Global warming knocking at your door

THE MOMENTUM in the economy has begun a small, still barely discernible shift toward the local and away from the global.

You can see it in ways large and small: President Bush, touring Latin America, talks less about new free trade agreements, suddenly not as popular either with our neighbors or with the new Democratic Congress. Meanwhile, local food is on the cover of Time magazine — and on the menu, with italicized encomiums, on every high-end menu. (Farmers’ markets, indeed, may be the fastest growing part of the food economy.)


Even money is changing — in Western Massachusetts residents have launched a local currency that you can get from regular banks, and now they’re setting up ATMs.

This trend may continue — in fact, it may be the trend that defines our time. The last century was about extending supply lines, but this one — with less cheap energy to drive it — may be about rolling them partway back in.

Boston Globe