For four days the entire electrical usage of a European country came from renewable energy sources. More on that in a few paragraphs. The thoughts we think and the reality we live in shapes what we think is possible. Time after time barriers are broken that were thought to be impossible. A great example is […]

“There are no passengers on spaceship earth.  We are all crew” – Marshall McLuhan In my prior column, I wrote about R. Buckminster’s forecast from the late 1960s that. in several decades, humanity would reach a fork in the road, utopia or oblivion. In the two years that it took to research and write “This […]

I have often been asked how I became a futurist. A part of the answer is that, starting in my 20s, I read the three people who, in my mind, were the greatest futurists of the last third of the 20th century: Alvin Toffler, R. Buckminster Fuller and Marshall McLuhan. Toffler wrote about “Future Shock” […]

[Note:  This column was originally published in the Shift Age Newsletter earlier this month] We are at the very beginning of the end of the fossil fuel era. The use of fossil fuels will continue for decades but 2015-2017 will be looked back upon as the  beginning of the transition from growth to long slow […]

Note: This is not a political column. Rather it is a look at the fundamental reason and dynamic that is and will continue to shape the 2016 presidential campaign.  As a professional speaker about the future I give speeches all over the world. The majority of my speeches are in the United States. It is […]

During 2015, I wrote and spoke about how significant a year it was and would prove to be. Many significant events occurred and several major trends became clear. It is these events and trends that will in part shape the world as we move into 2016. I want to leave the depressing and distracting circus […]

Many long time readers of this blog know that I am one of the few futurists who posts his forecasts for all to see on my web site. In this post I take a look at some forecasts that are topical and relevant to current news reporting. Forecasts: December 2013: “In the U.S. 2012 will […]

We are now about 130 years into the automobile era. Starting with Karl Benz’s patent in the 1880s the automobile quickly became widespread with Henry Ford’s model of mass production scaling up the market 100 years ago. Since then there have been waves of significant changes. The first stage was about mechanics and engines and […]

[Note:  Much of this column was first published in issue #37 of the Shift Age Newsletter] 2015 will turn out to be the peak year of fossil fuel use. By 2020 it will be clear that the decline in consumption of fossil fuels began this year. It therefore will be the first year of flat […]

  I am not at all surprised about how the campaign for the Presidency of the United States is unfolding. Not in the slightest. I find humorous and significant that the politically oriented Washington based media seems so surprised at the significant groundswell for Bernie Sanders and the fact that, as of the writing of […]