We are entering a new stage of the rapidly evolving global economy. The first stage has lasted some 25 years, beginning in the very late 1980s. As we move from 2014 into 2015 and 2016 there will be fundamental shifts in both the global economy and almost equally importantly, how we perceive it. By 2017, […]
In a recent column I listed the Five Contexts of the Shift Age. As stated there, while the true cliché of the Information Age was “content is king” the true cliché of the Shift Age is “context is king”. We live in an increasingly contextual world. The context in which we receive or consume information […]
Earth Day is coming. April 22 to be exact. How I know is my email inbox. Every day for the past few weeks I get pitches to write about some company’s new eco product. The words LEED certified, Eco, Green, Recycled, Renewable have become an endless blur in the subject line of in-bound emails. This […]
In the past I have written that as a futurist, it sometimes feels like I live in a state of déjà vu. I spend a lot of time researching and looking into the future to develop the forecasts and trends that I write and speak about. I experience them, see them, and have varying degrees […]
As someone who writes and speaks about alternative and renewable energy, I often get asked about climate change. What do I think about it? What is true? Who to believe? There is so much noise about it. The media knows it is an important topic to many and they know that controversy prompts viewership so […]
Last week the House Energy and Commerce Committee approved the most ambitious energy and global warming legislation ever debated in Congress. That is very good news and a good first step. Of course, since Congress has never been anything close to providing leadership in the areas of alternative energy and climate change, the comparison to […]
The Great Recession of 2008-2010/11 is going to be a very tough time economically. As I wrote in my Forecast for 2009, this economic collapse brings four words to mind. The first word is contraction, which is the standard way to view a recession. Economic activity contracts and we are in a recession, economic expansion […]
The year 2008 will obviously go down as one of the most eventful years in recent history. It was the year that Barack Obama was elected President of the United States. It was the year that the Internet replaced print and TV as the driving force in a presidential election. It was the beginning of […]
This is not a column about Cole Porter, the great Broadway composer who wrote the wonderful song “Night and Day”. This column is about climate change and the urgent need for humanity to dramatically alter its’ energy equation. At a recent global climate change summit in Poland, John Kerry, the ranking U.S. representative told the […]
It was two years ago that I first wrote about ocean dead zones. These are areas of the ocean that, due to a lack of oxygen, no longer sustain any life. While dead zones can happen naturally, they usually are caused by the results of human activity. A primary cause is nitrogen-rich nutrients from agricultural […]