While watching the morning news programs on a Sunday morning I noticed a big change. In the commercials, which were all for energy companies and heavy equipment companies like GE and Siemens, there were repeated mentions of climate change and global warming along with images of electric light rail, wind power and green building technology.

Apparently corporate ad agencies have realized that despite the millions they’ve spent on denial campaigns, people aren’t buying it. So they’ve changed their messaging. I can’t be critical of this, though I certainly am cynical about what it really means. However there is huge money in developing a new global infrastructure for energy. In developed countries like the US and the EU, this means a new grid and energy efficient transportation, not mention renewables. In under-developed countries it gets more interesting. The correct analogy is the spread of mobile phones.

Before affordable mobile phones, people in poor countries had no means of communicating with each other. Telephone lines and switches were primitive and costly and there was no incentive for telecom companies to invest in these poor economies. So, as mobile phones became ubiquitous even in these countries, it became obvious that they don’t require the networked telecom grids. Just build towers which is far cheaper than running fiber to houses and businesses. They are not tied to telecom grids.

The same will happen with energy. Solar, wind, geothermal, etc. can be localized to a building or a village. It does not require a physical link to a power plant hundreds of miles away. This means that we should see rural electrification in places like Africa which will help them pull out of the vicious cycle of poverty.

The awakening of the corporate giants to energy opportunity that is not tied to fossil fuels will be slow. However their futurists know that the current model is unsustainable, not just on supply issues but also because the vast majority of oil comes from regions that are politically unstable (Iraq, Iran, Venezuela, etc.). As the supply shrinks, the use of oil as an economic weapon will increase, creating instability in oil markets worldwide. Without a serious effort to provide alternative sources on both a national and local level worldwide, we will see wars waged over fossil fuels. As it is, a lot of us believe that the jihad being waged now is really about distribution of energy.

Looking for jobs, having a career, job security- these things are no longer the way we are working. The average college grad today will have 15 ‘jobs’ by age 35- which means redefining the meaning of what we do for a living. Everyone is, in essence, a freelancer and a lot of people are struggling with this. Freelancing is an entirely different thing than having a job.

Fortunately Seth Godin has taken his usual way of changing perception and applied it to the work model. Work is going to mean assembling your skills, experience and connections and creating a package that others will pay for. For example I’m building (on a wiki platform) a site that contains everything in Rochester’s waterfront neighborhoods: Real estate, parks, shopping, sights, restaurants, services- everything. When I’m done I’m going to invite residents of these neighborhoods to write about their area.

Once this ‘package’ is complete I’m going to sell exclusive access to it to an area real estate firm or broker. They’ll appear on all the pages as a link to learn more about buying or selling a waterfront property in our area. Leads for these properties are worth a lot of money. You’ll be able to find it at WaterfrontRochester.com. I also own WaterfrontFingerLakes.com and several other cities. They’ll get packaged up too.

The Recession and its downsizings have forced all of us to think differently about work. Those who understand this change and jump right in will do very well. Those who cling to the idea that their old jobs will somehow come back will not.

I’m a techie guy but I am not an early adopter of new technology- and, as a result, I’ve saved thousands over the years. I recently bought a 24″ LCD monitor for $250. A year ago the equivalent product was over $500. My new digital camera was $150; I couldn’t have touched its feature set a year ago for under $300. I’m pretty glad I did not buy the second gen iPhone for $300 a year ago now that I can buy it for $100…You get the idea.

There is almost always a buying option that delivers the same features and capabilities at half the price. Buying a 3 year old car coming off a lease is a great example. With less than 36000 miles this is practically a new car. Housing is another example- very often the same house in a neighborhood perceived as being less posh but actually no different in amenities and quality of life can save you hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I really don’t think there is an exception to this rule. In our society we are trained by marketing to buy based on desire and status and this results in recessions like the one we’re experiencing right now. When we want something so bad that we mortgage our lives to get it we are likely to eventually crash and burn. When we collectively mortgage our society to get things we don’t need, society will eventually crash and burn.

For most people, by the time we hit our forties we pretty much have everything we need. We’ve been accumulating both necessities and luxuries for over twenty years. It’s now time to look at what we have and what we want and make adjustments. Get of rid of things you don’t need. If there are things you always wanted to pursue like learning new skills or traveling, then look at what you spend your time on and adjust so you find the time you need to follow those pursuits. Downsize anything you can and put the dollars you save to working improving your life.

It’s not rocket science. When I moved to a less expensive but nicer apartment I realized a lot of things. I wanted to go to NY more often to see art and enjoy the city. With the money I save on rent and utilities I can add a NY trip in six more times a year- or travel for a month! This is an incredible improvement in my lifestyle without spending any more money.

We went to the market this morning because Saturdays are getting incredibly crowded. We were surprised by how many people were there including the full range of vendors, though our favorite egg people weren’t there- we’ll see them on Saturday.

Shopping this way not only saves money and provides entertainment, it alerts you to what’s available locally and when. It’s still early but local asparagus is nearly over. There’s still plenty from New Jersey (The Garden State) which seems pretty local to me but Boo disagrees- she thinks there is a difference. 300 hundred miles of trucking I guess.

This past year we went almost every week, even in the dead of winter. The stalls morph into tents with propane heaters blasting and everyone has a chill somewhere. The local produce is things like cabbage, potatoes, apples-things that store well. You can still get nearly anything else from far off places. At least we’re thinking about the carbon cost when we pick up fruit from South America.

The food business in America amazes me. For low artificially low prices we can get virtually anything, anytime. When I was in Paris a few years ago we arrived early on a Saturday at the apartment we rented in Marais. Though lagged we wanted to wander and the first place we found was a weekly street market. I’d always heard about the quality of French fresh food but this was totally amazing. Perfect rows of glistening shrimp lovingly packed in ice, table after table of beautiful fruit and vegetables with literally dozens of varieties of each type. It was a cook’s paradise though I certainly was not planning on spending time cooking in the food capital of the Western world!

That night we had our first French meal in a restaurant in Place de Vosges, the amazing medieval plaza that fills an entire block. The highlight was incredible asparagus served with a lemony hollandaise. They were very thick and a pale green and melted in your mouth like no vegetable I’d eaten before. When Carol (my ex and still friend) bit into her order the expression on her face was priceless. Perhaps we’ll achieve that degree of subtlety and appreciation for our food in a few hundred years- though it may have taken a planetary crisis to force us down that path.