Global Reset: Suspense Novel

GLOBAL HUNGER REVELATIONS

For the past few months my blog has been, dare I say pompously and arrogantly, preoccupied with exploring the world of health, lifestyle and fun. On Friday the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (“FAO”) threw a large and much needed bucket of ice-cold water straight into my face with the release of an incredibly surprising and disturbing report on world hunger. For the first time ever the world’s hungry exceeded one billion people or 15% of our planet’s population. A very sobering and chilling piece of news! Before moving on I’d like to go back 15 months and revisit a blog I wrote:

How we approach and resolve the issues below, and how effectively the world collaborates, will ultimately define and shape the next one hundred years. These issues are increasingly moving to the forefront of the agenda of many nation states and I expect they’ll only grow in importance as we continue our journey into the 21st century.

• Explosive Population Growth
• Accelerating Technology Advancements
• Unprecedented Shift in World Economic Equilibrium
• Depletion of Fossil Fuels
• Global Warming
• Deadly Virus Strains and Diseases
• Terrorism and Social Unrest

Believe me, these issues will increasingly occupy the front news and people will gradually come to realize their significance and direct implication for their own lives as we move further into the 21st century.

Yeah, right. Another doomsday prophet. Doesn’t concern us. We’ve heard it all before. We’re more worried about the economy and how it is now creating such hardship for us. This year we can’t even buy a new car and will have to do with the three cars we already have, one almost five years old. And we can’t afford to upgrade our TV to the latest 50-inch high definition offering. We are daily flooded with grotesque amounts of food, spend tens of billion dollars on a variety of ineffective weight programs in a losing battle to fight escalating obesity, and throw away enough food every year to feed tens or hundreds of million people. While one billion people go hungry every day. What’s wrong with this picture?

Let’s take a closer look at some of the findings in the FAO report. 93% of the world’s hungry live in Asia and Africa and an incredible one third of the African population, mostly in the Sub-Saharan countries, go hungry or starve. One out of every three people! The number of starving humans increased by a whopping 100 million from last year, in great part due to the world economic downturn and higher food prices. Soaring cost of basic foods like rice and maize is fueling worldwide unrest and riots. A goal of The World Food Summit is to reduce world hunger to 420 million people by 2015. We are not even close! There is no way for us to reach this goal as we are sadly heading in the opposite direction with no real counter-initiatives on the horizon.

Unfortunately it only gets worse. The Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura reported at the Fifth World Water Forum in Istanbul earlier this year that we are irrevocably heading toward a world water crisis unless we take immediate action. The course we are on will result in acute water shortages for half of planet Earth’s population in about 20 years. Think about this for a second and consider the unimaginable global consequences! Accelerating population growth, pollution, higher standards of living, increased meat consumption and a sharp up-tick in biofuel production are all contributing to the mounting water shortage. Poor health, diseases, environmental disasters, political and social unrest and even war (water issues sparked riots against the Khartoum government six years ago, which evolved into the current Darfur conflict with an estimated 400,000 fatalities), are direct consequences of water shortages. Lack of political support, a leadership vacuum and chronic underinvestment contribute to making the global water outlook virtually hopeless.

This doesn’t concern us either does it? It has always been like this and there is nothing we can do about it. And these reports are of course self-serving, alarmist propaganda and have absolutely nothing to do with reality. Right? No! The situation is escalating and a serious long-term threat to peace and prosperity for our kids and future generations. Spend a few months in Sub-Saharan Africa, report back to us about your experiences and you’ll find that your perspective on life has forever changed. We can all do something and we need to if we are to prevent this imminent (20-30 years is not that far away!) global catastrophe, which could ultimately trigger a complete Global Reset with unfathomable consequences.

I urge the plethora of environmentalist groups that search for meaningful causes to immediately abandon their uproar of Obama swatting a fly; forget about saving the minnows in California, resulting in tens of thousands of people out of work; and ditch all your other meaningless causes. Please focus your resources and energy on something that is of real importance to the world we live in! We’ll all be better off.

Only by being aware of, gaining a better understanding of and focusing on this massively critical global issue; by agreeing on and charting a long-term direction and solution; by mobilizing the necessary resources coupled with substantial commitments and investments, can we perhaps reverse the deadly course we are on. This is a highly complex issue that requires global cooperation and an unambiguous long-term course of action. I believe it’ll get a lot worse before appropriate action is taken and the problem is seriously addressed. But when that happens I’m confident that we’ll come up with a sustainable solution.

