Donella Hager "Dana" Meadows[Diana Wright (Editor) in: Meadows, Donella H. 2008, Thinking in Systems: A Primer, Chelsea Green Publishing, Vermont, pages XI and 211 .]
Early life and education
Born in Elgin, Illinois, Meadows was educated in science, receiving a B.A. in
chemistry from
Carleton College in 1963 and a PhD in
biophysics from Harvard in 1968. After a yearlong trip from England to Sri Lanka and back, she became a research fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a member of a team in the department created by
Jay Forrester, the inventor of
system dynamics as well as the principle of magnetic data storage for computers.
Career
Meadows taught at Dartmouth College for 29 years, beginning in 1972.
[Meadows, Donella H. 2008, Thinking in Systems: A Primer, Chelsea Green Publishing, Vermont, p. 213 (About the Author), .]
She was honored both as a Pew Scholar in Conservation and Environment (1991) and as a MacArthur Fellow (1994).
Meadows wrote "The Global Citizen,"[ The Global Citizen Donella H. Meadows, 1991; 300 pp. Island Press] Her work is recognized as a formative influence on hundreds of other academic studies, government policy initiatives, and international agreements.
She was a longtime member of the United States Association for the Club of Rome, which instituted an award in her memory, the US Association for the Club of Rome Donella Meadows Award in Sustainable Global Actions. The award is given to an outstanding individual who has created actions in a global framework toward the sustainability goals Meadows expressed in her writings.
Work
The Limits to Growth
In 1972, Meadows was on the MIT team that produced the global computer model "World3" for the Club of Rome, providing the basis for
The Limits to Growth. The book reported a study of long-term global trends in population, economics, and the environment. The book made headlines around the world and began a debate about the limits of Earth's capacity to support human economic expansion—a debate that continues to this day.
["To Grow or not to Grow", Newsweek, March 13, 1972, pages 102-103] Meadows was the book's lead author, and it had three coauthors: her husband
Dennis Meadows, Jørgen Randers, and William W. Behrens III.
The Balaton Group
In 1982, Donella and Dennis Meadows created an international "network of networks" for leading researchers on resource use, environmental conservation, systems modeling, and sustainability. Since its foundation, the members have met at
Lake Balaton, Hungary, every autumn. While the formal name for the network was the International Network of Resource Information Centres (INRIC), it became more popularly known as the
Balaton Group,
after the location of its meetings.
The Academy for Systems Change
Meadows founded the Sustainability Institute in 1996, which combined research in global systems with practical demonstrations of sustainable living, including the development of a
cohousing (or
ecovillage) and organic farm at
Cobb Hill in Hartland, Vermont. In 2011, the Sustainability Institute, originally adjacent to Cobb Hill, was renamed the Donella Meadows Institute and moved to Norwich, Vermont. Additional organizations that sprang from the Sustainability Institute include Sustainable Food Lab, Climate Interactive, and Sustainability Leaders Network. In 2016, the Donella Meadows Institute was renamed for a second time, and now operates as the Academy for Systems Change: https://www.academyforchange.org
State of the Village report
In 1990, Meadows published the State of the Village report under the title, "Who lives in the 'Global Village'?"
[ Meadows, Donnella. (1990, May 31). "Who lives in the 'Global Village'?" The Global Citizen] which likened the world to a village of 1,000 people. Since then, "If the world were a village of 100 people", derived from her work but further reducing the numbers to those of a village of 100 people, has been published by others in English, Spanish, and Japanese.
Twelve leverage points
Meadows published
Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System, one of her best-known essays, in 1999.
It describes the most and least effective types of interventions in a system (of any kind).
Personal life
Donella Meadows was married to
Dennis Meadows. She died of cerebral meningitis in 2001 at the age of 59.
[Donella Meadows – A Tribute. Leon Kolankiewicz.
July 1, 2001. http://donellameadows.org/donella-meadows-a-tribute/]
Selected publications
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Donella H. Meadows, et al. Limits to Growth: A Report for the Club of Rome's Project on the Predicament of Mankind, New American Library, 1977, paperback, ; Universe Books, paperback, 1972, 0–87663–165–0 (scarce); ISBN Universe Books, hardcover, 1972, (scarce); digital edition of 1972 printing, produced by the Dartmouth College Library.
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Dennis L. Meadows, Donella H. Meadows, Eds. Toward Global Equilibrium: Collected Papers, Pegasus Communications, 1973, hardcover
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Donella H. Meadows, John M. Richardson and Gerhart Bruckmann, Groping in the Dark: The First Decade of Global Modelling, John Wiley & Sons, 1982, paperback,
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Donella H. Meadows and J. M. Robinson, The Electronic Oracle: Computer Models and Social Decisions, John Wiley & Sons, 1985, hardcover, 462 pages,
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Michael J. Caduto, foreword by Donella H. Meadows, illustrated by Joan Thomson, Pond and Brook: A Guide to Nature in Freshwater Environments, University Press of New England, 1990, paperback, 288 pages,
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Donella H. Meadows, Global Citizen, Island Press, 1991, paperback 197 pages,
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Donella H. Meadows et al. Beyond the limits : global collapse or a sustainable future, Earthscan Publications, 1992,
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Dennis L. Meadows, Donella H. Meadows and Jorgen Randers, Beyond the Limits: Confronting Global Collapse, Envisioning a Sustainable Future, Chelsea Green Publishing, 1993, paperback, 320 pages,
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edited by Sandi Brockway, foreword by Marilyn Ferguson, introduction by Denis Hayes, preface by Donella H. Meadows, Macrocosm U. S. A.: Possibilities for a New Progressive Era..., Macrocosm, 1993, paperback, 464 pages,
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Donella H. Meadows, Jorgen Randers and Dennis L. Meadows Limits to Growth-The 30 year Update, 2004, hardcover
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Donella H. Meadows (2008) Thinking in Systems: A Primer, Chelsea Green Publishing .
See also
Further reading
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Ikeda Kayoko, C. Douglas Lummis, Si El Mundo Fuera Una Aldea De 100 Personas/if The World Were A Village Of 100 People, Paperback, 64 pages, . Japanese/English version:
External links
