks Of The World, Arise!, July 23, 1998
• Eating Into Resilience Saves Money -- In The Short Run, July 16, 1998
• The News Behind the News, July 9, 1998
• Y2K and the Average Bite of Food, July 2, 1998
• How Did We Ever Let TV Get So Bad?, June 24, 1998
• Multibillion Dollar Global Markets Aren't the Answer, June 18, 1998
• End of Congressional Session, Riders Run Amok, June 11, 1998
• With Indian and Pakistani Bombs, Is Anyone Feeling More Secure?, June 4, 1998
• A Consciously Chosen Death in the Netherlands, May 28, 1998
• There's "Pesticide-Free" and Then There's "Organic", May 21, 1998
• Don't Get Into Evolutionary Races With Small Critters, May 14, 1998
• Someone Will Have To Do Something About All This, May 7, 1998
• Noise-Making Goop and the Carrying Capacity of the Earth, April 30, 1998
• Monsanto and Fox and Consumers' Right to Know, April 23, 1998
• CSA Farms Can Help Our Health, Our Land, and Our Farmers, April 16, 1998
• Getting Rid of the IRS -- Or the Payroll Tax -- Or the Sales Tax, April 9, 1998
• Immigration is an Issue for More Than the Sierra Club, April 2, 1998
• We Don't Need New Ideas; We Just Need to Stop Having Old Ones, March 26, 1998
• Here a Vroom, There a Vroom, Everywhere a Vroom Vroom, March 19, 1998
• Living on Sun, Water, Wind, Grass, and Community, March 12, 1998
• Hurray! We Get to Revise Our Education Funding System, March 5, 1998
• Organic Farmers Fight National Organic Standards, February, 26, 1998
• More Justice for Chemicals Than For Presidents, February 19, 1998
• What's So Great About Being Big?, February 12, 1998
• Junk Mail In A Time of Declining Trees, February 5, 1998
• Deeply Saddened by the State of the Union, January 29, 1998
• Veggie Libel Suits Are Meant to SLAPP Free Speech, January 22, 1998
• The Asian Meltdown and The Myth of Ascendant Capitalism, January 15, 1998
• Meeting the Kyoto Standards -- A Piece of Cake, January 8, 1998
• You Are Not Your Square Footage, January 1, 1998
• A Computer Model Tests Our Red, Green, or Blue-Colored Glasses, December 25, 1997
• Venture Capital for Public Entreprenuers, December 17, 1997
• And You Thought You Liked Shrimp, December 11, 1997
• Mother Gaia Reflects on the Global Climate Conference, December 4, 1997
• The Last Lament of the Macintosh User, November 27, 1997
• Why Do These Irresponsible People Blame Society for Their Problems?, November 20, 1997
• Trade on the Fast Track -- What's the Hurry?, November 13, 1997
• People of Wealth Stand Up for Greater Equality, November 6, 1997
• A Building Can Be a Teacher, October 30, 1997
• The Greenhouse Problem as seen by Europe and the U.S., October 23, 1997
• We Can Do Something About Populations By Doing Something About Poverty, October 15, 1997
• Praying for Wouter -- And For Us All, October 9, 1997
• Is There Anyone Out There Who Doesn't Want to Live in a Democracy, October 2, 1997
• Only the Rich and Powerful Are Allowed to Endanger Species, September 25, 1997
• Two Possible Futures for Farming and Food, September 18, 1997
• The Endangered Species Act Fails When It Is Needed Most, September 11, 1997
• Left and Right and Power, September 4, 1997
• Where Does News Stop and Gossip Begin?, August 28, 1997
• The Black Helicopters are Coming, August 21, 1997
• Co-Housing -- Somewhere Between Neighborhood and Commune, August 14, 1997
• The New American Dream Home, August 7, 1997
• Is a Bioengineered Potato Organic?, July 31, 1997
• From Dump to Garden: Burlington's Intervale, July 24, 1997