As a final note I want to recognize a friend, Carol Anne Levy, who is actively doing something about what we have discussed above and made it an integral part of her Global Journey in life. This is how she helps our world:

“The Pilot Light Foundation (www.pilotlightfund.org), was formed to support small projects in Africa that have the potential to significantly improve the quality of life for a relatively low budget, impacting people in non urban areas. The types of projects we will fund are those that may fall outside the parameters of programming for larger NGOs, but are life changing for the communities in which they are realized. The idea of the pilot light is that we will set a small spark that can grow into a larger fire, after we are gone.”

Way to go Carol! You give us hope and are an inspiration for us all!

                                                                                                   

                                                                                                    -Nick
                                                                                                    www.nickraybourne.com

GLOBAL ENERGY......SPIRIT - CHI - SHAKTI

This blog is about a topic that is becoming increasingly important to me. In the past few years, I don’t know exactly when, my focus in life gradually started changing. Maybe it was reaching 50 or perhaps it simply came with growing older. You can easily find evidence of this transformation in my prior blogs dealing with health, lifestyle and happiness: Global Health, Global Journey, Global Fun.

There are certain activities that provide me with inner peace and allow me to completely empty my mind of the routine daily distractions in life. The most common ways I reach this state are: when I go for a long slow run; when I don my noise-canceling headphones and turn on my favorite music during an intercontinental flight; when I drive extended distances alone in my car; or when I take a long, quiet, hot bath. When this tranquility sets in, my mind becomes hyperactive and fills itself with an abundance of positive thoughts and ideas. “Who is Nick Raybourne? How can I improve my life? What do I need to change to become more fulfilled and a better person? What can I learn from people I know?  And so forth.” It is a very rewarding, unstructured process of creative out-of-the box thinking, soul searching and self-exploration that infallibly results in novel ideas and good things.

My ambition is to find ways to always be full of inner energy, enthusiasm and motivation, thereby achieving more of the joy and happiness we all strive for. Conventional wisdom and all the naysayers (I was one not many years ago), in fact most people, would probably say that this is impossible. But it isn’t. I constantly work on having an open mind and gather the courage to challenge conventional wisdom and status quo. Coupled with my infinite hunger to learn and change, I hope I’ll make significant progress toward this inspiring goal. I believe I already have.

It is easy to make a conscious decision to close the gate to one’s inner energy and become depressed, unenthusiastic, lethargic, even sick, etc. when something bad happens or things are not going so well. But when you are on a hot date in your favorite restaurant, or when you are on your first day of a spectacular Caribbean vacation, or when you sink a 40 foot eagle put with your friends watching on the 18th hole, you suddenly are full of energy and joy and feel at that very moment as if you can single-handedly conquer the world. You instantly have so much positive energy that nothing seems impossible. On the other hand you feel horrible and have absolutely no energy, enthusiasm or joy when you return to work on a rainy Monday morning, when your girl friend dumps you, or when you shoot 125 to finish last in your club’s golf championship.

Recently I realized that a few special people among us never allow this complete change in energy and enthusiasm to happen. I’m working hard on learning how to reach this improved state of mind. When researching this phenomenon I discovered that I could turn negative situations into positive ones by never closing the gate to the inner energy we all possess. Whenever I’m in a situation where I feel the gate might close, I now force myself to make it stay open by virtue of determination, enthusiasm, a greatly improved mindset, and by relentlessly challenging myself to leave it open. With time and by actively working on this, my goal is to never let the gate close, with the expectation that my energy level and spirit will always remain high, and my life in turn be greatly enhanced.

This, I’m convinced, represents the intangible quality, aura and edge that extraordinarily happy and successful people possess. It is not because they are smarter, luckier or harder working, but because they have found a way to always stay positive, which makes their energy, enthusiasm and joy phenomenally positive forces in their lives, relationships and businesses.

The other thing I now make a priority is practicing how to be nice. This may sound a little hokey but makes a lot of sense after I read a book about it. Being nice is not a genetic trait and thus one can learn how to become nicer. But being nice takes practice and focus like everything else in life. Why not be nice all the time to everyone and not just once in a while and selectively? Well, I’m absolutely certain that the nicer we are  – to waiters, your wife, your boss, the old lady next door, the stranger in the supermarket – the happier we’ll be and the better we’ll feel. This in turn will make us more confident, better liked and respected, open up new exciting opportunities and in general make us more fulfilled.

I do all of this for selfish reasons but it’s a win-win so why not? Truly successful people have, among many things, perfected the art of being nice and probably wonder why others are not doing it too. It is a lot easier and a much more powerful tool than spending an extra hour at work or trying to find other ways to do well in life or in business. Being nice and staying positive and enthusiastic are some of the many intangible life skills they unfortunately never taught us in school. Maybe schools – from first grade through graduate school - should seriously rethink their obsolete and outdated curricula. I have many thoughts on this topic but that’s a discussion for anther day.

