Context is key.

The summits, protests and political dog fights have so far missed the point and been ineffective. Why? Carbon levels have gone up and we are no closer to a real solution to our fossil fuel dependency. Whilst I buy the ideal that we “should” be able to live on the energy nature has provided, we cannot do so without inflicting massive amounts of suffering on the very poor.  Our energy need vastly outweighs our renewable energy supply.

Humanity needs energy to avoid:

• Famine
• Fuel Poverty
• War
• Pollution

Climate Change itself is insignificant in comparison to the human cost of War or Famine.  To avoid most of the above we need to get serious about moving to a zero carbon economy to improve our prospects as a species

There is massive investment in home insulation, advertising and lobbying for efficiency. Yet making a carbon based economy more efficient does nothing to reduce our reliance the fuel itself.

This will be a bitter pill to swallow for the Carbon loby, who I believe have the best of intentions. Efficiency savings for a Carbon economy are a massive waste of time, money and indeed energy. In order to achieve an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050 the fact is developed economies will have reduce their carbon emissions to zero. Zero!

It is not possible to do so without huge investment in energy innovation. The ‘clean’ and renewable energy sources have so far failed to yield results despite decades of development. Even the electric car will not be our saviour. It may make us feel better, but that electricity still comes from a coal, gas or nuclear power plant.

Humanity is not currently long on effective solutions to this problem. The innovation investment has thus far been woefully inadequate. Spending on Clean Coal, Nuclear Fission or other more radical innovation by Governments is a fraction of what it needs to be in order to see any real progress.

The problem for the politician is that opposing the Green lobby is very difficult without marginalising yourself. The opposition to the Green lobby has done itself no favours by being in denial about the need to move away from a carbon economy. Allowing mainstream thinking to be influenced by fringe solutions.

Any workable solution requires significant government investment over the long term. The Cap and Trade policies have already failed as a revenue generating exercise & frankly have only caused political squabbles. The only possible solution is for the free market to recognise the massive opportunity the zero carbon economy is for the first to achieve a workable model.

Our carbon based fuel is finite and dwindling. Unless we find a solution we will have war, poverty & ultimately the slow death of humanity. Now is the time for us to use our best weapon against the odds. Our free market system. Generation Y has no adequate representation on the political level. We gave the world Facebook and twitter, now we have to change the political lexicon to deal with reality.

Energy Innovation needs a voice that is willing to take on the “Renewable is the only solution” argument & at the same time re-articulate the need to move from Fossil Fuel in context of the REAL consequences.

Do you agree?

No matter how well crafted your image, realise that it only exists to serve those with a high school mentality. Your peers in business have moved beyond the visual system of measurement, and while able to observe a well presented image, this is not what gets you noticed. This inbalance leads to some confusion for your early 20s. “My image is made, I am cool, but why don’t I have what I want yet?”

To employers, and the gatekeepers of social mobility; the older generations… Your attraction is your potential, desire & unique talent. Now what separates you from everyone else is more important than what makes you the same as everyone else.

Your identity will become a mix of who you always were & who you want to be. How much of that you choose to display publicly will depend on your audience. You can’t please all of the people all of the time. Find your passion, become good at it & accept that not everyone will agree. On that journey you will find inspiration, happiness & fulfilment.

In the rush to implement these services and quickly get value from them the public happily ticked a checkbox saying “Allow my personal data to be used” which were part of the terms of service.  In itself a baby step from the previous way in which data had been sold as a commodity.  Yet by it has become clear the proper checks and balances may not have been in place.

The apathy to data security among the general population is currently far more dangerous than many of the services who have access to that data.  I have never been a fearful chap, nor do I intend to be.  If anything this is a dose of good old fashioned mundane reality.  Nothing is perfect & no matter how much facebook or twitter fend off privacy concerns they are not held to account in the same way the banking sector is for example.

The fact is that the pressure on these new behemoths of Social Media is tiny in comparison to the overwhelming amount of support they are getting from Venture Capital & Investors. The public too are happy in a world where these services have real value and no cost.  Perhaps then, that is why we find it so easy to look the other way.

At some point in the not too distant future, we are going to have to answer the question.  Do we value privacy; at all?  In real terms it won’t be around forever, and in general the trend has been a useful one.  Chris Brogan notes that Trust Agents thrive under public scrutiny & it can be a very profitable way to build your brand.

If we assumed (and its quite a leap) that everyone working for every Government agency and large Social Media outlet had the slightest inkling of temptation to use the masses of data they have access to.  Even then, the door is open to massive amounts of Fraud & 3rd party mis-management.  If anything companies using data poorly will likley be of more pain to the average Social Media user than abuse.

The fact remains however, the door is open for abuse.  No matter how much we trust a company, it is on our own best interest to ensure we state emphatically what the boundaries are.  Will we see Big Brother & Communism any time soon? No.  Could this be a problem for you in your daily life if left unchecked? Yes.

What action can you / should you take? We all know a spam and phising email when we see one.  It is similar learning curve with social media.  Facebook gives you a certain degree of control over what other people can see.  The key point is to stay informed.  With geo-location Services I know where you are all the time, with facebook I know what parties you will attend and who with.