Meadows Reading

Donella H. Meadows, “Envisioning a Sustainable World,” International Society for Ecological Economics, 1994, pp. 1-6.

  1. Implementation is key to making change, but it is based on models
  2. Important other ingredients in the policy process
    1. Information
      1. Validate or prove model, as well as form, develop, and bring them to fruition
      2. Need good educations, media, data, etc
    2. Clear, feasible, socially shared goals
      1. People see a sustainable world as one with tight, centralized control, low standard of living, and no fun
      2. There is motivation in escaping doom, but more motivation in creating a better world
  3. The world shuns visionaries—have to be realistic, not push for what you really want
  4. Vision—allowing yourself to imagine your ideal world, not the one you’ll settle for