                                                                                                    -Nick
                                                                                                    www.nickraybourne.com

GLOBAL FUN

My wife keeps telling me that my blog is way too serious. She is surely right [she usually is and is a lot more fun than I am] so today I’ll explore the world of fun. We all like to have fun but why don’t we have more fun, why is it important to have fun and how do we actually have fun?

I don’t think anyone will dispute the importance of having fun in life. Fun is a way to relieve stress, stay connected with others, maintain balance in life and prevent burnout. But isn’t it true that it's easy to have fun in childhood, but as we grow older fun becomes more elusive and we often need to make it a priority? Do you have enough fun in your life?

So to get some different perspectives I decided to turn to some of my friends to hear what they had to say. I asked them two simple questions:

1. Why it is important to have fun?
2. How do you have fun in life?

The answers I received were diverse, fascinating and provided a multidimensional perspective into the world of fun. Thanks again for all your input guys! This is what they had to say:

1. Having fun is essential to preserving your physical, mental, and spiritual health.
2. Fun is spending small slices of life with friends and/or family, people close to you, with whom you feel most comfortable. It can also be exploring new things, changing your routine (e.g., new places, new recipes, new games). In short, it is building enjoyable memories that you can always go back to, especially when times are hard.

1. Having fun makes you feel happy. Fun gets your brain cleaned out of what my mom calls brain cobwebs. What does that mean? All that thinking that ends-up creating more stress, frustration, anxiousness....etc. The kind of thinking that makes you nag and pester others around you. My mom also thought we should all have a quota of fun every week. She didn't want us to over-do the fun, though, because we might stop appreciating it.
2. Fun can be anything: From enjoying the company of your siblings or nephews, watching a good movie, sharing a good margarita with a good friend, or tubing down the river. It's such a personal thing. Probably the most common truth to all of this is: There are happy people and serious people. The serious people might have fun sometimes and feel happy, but always go back to being serious again. The happy people, myself included, are usually feeling happy and having fun with life in general and on a daily basis. Sometimes, they might have a bad day, but are generally up-beat and thinking positive thoughts.

1. Interesting question to be sure, and I am constantly of the opinion that I personally work far too hard and don't leave enough time for what most people would define as pure fun.  That said, I am convinced that having fun is critical to long-term happiness and success in all aspects of one's life. I have always tried to have fun in everything I do, including work.  Fun creates enjoyment and the balance necessary to manage the challenges placed on our daily lives.
2. I look to have fun on a regular basis, and I can find it through spending time with family and friends, playing and watching sports, general entertainment, and having success and enjoying what I do at work.

1. This one is hard and certainly varies from one to the next. But, it certainly is true that most people can do a better job of having fun. It is also true that all kinds of huge positive direct and indirect effects accrue to those having fun, including all kinds of performances (sports, professionally, personally, health and longevity, popularity, etc. etc.).
2. My wife just bought me a book called "Now", which as I understand it talks about the importance of living in the present and totally leave ALL historical garbage behind since it is sunk cost and nothing one can do anything about anyway. That is a lot easier to say and conceptually understand that actually implement. Nonetheless, to have genuine fun you have to somehow allow yourself to and by implication be in control of your own mind and happiness. As for what exactly to do it will vary but likely success will come if the individual picks activities that creates the right associations relative to allowing living 100 percent in the now.

1. There are two essential characteristics which differentiate us from animals: 1) the ability to take an abstract view, a perspective apart from our own physical interaction with the world, and humor. Although many animals often exhibit playful behavior, that lacks the detachment and emotional relief which is associated with human behavior. So, short answer to your first question: it is what makes us human.
2. I do very little in life without serious intent. I would put miniature golf or bowling in the category which fits the definition of fun. I never do those things. My casual enjoyment without serious intent is mostly social, such as our wine dinners. At least there, the food and grog are usually pretty good, and there's occasionally some interest in the conversation. Usually I social with a smaller group of closer and longer duration friends. Take the weekend. My dog and I made our five mile run on Saturday afternoon at the lake. On Sunday morning, we took a canoe tour of West Bay, seeing eagles, osprey, ducks, a beaver and a few fishermen. Both very enjoyable, but in different ways, and neither would I describe as "fun". Fun is more primary for people who go for casual interaction based amusement without mental or physical exertion. You have fun with your kids when they are growing up. It's an important part of family activity and balanced development for the child.  Some of my favorite activities: skiing at Telluride and in Canada, running to the top of a mountain, rowing hard for more than an hour, a hundred mile bicycle ride, maxing out my heart rate, and flying my airplane. Lighter stuff: dinner with my wife, reading, water skiing, learning more about aviation and piloting.

