[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 […]

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 […]

 [This column first appeared in the Shift Age Newsletter #36 ] Ever since the end of the Great Recession a few years ago, there has been much written about the lack of both economic growth and inflation. Much of this coverage mentions that the post-recession recovery is much slower than the recovery of past recessions […]

In the last column here, I looked at the transformations Elon Musk is bringing to the automotive, battery and energy businesses. In this column we look at the breakthroughs he is working on in solar energy, space exploration and Internet connectivity. One of the issues with or counter arguments about electric cars was that even […]

I have been an admirer, yes, even a fan of Elon Musk ever since I first learned about Tesla Motors ten years ago. I state that because now it seems that Elon Musk is everywhere in the media – on-line, magazines, a best selling biography [which I have purchased but yet to start]- simply because […]

The failed merger of Comcast and Time Warner and the probable merger of Charter and Time Warner will be looked back upon as  significant events. They mark the end of the cable era of television. In the United States, cable began in the post-WWII years as a way to bring broadcast television to hard to […]