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  • From: Sharon Gordon <gordonse@one.net>
  • To: permaculture@franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Sad news-- Dana Meadows
  • Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2001 09:18:10 -0500


A light has gone out in the world.

Sharon
gordonse@one.net


From: "Anthony D. Cortese" <acortese@secondnature.org>

Dear friends and colleagues,

Some of you may already know this, but I wanted all of you to know that the
world has lost one of the true giants in the quest for a just and
sustainable world, Dana Meadows.

The thought of the world without one of the brightest, most thoughtful,
insightful, caring souls who truly lived the values she espoused is almost
unbearable. Dana was a visionary, the first of the great systems thinkers
that have helped us all see the world in a holistic and interdependent way,
a great teacher, an outstanding mentor to thousands of people (including me)
and a gifted communicator. She used all of those and many other wonderful
attributes to benefit all people and the rest of the natural world. Dana
was always one step ahead of everyone in anticipating or seeing the next
challenge humans and the rest of the natural world would face and offering
creative strategies to deal with them. She was the Cassandra (as Alan
Atkisson would say) that people believed. She never shied away from calling
governments, industries, environmentalists, journalists and others to task
for policies, behaviors or actions that were unjust, harmful, ineffective or
just plain dumb. She never let people who read her weekly column, "The
Global Citizen", people she interacted with in other ways or her students
get away with denial of things that have been wrong in the world. And Dana
did it in a way that made you stop, think and be willing to look yourself in
the face and see the truth or to take action to right a wrong.

Dana was always hopeful and inspiring and a strong believer in the ability
of humans to change and reach a higher, more just and ethical way of being.
But Dana's most endearing and admirable quality was to give of herself and
her ideas with great humility and joy to everyone who would accept her
incredible gifts. I know that these few words are inadequate to express all
that Dana has meant to me and to the world. In the days ahead others who
are far more eloquent will be filling cyberspace and other media with the
tributes Dana so richly deserves. She was too young, too vibrant and too
important to the world to die this young. I am grateful for all the years
that she was alive, for everything that she had to and did share and that I
had the privilege of knowing her and learning from her. May we always
remember the things she has taught us and the example that she set for us
all to emulate.

With gratitude, deep sadness and much love,

Tony

p.s. See note from Joan Davis and obituary below.

----------------------
Anthony Cortese, Sc.D.
President

Second Nature, Inc.
99 Chauncy Street, Sixth Floor
Boston, MA 02111 USA
Tel: 617-292-7771 ext. 120
Fax: 617-292-0150
Email: acortese@secondnature.org
http://www.secondnature.org

----------
From: Joan Davis <davis@EAWAG.CH>
Reply-To: Joan Davis <davis@EAWAG.CH>
Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2001 04:21:08 +0100
To: BALATON@LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU
Subject: Re: Dana's obituary for international newspapers


Dear Friends,

Please find attached (in rtf) the obituary, which Alan Atkisson has written
for international circulation.

Would you kindly forward this to local/national/international newspapers,
news services and other media.
In some cases it may need to be translated before forwarding.

Thank you for helping to pass on the sad news of Dana's death to the many
around the world who have known her... or at least of her.

In appreciation,
Joan and Aro (and Alan)

P.S. It would be very much appreciated, if you would forward a copy of the

text as used - either via email (davis@eawag.ch), fax (+41/1/8305735) or
normal mail (Bergliweg 12 / 8304 Wallisellen / Switzerland).

--------

Donella Meadows, Lead Author of The Limits to Growth, Has Died

Donella H. Meadows, 59, a pioneering environmental scientist and writer,
died Tuesday in New Hampshire after a brief illness. She was best known to
the world as the lead author of the international bestselling book The
Limits to Growth, published in 1972. The book, which reported on a study of
long-term global trends in population, economics, and the environment, sold
millions of copies and was translated into 28 languages. She was also the
lead author of the twenty-year follow-up study, Beyond the Limits (1992),
with original co-authors Dennis Meadows and Jørgen Randers.

Professor Meadows, known as "Dana" to friends and colleagues, was a leading
voice in what has become known as the "sustainability movement," an
international effort to reverse damaging trends in the environment, economy,
and social systems. Her work is widely recognized as a formative influence
on hundreds of other academic studies, government policy initiatives, and
international agreements.

Dana Meadows was also a devoted teacher of environmental systems, ethics,
and journalism to her students at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New
Hampshire, where she taught for 29 years. In addition to her many original
contributions to systems theory and global trend analysis, she managed a
small farm and was a vibrant member of her local community. Genuinely
unconcerned with her international fame, she often referred to herself
simply as "a farmer and a writer."

Donella Meadows was born March 13, 1941 in Elgin, Illinois, and educated in
science, earning a B.A. in chemistry from Carleton College in 1963 and a
Ph.D. in biophysics from Harvard University in 1968. As a research fellow
at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she was a protégé of Jay
Forrester, the inventor of system dynamics as well as the principle of
magnetic data storage for computers.

In 1972 she was on the MIT team that produced the global computer model
"World3" for the Club of Rome and provided the basis for The Limits to
Growth. The book made headlines around the world, and began a debate about
the limits of the Earth's capacity to support human economic expansion, a
debate that continues to this day. Her writing - appearing most often in
the form of a weekly column called "The Global Citizen," nominated for the
Pulitzer Prize in 1991 -- has been published regularly in the international
press since that time.

In 1981, together with her former husband Dennis Meadows, Donella Meadows
founded the International Network of Resource Information Centers (INRIC),
also called the Balaton Group (after the lake in Hungary where the group
meets annually). The group built early and critical avenues of exchange
between scientists on both sides of the Iron Curtain at the height of the
Cold War.

As the Balaton Group's coordinator for eighteen years, she facilitated what
grew to become an unusually effective global process of information sharing
and collaboration among hundreds of leading academics, researchers, and
activists in the broader sustainability movement. Professor Meadows also
served on many national and international boards and scientific committees,
and taught and lectured all over the world. She was recognized as a 1991
Pew Scholar and as a 1994 MacArthur Fellow for her work. In 1992 the Swiss
Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) presented her with an honorary
doctorate.

In 1997, Professor Meadows founded the Sustainability Institute, which she
described as a "think-do-tank." The Institute combines cutting edge research
in global systems with practical demonstrations of sustainable living,
including the development of an ecological village and organic farm in
Hartland Four Corners, Vermont.

Donella Meadows is survived by her mother, Phoebe Quist of Tahlequah
Oklahoma; her father, Don Hager of the Chicago area; a brother, Jason Hager,
of Wisconsin; cousins and nephews; and a large community of colleagues and
friends, both international and local, in the organizations that she founded
and assisted.

____________________
Obituary prepared by members of the Balaton Group (INRIC)

For further information contact:
In USA: alan@atkisson.com
(In New England: bmiller@vermontel.net)
In Europe: davis@eawag.ch
In Asia:arevi@taru.org






************************************************************
Dr. Frederick A.B. Meyerson
Watson Institute for International Studies
Box 1831, 130 Hope Street
Brown University
Providence, RI 02912
Tel: (401) 863-3067
Fax: (401) 863-2192
E-mail: Frederick_Meyerson@brown.edu




  • Sad news-- Dana Meadows, Sharon Gordon, 02/21/2001

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