1. In today's stressful environment (economy, daily commute, stresses at work) it's essential to find time for fun. It's too easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day stresses of life. Having fun brings you back to what's really important, plus it makes you feel young again.
2. A good example would be yesterday, I was sitting by the pool reading a magazine dangling my feet in the cold water. Before I knew it I was surrounded by 5 children wanting to play volleyball. It was 2 hours of playing in the water, showing a little girl how to hit the ball over the net, laughing and just being a kid again. I laughed and played and forgot all about the article I was reading, and how cool the water had initially felt.

1. Fun is the reason we toil.  Fun is the reward.  Fun is the part of everything that makes life worthwhile.  A life without fun is called purgatory.
2. Fun finds me...  it always has.  I am very easily amused.  Daily life with family offers a great deal of fun for me.

1. Fun is part of what gives meaning to all the tedious stuff we do day to day.
2. Lots of obvious fun things, but more specifically I would say being in or on water.  Sailing, rowing, surfing, swimming, water skiing, and just about anything else along those lines, though I’m not as tolerant of cold water as I was in younger days.  And then gathering with friends for a nice dinner and a few glasses of wine at the end of an active day.

1. I have come to the conclusion that having fun is very important in order to deal with the more serious aspects in life. Having fun is renewal of energy and relaxation and also a reminder of your other sides of your personality,which is quite important to be able to bring forward in other aspects as well. Like how one can respond to even serious things by being able to bring out energy, joy and excitement is priceless.
2. My idea of fun is something that triggers emotions like happiness, excitement, inner peace and hope. (And probably many others as well). Could be anything from reading a good book to skiing.

While waiting for my friends to submit their input I did some Internet research on the topic of fun and found these enlightening quotes [I really like Katherine Hepburn’s quote]:

• It's kind of fun to do the impossible.  --WALT DISNEY
• When you have confidence, you can have a lot of fun. And when you have fun, you can do amazing things.  --JOE NAMATH
• I never did a day's work in my life. It was all fun.   --THOMAS A. EDISON
• To love what you do and feel that it matters - how could anything be more fun?   --KATHARINE GRAHAM
• The man who does not work for the love of work but only for money is not likely to make money nor find much fun in life.  --CHARLES M. SCHWAB
• If a man insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it.  --HERODOTUS (484BC-430BC)
• It [sex] was the most fun I ever had without laughing.  --WOODY ALLEN
• Still it was really tremendous fun sitting there working and earning money. It was almost like being a man.   --HENRIK IBSEN - A DOLL'S HOUSE
• Some debts are fun when you are acquiring them, but none are fun when you set about retiring them.   --OGDEN NASH
• Every Englishman must have a hobby. Some like to collect the stamp, some like to make the jam, but the most fun is to a kill a little animal with a shotgun or rip them up with wild dog.  --BORAT
• Most of the time I don't have much fun. The rest of the time I don't have any fun at all.  --WOODY ALLEN
• The prospect of a long day at the beach makes me panic. There is no harder work I can think of than taking myself off to somewhere pleasant, where I am forced to stay for hours and 'have fun'.   --PHILLIP LOPATE
• It is fun to be in the same decade with you.  --FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT [letter to Winston Churchill]
• There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is in having lots to do and not doing it.       --MARY W. LITTLE
• Flying may not be all plain sailing, but the fun of it is worth the price.  --AMELIA EARHART
• Jealousy is all the fun you think they had.   --ERICA JONG, FEAR OF FLYING
• Getting there isn't half the fun - it's all the fun.  --ROBERT TOWNSEND
• I think we're having fun. I think our customers really like our products.  --STEVE JOBS
• Eating everything you want is not that much fun. When you live a life with no boundaries, there’s less joy. If you can eat anything you want to, what’s the fun in eating anything you want to?  --TOM HANKS
• I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints, sinners are much more fun.  --BILLY JOEL
• I can't imagine anything worse than being required to have fun.   --SCOTT WESTERFELD
• If you obey all of the rules, you miss all of the fun.   --KATHERINE HEPBURN

Fun is an integral part of our lives and a key component of our happiness and wellbeing. It is tightly coupled to our personality and character and I believe achievement of fun greatly depends on our personal courage, inclination to embrace risk, living in the moment and pursuing true desires in life. One might classify fun in two buckets: first, there is the perishable and evaporating fun, and secondly the sustainable fun that comes from living life to the fullest. Both are critical to happiness but one without the other leaves a void in our lives. Examples of the first type of fun is watching a movie or having dinner with your friends. The other type of fun can be illustrated by something a friend of mine recently did. He bought a big sailboat [I had no idea he was even interested in sailing]; he has since been learning how to sail and has as a result created a new way to greatly enhance his life by enabling a complex symphony of sustainable, fun experiences.