• The Big Squeeze, July 17, 1997
• Expert Statements Worth Paying Attention To, July 10, 1997
• Old Cars, Air Conditioners, CFCs, and Hoaxes, July 3, 1997
• The Tobacco Companies Aren't the Only Ones, June 26, 1997
• Rio Plus Five and Going Backward, June 19, 1997
• Cut Off From Global Markets, Cuba Invents a New Agriculture, June 12, 1997
• The Real Costs of Growth in Oregon, June 5, 1997
• Welfare for Politicians Could Help the Welfare of the Rest of Us, May 29, 1997
• How Much is Nature Worth? Who Says? Who Cares?, May 22, 1997
• Russia and China, Seen Through Fun-House Mirrors, May 15, 1997
• Environmental Debates Have Science and Emotion On All Sides, May 8, 1997
• The Ads Tell the Story of the Universe, May 1, 1997
• Our Michael Dorris, April 24, 1997
• A Week to Kick the TV Habit, April 17, 1997
• The Land Doesn't Put the Kids in the Schools, April 10, 1997
• Industry Could Be A Clean Air Good Guy, April 3, 1997
• Millennium, Shmillennium, March 27, 1997
• As Individuals We Learn, As Organizations We Resist, March 20, 1997
• The Secret Life of My Computer, March 13, 1997
• What's Wrong with the Schools?, March 6, 1997
• How a Public Health Story Becomes an Industry Legend, February 27, 1997
• Sludge By Any Other Name Can Still Be A Problem, February 20, 1997
• Beyond Bipartisanship, February 13, 1997
• Dumb Things We Could Stop Doing, February 6, 1997
• Feeling Our Feelings Might Not Be a Trivial Exercise, January 30, 1997
• The Cultural Creatives Are Coming, January 23, 1997
• Beware of Social Security Fixes, January 16, 1997
• Kinder and Gentler to the Environment?, January 9, 1997
• Hands Around the Capitol, January 2, 1997
• Keeping Everyone Warm, December 26, 1996
• The Least Of These Our Brethren, December 19, 1996
• The Laws of the Earth and the Laws of Economics, December 12, 1996
• Foreign Policy on the Scale of a Neighborhood, December 5, 1996
• A CEO Responds to a Spear Through the Heart, November 28, 1996
• Don't Be a Turkey on the Day After Thanksgiving, November 21, 1996
• Not So Fast!, November 14, 1996
• The Character Issue, November 7, 1996
• Something There is That Doesn't Love a Clear-cut, October 31, 1996
• What the American People Really Want, October 24, 1996
• The System is Rotten, But Vote Anyway, October 17, 1996
• A three part series on the new food protection law
  • Farewell to the Delaney Amendment, September 26, 1996
  • The New Food Safety Law - A Bit Better, But Only a Bit, October 3, 1996
  • How Do We Keep Pesticides Out of Our Foods, If the Government Doesn't, October 10, 1996
• Waiting for the Frost, September 19, 1996
• Hitler Needed a Chamberlain, Milosevic Needed a Bush and Clinton, September 12, 1996
• We Don't Need Corporations to Fund Our National Parks, September 5, 1996
• Labor Day is a Time to Tell the Truth About Jobs, August 29, 1996
• They're Still at It, August 22, 1996
• We Can't Load Everything Onto the Land, August 8, 1996
• The People Plan for the Forests of People Islands, August 1, 1996
• The Environmental Testament of a Czech Freedom Fighter, July 25, 1996
• You Can't Live on the Pond and Have a Pond, July 6, 1996
• Competition Comes to Your Electric Company, June 27, 1996
• What Shall We Do With Our Differences?, June 20, 1996
• Gardening Brings Out the Truth, June 13, 1996
• Keeping Up With the Politicians via the Internet, June 6, 1996
• The Water is Someone's Home, May 23, 1996
• The Sperm of New York Men is Not the Issue, May 5, 1996