31 Donella Meadows Quotes for You to Enjoy

Donella Meadows

American Environmentalist

Born: Mar 13, 1941

Died: Feb 20, 2001

Climate Own People Speak World You

Related authors: Aldo Leopold Bill McKibben David R. Brower Garrett Hardin John Muir Joseph Wood Krutch Luther Burbank Paul Hawken

We don't need bigger cars or fancier clothes. We need self-respect, identity, community, love, variety, beauty, challenge and a purpose in living that is greater than material accumulation. Donella Meadows

Love Self-Respect Car Challenge Beauty Clothes Community Living Variety Purpose Identity Greater Material Than Accumulate Bigger Need

Biodiversity can't be maintained by protecting a few species in a zoo, or by preserving greenbelts or national parks. To function properly, nature needs more room than that. It can maintain itself, however, without human expense, without zookeepers, park rangers, foresters or gene banks. All it needs is to be left alone. Donella Meadows

Alone Needs Nature National Few Preserving Rangers Gene Properly More Park Parks Maintain Maintained Protecting Without However Left Itself Than National Parks Human Expense Banks Room Function Species Biodiversity Zoo

No expectations, no tension between goals and performance, no outrage, resolve or intention, no action, no results. There's only one way to get a government - and a nation - to stop drifting to low performance. That's to wake up and insist on higher standards. Donella Meadows

Government Goals Wake Up Insist Nation Action Resolve Way One-Way Drifting Only Only One Way Results Outrage Higher Tension Performance Between Wake Up Expectations Get Intention Stop Low Standards

The actions of my government are not bearable. They devastate our natural resources and deprive our people. The politicians speak piously while practicing greed and divisiveness. They care nothing for the nation. I want to do more than withdraw my support. I want to tar and feather them. Donella Meadows

Government Natural People Speak Care Nation Greed Politicians Nothing Our Resources Our People Feather More Bearable Support Withdraw Practicing Tar Than Want While Them Deprive Natural Resources Actions

The kind of support the down-and-out need is the kind we have always refused them, the kind that would mean engaging with them not as objects of contempt, but as fellow human beings. Donella Meadows

Kind Would Objects Support Fellow Contempt Fellow Human Beings Always Human Refused Human Beings Mean Them Engaging Beings Need

Recession-resistant development produces things people need. Unsustainable growth churns out tinsel products that consumers have to be seduced into buying - until times get tough, when they quickly give them up. Donella Meadows

Relative to most of the energy and material flows on Earth, the machinations of humankind are puny. The planet's powers are much, much bigger than our own. But in a few sensitive places, we're making an impact on a planetary scale, and that impact is not a good one. Donella Meadows

It's a fair guess that at the rate we're destroying habitat, especially but not exclusively in the tropics, we're pushing to extinction about one species every hour. That doesn't count the species whose populations are being reduced so greatly that diversity within the population is essentially gone. Donella Meadows

You should issue demerits for tree cutting or the destruction of humus. Donella Meadows

You Destruction Tree Issue Cutting Should

Some call-in moderators are neutral and courteous. Then there's Rush Limbaugh, who is funny and pompous and a scapegoater and hatemonger. His popularity could cause you to draw some terrible conclusions about the state of mind of the American people. It helps to remember that Bill Cosby is popular, too. Donella Meadows

Funny You People Remember Cause Mind Too State Draw Cosby Rush Some Rush Limbaugh About Could Neutral Terrible Courteous Conclusions His American Pompous American People Then Bill Bill Cosby Who Popular Helps Popularity

We have come to expect campaigns to be mean and stupid and politicians to be unresponsive, self-seeking and for sale to the highest bidder. We make jokes about our vice president, and all we ask of a president is that he be likeable. We seem to have given up on the Pentagon's corrupt use of our tax dollars. Donella Meadows

Jokes Stupid Politicians President Our Corrupt Pentagon About Seem Given Highest He Come Likeable Make Bidder Dollars Sale Up Campaigns Expect Tax Vice Vice President Tax Dollars Mean Ask Use

A grand jury hears only one side - that of the prosecutor. Donella Meadows

Side Only Prosecutor Hears Jury Grand Grand Jury

Everyone except the far right wing of the Republican Party realizes that oil, gas and coal burning are the main activities that have sent the climate into bigger floods, droughts, hurricanes, and El Ninos. Donella Meadows

In 1994 the U.S. Court of Appeals decided in the case of Oliver North to permit the release of grand jury evidence, because it had already been so thoroughly leaked. Donella Meadows

Thoroughly Evidence Release Case Had Leaked Because Court Permit Been North Jury Decided Grand Grand Jury Appeals Oliver

Once again I stopped listening to the news this week. Donella Meadows

News Listening Once Week Stopped Again

The European nations take climate change very seriously. Donella Meadows

Change Seriously Take Climate Climate Change Very Nations European European Nations

The latest scientific assessment has almost doubled the predicted rate of warming if no changes are made. Donella Meadows

Made Changes Latest Rate Almost Scientific Predicted Warming Assessment

Every policy is shaped by two forces: background analysis and foreground politics. The political forces are loud, self-serving and, in the case of energy policy, well known. Donella Meadows

Politics Political Energy Every Analysis Background Case Shaped Well Policy Well Known Forces Known Foreground Self-Serving Loud Energy Policy Two

We don't need new laws that can be used by organizations with deep pockets and the ability to deduct legal expenses as a cost of doing business to intimidate individuals or organizations that voice legitimate concerns. Donella Meadows

Business Legal Intimidate Ability Cost Pockets Laws Voice Individuals New Concerns Doing Expenses Legitimate Used Organizations Deep Need

No one wants growth, constant expansion, physical swelling. Growth is not a human value; it's a means to the ends of sufficiency and security. Once we have enough, no one wants more, unless it is sold to us as a cheap substitute for something else, something non-material. Donella Meadows

Value Enough Else Unless Sold Once Security Constant Physical Something Something Else More No-One Cheap Expansion Human Ends Substitute Wants Us Means Swelling Growth

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