During my long runs this weekend I thought a lot about what fun is to me and concluded that I experience the most fun when I learn, discover, create and change status quo; when I contribute, help others and make the lives of family, friends and others better; when I take risks, plan and go on adventures, push myself mentally and physically and venture outside my normal comfort zone; and of course when getting pleasure from an assortment of everyday happenings primarily related to family, friends and work.

In conclusion I hope this little write-up has stimulated your thinking – it definitely has for me – and will ultimately result in more fun for all of you!
                                                                                            -Nick
                                                                                            www.nickraybourne.com

MY FIRST HUNDRED DAYS

Obama’s first hundred days in office coincided with the first hundred days of the lifestyle change I made at the beginning of the year. On March 1st I wrote in this blog: “Recently I refocused my own life after concluding that it was utterly irrational not to modify my lifestyle.” The table below shows my progress. I was never unhealthy or exceptionally overweight, but after three back surgeries in the past 15 years I was never able to return to the quality lifestyle I once enjoyed. This is now changing.

The turning point for me was during a lunch with a friend I was visiting who presented me with a book: “Younger Next Year.”  After finishing a couple of other books, I finally got to YNY. The reading was fascinating and the timing must have been perfect because something clicked somewhere in my head and I decided it was time to get back on track again.

It was tough in the beginning but after starting with a few baby steps it soon got easier and I’m now slowly approaching the point where I was 15 years ago. I’m older and definitely don’t run as fast, but I’m smarter, more patient and definitely much more knowledgeable about the critical diet side of the equation. And I feel better, have more energy and in general am in a much better state of mind. I enjoy the healthy diet, don’t crave any of the occasional crap I used to eat, and look forward to my next workout! Check out my March 1 blog if you are interested in finding out how I changed my lifestyle.

As a final note I’m both surprised and pleased at how my lifestyle change has been such a positive influence on people around me. Truly an unexpected bonus that I cherish every single day.

Until next time!

                                                                                -Nick
                                                                                www.nickraybourne.com

GLOBAL JOURNEY

Here’s what I want you to do. Find a quiet place like your bedroom, without any noise from TV, music, phone, spouse or kids, and lie down for at least half an hour, preferably longer. Close your eyes and project yourself forward in time. You are now much older and know you have just a few days left to live. A pretty frightening thought, but this scenario will eventually happen to most of us.

Reflect upon what you have accomplished in life for a few minutes. Then I want you to think about some important things you wish you had done during your lifetime. It could be researching and visiting your family roots in Europe; spending a year in Tuscany learning Italian; deep sea fishing in Bimini and every other famous fishing spot in the world your best friends; writing the book you always wanted to write; completely restoring a ’56 Corvette with your teenage son; climbing Mt. Everest; riding a Harley cross country with your wife; training for and running a marathon, or a million other things.

Now, still on your imaginary deathbed, ask yourself the following questions: Do you wish you had worked ten hours per week more for your company instead of taken more vacations with your family? Do you wish you had watched more television? Do you wish you had eaten more junk food? Do you regret you didn’t spend more time at the shopping mall? The answers to all of the above will be: Probably not. Definitely not! Think about this for a while.

Then I’d like for you to come up with the three top things you really wish you had done in life and start envisioning these imaginary journeys. How would you plan them? Who would be involved? When and where would they take place? What would you have to sacrifice to commence such a journey? Visualize, fantasize, dream and imagine yourself traveling down his new and exciting road.

After this pleasant escape into dreamland, I want you to write the three things in a journal, on a post-it sticker on the fridge or set it as a screensaver on your computer. After a week or two of thinking about this, I want you to make a decision on what journey to first embark on. You don’t have to decide when or how yet, just make the decision of what you want to do. Once you have done this, your journey has already begun.

Sounds like “The Bucket List” on steroids? Kind of, but I’m describing something much more and significant than just taking a trip somewhere. And something you’d do early in life and not when you are about to kick the bucket. Life-changing journeys rather than a short excursions. What I’m talking about is an irrevocable commitment to something you really would like to achieve in life in order to satisfy some of your inner, unfulfilled needs and desires. A dormant trigger that will transform the rest of your life.

Your life is one long journey made up of many smaller journeys, some good, some bad, some voluntary and some involuntary. The more we take charge, control our lives and make great journeys happen, the more content and fulfilled we’ll be. It’s not the end result or the destination that’ll enrich our lives, but the journey itself. Climbing Mt. Everest for example is a massive undertaking that only few people have the physical and mental disposition to do. Planning and executing such an adventure is a gigantic undertaking, from making the incredibly difficult commitment to attempt it, getting in top physical shape, acquiring technical climbing skills, communicating with the Sherpas in Nepal, teaming up with other adventurers, to ultimately risking your life as you advance from Base Camp and then on to the summit. Once you reach the top of the world, a whole new journey starts because you have just changed the rest of your life forever. Journeys are fantastic catalysts for new journeys.

