A Hero for the Planet

My very first Squidoo lens was about my top 10 heroes, a subject that meant quite a lot to me. One of those heroes was a not so well known woman named Donella Meadows, who died prematurely in 2001, at the age of 60.

Ms. Meadows was a scientist with a degree in chemistry and Ph.D in biophysics, from Harvard no less. She became an expert in system dynamics and taught at Dartmouth College for 29 years, as well as writing books and advising corporations.

But more importantly than this spectacular resume, she loved our earth, and wrote a weekly column called “Global Citizen,” commenting on the state of the world from a systems point of view. You might think that her writings would be a little dry, but that is certainly not the case. She wrote poetically and with great wisdom and personal passion. One of her articles is my favorite of all time. It begins, “The world was formed whole and continuous, without lines” and ends, “Even between you and me, even there, the lines are of our own making.”

Meadows is best known as one of the lead authors of the book, “The Limits to Growth,” and founder of The Sustainability Institute. But, you may not know that she is also the author of the essay, “If the World Were a Village of 1000 People.” Like most writings that strike a chord, this essay is simply written, and has since spread across the Internet in the form of a video and even turned into a children’s book.

To read the essay, you will have to visit the lens created by Lensmaster lisadh. She says, “The concept (for this essay) is simple: we live on one small planet, and share scarce resources that are not always equitably distributed.”

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Image Credit: Pastel Earth Magnet by teeboutique

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Visit: If the World Were a Village of 1000 People