Everyone knows that tech stocks were a massive bubble, right?  What you may not have heard, at least in the media, is that the phenomenon was fraud on a massive scale, driven by venture capitalists, investment bankers, and “entrepreneurs” cashing in on the IPO goldrush.  In the process, worthless companies with dubious products were taken public so that insiders could sell their shares for billions of dollars.  Some of this money was reinvested in Internet infrastructure that will eventually benefit society.  Most of it went into a small number of people’s pockets and was squandered.

 At the same time, a worldwide consensus was developing among climate scientists:  The earth is warming as a result of emissions from cars, trucks, and factories fueled by oil and coal.  What we know is: people will starve, ecosystems will die, and coastal areas will be flooded.  What we don’t know is exactly when and how much.  But media coverage of this story ended up giving equal weight to a tiny group of scientists paid for by the fossil fuel industry, who focused on the uncertainties involved in predicting the effects of the warming.  This biased, marginal group succeeded in downplaying the looming crisis.  Perhaps more importantly, lobbying by the oil and coal industries stymied both international and national efforts to take action to slow warming.
 Gelbspan theorizes that to slow global warming, the entire planet needs to embark upon a real technological revolution:  A shift from an oil and coal-based economy to one run on solar power and hydrogen fuel.  He estimates that this would take an investment of billions of dollars.

 Why does the media  dismiss solar and hydrogen power as uncompetitive with fossil fuels when it was perfectly willing to promote Internet start-ups?   Sustainable energy systems are far more efficient than fossil fuels.  What is needed is widespread adoption and infrastructure to create the economies of scale would likely erase any gap in competition.  Fossil fuels currently have no competition, and they are massively subsidized, not the least through massive military spending to guarantee a constant supply.

 The high tech debacle of the 1990s proves we have the financial resources to catalyze new technologies — even largely frivolous ones like Internet retailing.  New energy technologies could open up a whole new century of sustainable global economic growth.  Like the Internet, renewable energy is a decentralized resource that would benefit people around the world, rather than a handful of oil companies and OPEC countries. What is needed is the political will to overcome the resistance from the entrenched energy monopoly.

The U.S. government built the basic infrastructure of the Internet, private companies made it a widely used tool.  The same sort of public/private partnership could turn the corner on the age of fossil fuels, and push us into the clean energy age that we need to stave off widespread global disruption from climate change.  Unfortunately, with an oil-funded administration in the White House using a war in the Middle East to focus our attention away from corporate crime, such an effort seems like a distant possibility.

NEW STUFF
 The Tomato of the Week series has been cancelled as cool weather is slowing our tomato harvest dramatically.  Tomatoes will continue to appear in your boxes, in a variety of shapes and colors, but no variety will dominate from week to week from now until winter’s arrival.  I hope our late-started effort to help your recognize individual varieties was useful; next year I’ll start it sooner in the hope of getting every variety in the field its moment in the spotlight for at least one week.

 The color green is returning to TFF’s boxes.  Green beans are back in the boxes today.  We are experimenting with several varieties of darker green beans this fall.  The one in the boxes today is not quite as tasty as the last variety we sent you (we made a note of that) but they are still crisp and tender.
Arugula makes a repeat performance in the Medium and Large boxes this week, which we hope doesn’t stretch anyone’s tolerance.  If you find the taste too strong, try tossing in a salad with sweet ingredients like tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, avocado, or red pepper.

Medium and Large boxes also get another fragrant bunch of Basil.  This time of year, every day could be the last day for basil, which cannot tolerate temperatures even in the low 40s.  Forecasters are called for 45 overnight...

Baby spinach had a tough time in the heat, but we managed to harvest enough for the Small boxes.  There will be plenty for coming for everyone else soon.

New crop Onions are not the tight-skinned, long-keepers we had hoped for.  They got planted late, and the cool summer delayed their sizing up.  Long story short:  Keep them in the fridge until you use them.  They have loose skins, and they are already thinking about sprouting.  And remember that fall onions are hot, hot, hot — don’t try eating these in a salad.

Thanks,            Pablito