I could also have used the example of shooting a photo essay of unique wooden boats from around the world, and eventually publishing a coffee table book showcasing your favorite photographs including brief narratives of your findings and experiences. Or spending a couple of years in a poor village in a Sub-Saharan country as part of an international aid organization initiative. They are all the same and all wonderful. These are extraordinary journeys that are raring to go but need people like you to get going. No matter what you choose to do, your life will be enriched and changed forever. And you’ll feel absolutely fantastic about it.

Embarking on these journeys will invariably involve reprioritizing your time and money, and significant compromises will have to be made. But no excuses. You hear me? NO EXCUSES! Just do it! Risks must be taken and uncharted waters explored. Push yourself outside your normal comfort zone and you’ll reap life-lasting rewards you never knew existed. When the time eventually comes and you only have a few days left to live, I want you to be in a position to happily smile and say quietly to yourself: “I had a great life and did what I wanted to do.”
                                                                                        -Nick
                                                                                        www.nickraybourne.com

GLOBAL ENERGY

Forget about gasoline, cars and depletion of carbon based energy sources. We have electric cars already. We’re not running out of oil any time soon, right? So why should we worry? Gas prices are back down again and we all know everything always returns to normal.

But I wonder how we will operate more than 50 thousand daily commercial flights the day we eventually run out of oil? Electric planes? Because that day will arrive sooner or later. So most of us are worried and for different reasons. Some believe global warming and carbon emissions will be the catalyst that will end all life on our planet. If you’ve heard Jeremy Rifkin speak on this issue, you’re probably walking around scared to death, thinking it is already too late and that our planet is doomed. Others are more concerned with self-sufficiency and reducing dependency on foreign oil. And many simply want cheaper and cleaner energy sources. People have different opinions and concerns – some more intense and emotional than others – but most of us believe that we need to develop a long-term policy and find a solution to this planet’s growing energy needs and challenges. I agree.

In a prior blog I wrote about what this planet will be like 100 years from now. It is not that far away – just ask some of the centenarians that are still with us. Let us narrow down this fascinating question and ask: what will our primary sources of energy be in the year 2109?  Today the majority of our electricity comes from coal. Anything that moves uses for the most part fuel from oil derivatives.  Coal and oil.  Both dirty, carbon based and steadily being depleted. The ethanol alternative is so feeble and without merit that I will not discuss it. I doubt, in fact I’m quite certain, that none of these energy sources will make it to the top of the list a century from now.

Nuclear is an interesting alternative but politically handicapped given the checkered past and the perceived danger of uranium and radiation, which have been further amplified by its nasty association with nuclear accidents, waste, wars, bombs, movies and a plethora of books on the subject. Nevertheless, there has been tremendous advancement in nuclear power plant technology, and it is a clean, abundant and very cheap source of energy. But the stigma and political challenges, especially in this country, remain formidable, and I do not expect it’ll be a real alternative any time soon. However, other countries around the world, including the Middle East, are making bets on nuclear power plants and are investing heavily in this area.

Basic research in alternative energy sources should take a higher priority in public and private institutions worldwide. I’m positive that such efforts will ultimately produce results that we today never could imagine would be possible. Hydrogen, the most common element in the universe with more energy per weight than any other element, is the ultimate clean energy source. Being able to safely harness hydrogen in a cost-effective way may very well be the long-term solution for fueling our 50 thousand flights per days as well as all our future energy needs. Focus, commitment and investment in basic research will be the key to getting there.

But until we have viable alternatives, renewable energy sources have to be part of the solution for our energy needs. Hydro, wind and solar are the major renewable sources today. The former has been with us for a while and continues to be a fantastic, clean source of energy but availability is unfortunately severely limited. Wind is an excellent renewable energy option but has a fundamental cost limitation that makes this source an inadequate long-term alternative.

Solar energy is abundant but far too costly today. Most of the installed solar power in the world is in Spain and Germany, a direct result of government incentives and programs. The extraordinary characteristic of solar energy – this may not be clear to most people - is that there is a clear way to drive the fundamental cost down and eventually make this power source cheaper than the electricity you and I buy today. And it is clean, renewable and we don’t need to import it. Sounds pretty good, but can we really reduce the cost that dramatically?

Yes, and here is why. The cumulative effect of accelerating technology advances, manufacturing efficiencies, rapidly increasing volumes, which will advance us quickly down the learning curve, will eventually drive down the cost per watt to a fraction of what it is today. The payback period today for converting your house to solar is 8-10 years, far too expensive for the average consumer. A few years from now it could easily be 2-3 years. Maybe central solar plants will become the primary solution and not individual solar installations. Or more likely a hybrid model. Regardless of how solar power is ultimately implemented, the potential cost equation and benefits remain outstanding. But the only way to get the cost down to acceptable levels is to ramp up the volume through massive installations worldwide!

