In the last 10,000 years there has been three ages of humanity.  The first age was the Agricultural Age which began around 8,000 B.C. when humanity stopped be nomadic and began to put down roots, literally.  The advent of agriculture allowed humanity to start to build a social fabric that was placed based and that created values around land and the process of growing food.  

The Agricultural Age lasted until the late 1700s, when the Industrial Age first began in Europe.  With the commercial use of the new invention called the steam engine, the world started to change rapidly, with mechanized production, transport and the growing importance of cities as places of production and distribution.  If you live in an urban area, what you see was largely created during the Industrial Age.  Approximately thirty years ago the Information Age began in the developed countries.  This age was initiated by communications satellites, computers, and historically unprecedented numbers of college graduates.  The number of white collar workers surpassed the number of blue collar, or production workers, for the first time. 

Each of these ages created not only new economic structures, activities and places of work, they also created new economic values.  The dominant value of the Agricultural Age was land and the wealth that came from the land.  Large landowners were regarded as the wealthy.  Once the Industrial Age reached maturity, the new economic value became production.  Wealth was created through production.  The wealthy initially were the early captains of industry, the robber barons, …

Last week I wrote about an incredible energy conference hosted by the Foundation for the Future.  As one of a select few invited to observe and participate in the conference, I had the incredible experience to listen to and meet with 15 of the top thinkers and scientists in the world today on the subject of the future of energy.  The brilliance of both the participants and the level of discussion were so great that I decided that it must be shared with the readership of this blog.  A number of the participants agreed to share their views and research with me.  This then is the first of several columns that will give you insight into our energy future, as seen through the eyes, minds and research of some of the most well known, most accomplished energy experts alive today.

Russ George is a man who is doing what he can to save the planet, literally.  In addition, he is an entrepreneur who hopes that by helping us to help him save the planet, his company can make money. [As regular readers of this blog know, I am fully in support of this, as there is a need to counterbalance the status quo of the energy business with new ways to make money that provide help to the planet and develop a future of sustainable and renewable energy.]  Russ is Founder and CEO of Planktos, a company that “Restores Ecosystems and Slows Climate Change”.  Planktos is the leading ecorestoration …

About a month ago, I wrote a post entitled ‘Water’.  In it I suggested that water would become an increasingly precious resource in the southwestern U.S. and that disputes would occur between states and other regulatory entities over rights to the water of the Colorado River.  It was therefore no surprise to see a huge front page story a few days ago on the topic.  The front page picture was of a fishing pier that was jutting out into the air since Lake Mead was 80 feet below ‘normal’.  Welcome to the new normal.
The two driving forces that are making water so much more scarce are unchecked population growth in the southwestern U.S., and the fact that, according to scientific evidence, what had been thought of as prolonged droughts were, in fact becoming the new normal. This means that everything about water will need to be revisited and rethought.  Usage, recycling, legal interpretations of water rights and ownership, escalating prices for water and a need for fundamental perceptual change on water and it’s usage.  Welcome to the twenty-first century when we have finally come to the crossing of inevitable trend lines.  These are the ever upward trend line of population growth and uncoordinated real estate development and the trend lines of both limited resources and climate change.
Water is a life source.  Water is a life source of all living things to varying degree.  Food, water and oxygen are three things that are essential for …

This past weekend I had the great good fortune to attend a three day energy conference attended by some of the world’s greatest energy experts.  Thanks to the good graces of the Foundation for the Future I was invited to attend the conference as an observer.  The Foundation invited 15 of the foremost physicists and energy experts in the world to come together for three days of presentations and discussions on the future of energy.  An additional 15 or so people were invited to attend as observers.  

The name of the conference was “Energy Challenges:  The next Thousand Years”.  The goal was to “consider all potential sources and technologies for energy production over three time frames: the near term (rest of this century), the medium term (next few centuries), and the longer term (thousand-year future), as well as the challenges facing humans on the planet in developing and implementing self-sufficient strategies for energy”.  This framework was shaped by the mission of the Foundation for the Future, which is to continue to look toward the long term future of humanity, under the umbrella “Humanity Three Thousand”.

This structure led to two clear results.  First some incredibly interesting discussions of long term energy solutions, some that are available to develop, and some that are almost beyond the minds of even physicists to fully comprehend.  I will take a look at some of these solutions in future posts.  Second a unanimous position that in spite of the title of the conference, new forms of …