This solar opportunity is available on a silver platter to Obama and to the rest of the world leaders that are located in the warmer regions where solar power is best suited. This is a timely and once-in-a-lifetime chance to make an unprecedented disruptive contribution to the global energy situation, while at the same time initiate major public works projects that will contribute to an economy recovery. Why not pursue this - combined with increased funding and incentives for research - instead of injecting hundreds of billions of dollars into businesses that are fundamentally broken? The short-term and long-term payback for the planet will be immeasurable. Embarking on this path today could very well make the difference to the quality of life for our great-grandkids 100 years from now.

                                                                                                    -Nick
                                                                                                    www.nickraybourne.com

GLOBAL LIFE RESET

The current economic and political problems are unfortunately not the only global issues we face. The western world, led by the United States, has evolved in a way few could have imagined one hundred years ago.

My Scandinavian grandmother was a study in health. She never went on a diet, never went to the gym, she always ate what she wanted, she drank wine and liquor and she was as healthy as you could ever want to be. Up until her death at the age of 97, she routinely walked two miles to the shops she frequented and two miles back. Four miles per day. She’d probably be alive today had she not tragically fallen and broken her femur.

What has happened to our society? In the US around 60% of the citizens are now overweight – an alarming trend.  A combination of increasingly sedentary lifestyles and crappy diets are to blame. But so what if you are overweight? Is that so bad? Life expectancy is increasing so there you go! Things are indeed better even if we are getting chubbier.

Well, maybe but I don’t think so. Medical advances have somewhat offset the alarming growth of unhealthy life styles, but at a tremendous cost to society. Today we have the luxury and option to live much longer and enjoy a high quality of life way into the 80s, 90s and beyond. Accidents and illnesses unfortunately claim the lives of many people, and a healthy life style will improve your odds but will not make you immune to such a fate.

Today there is a wide spectrum of people from the very healthy, who ride their bikes hundreds of miles, play daily rounds of golf and ski down black diamond runs well into their 80s, and those at the other end of the spectrum who chronically ignore their basic health, are plagued by medical issues and saddled with a poor quality of life until they eventually die much sooner that they could have. While their miserable lives are only prolonged by medicine, they also become an emotional and financial drain on loved ones and the entire society. Study health statistics and cry.

Why don’t we all choose to be healthy so we can extend our lives and to enjoy ourselves for another 40-50 years after we turn 50? It seems irrational that we don’t, doesn’t it? Wouldn’t we all want to be fit, healthy and enjoy a better life? I certainly think we all do and am 100% sure that it is not a question of intent or desire. I do not entirely understand why we have ended up where we are, but it is probably because the path to poor health has been an unintended and unavoidable byproduct of our modern society. It has become easier to simply go with the flow than to take the other less traveled path. Perhaps the human race is simply not equipped to defend itself from what is now being thrown at them. How do you find a healthy fast food meal? How do you find time to exercise? How do you resist all the treacherous daily temptations? Not easy.

Genetically humans were designed to exercise daily and definitely not ingest the kind of food we are eating today. A majority of us are now sadly leading lives that are at odds with our basic DNA! This can only lead to eventual disaster. Physical labor is no longer the norm in the western world; there is no food shortage anymore; people are inundated with easily available junk food that contain much more crap and calories than anyone needs; TV, the Internet and videogames are further promoting sedentary lifestyles. So voila, 60% of the population is suddenly overweight and health issues abound. This sad accomplishment took us less than one hundred years, a fraction of the millions of years humans have been walking this planet! The cost to society is of course tremendous, but there is no change on the horizon – it is in fact getting worse year by year. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent by hopeful individuals on an amazing assortment of diets that don’t work - only those that own and profit from those futile and predatory ventures ultimately benefit.

I fear this global issue as much as I worry about the world economy, terrorism, hunger and disease and global climate issues. There is no easy solution despite the fact that all of us can do something about it if we want to. It is not a question of money – except maybe having too much is contributing to the problem. But we need to know what to do and how to do it. I believe – I know - we all want to do the right thing but it just isn’t that easy. Our society is making it extremely hard for us to do what we really want and need. This is no excuse – it is a fact. But I have hope that we can slowly start a process of sustainable change. Maybe the worldwide economic crisis will be an improbably catalyst for change.

Recently I refocused my own life after concluding that it was utterly irrational not to modify my lifestyle. I have always been reasonably healthy and in decent shape but it just wasn’t good enough. My simple objective is to increase my odds of longevity and to be able to enjoy my time on this planet as I progress through life. The first week was hard, the second week a little easier but the challenge is behind me and I now embrace and enjoy this new lifestyle.

I encourage all of you to commit yourself to this new path so you can enjoy the rest of your lives to the fullest. There is lots of information on the subject and you would be well advised to read three books: The Okinawa Program, Younger Next Year and The Primal Blueprint (soon to be published – bookmark http://www.marksdailyapple.com in the meantime).

Remember: diet is essential for weight loss, but exercise is critical for quality of life. I have synthesized what I have discovered and concluded in the following table, which I have termed RAYBOURNE’S GLOBAL LIFE RESET. I hope this will ignite your inner strength and help you for the rest of your life!

                                                                                             -Nick Raybourne                                                                                                              www.nickraybourne.com

Table below Copyright of Nick Raybourne - All rights reserved - 2009.

WHAT NOW?

First, I want to thank the increasing number of fans who have e-mailed me about Global Reset and asked when the sequel or another novel from Nick Raybourne is coming. It is great to receive such e-mail – I absolutely encourage you to write me at nick@nickraybourne.com - and want all of you to know that another Peter Walker adventure is in the works, although I do not expect it to be published until 2010.

Almost a year ago I wrote in this blog “that we may soon be standing at the precipice of a new era,” and “my premonition of the inevitable global change that lies ahead.” Since that blog was written we have witnessed the most disturbing and violent - approaching apocalyptic - collapse of the global economy and world financial markets. Major corporations have disappeared, banks are mortally wounded and many have failed, millions of workers have lost their jobs and homes, personal assets and diligently accumulated retirement savings have been brutally wiped out, crushing the dreams of hundreds of millions of our global citizens. What is going on? Where are we heading?

Will the world economy simply rebound as so many expect and what has always been the case in the past, or are we indeed “standing at the precipice of a new era?” Our new chief executive, President Obama, the leaders of Europe, Asia and the rest of the world are all desperately trying to figure out how to deal with this – dare I use the word catastrophe? There is unfortunately no simple solution to a problem that is not properly understood.

Our country appears to seek refuge by moving in the direction of a state run economy, handing out more than a trillion dollars it doesn’t have in so called “stimulus” packages, hoping to stabilize the situation and reverse the economy’s freefall. Newton’s Third Law states in simplified terms that: “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” What will the long-term reaction be to what the U.S. is currently doing? Are we simply pushing the problem in front of us, creating an even more disastrous situation in the future? Who knows? Only time will tell, but I’m afraid we’ll be somehow paying dearly for this sooner or later.

In March last year I wrote: “These issues are increasingly moving to the forefront of the agenda of many nation states and I expect they’ll only grow in importance as we continue our journey into the 21st century...Unprecedented shift in world economic equilibrium...Will the rise of China, India and Asia lead to decline of the west?” Is the pain we are experiencing today the unavoidable consequence of an accelerating, irreversible shift in the world economic equilibrium, something much more fundamental and permanent that cannot be resolved with mind-boggling stimulus packages and desperate attempts to prop up failing economies and companies? I think so, but unfortunately have no answer or solution, except that we must first understand and come to grips with the root cause of our problems before we can map out and embark on a sustainable road to recovery. There is never an easy way out if you are broke, overweight or out of shape. It requires being brutally honest with yourself and addressing the problem with hard work, sacrifices and a long-term commitment and horizon.

I do remain optimistic but am absolutely certain that there will be more pain before we see better times. So what do we do? Individually we cannot influence the health of the world economy and the incomprehensible global dynamics that are creating havoc in our lives. We can, however, focus on our family and friends and try to lead healthy, stress-free lives, and achieve pleasure by simply being together and enjoy what we have. Why not go for some personal adventures, take some risks in life and pursue a few of your unrealized dreams? Turn the TV off, get off the couch and do some things you haven’t done before!

Until next time...

                                                                                                -Nick

                                                                                                 www.nickraybourne.com

YEAR 2108

WHAT WILL YEAR 2108 BRING?

After reading my novel, Global Reset, your first impression may very well be that it is simply an entertaining story. That statement is indeed true but not entirely complete. It is of course pure fiction but I have attempted to weave a few of the global issues below into the story line by exploring some gruesome “what if” scenarios.

During countless travels in my lifetime I have witnessed mind-boggling changes that have taken place around the planet. At first I thought it was incredibly exciting but in the past few years I’m increasingly sensing that we may soon be standing at the precipice of a new era. What this new period might be like I wouldn’t know, but I believe our grand kids will many years from now say that the world changed dramatically in their life time in a way nobody could have imagined.

I strongly believe, despite my premonition of the inevitable global change that lies ahead, that we’ll overcome whatever challenges, problems and issues such a change will throw at us. But I don’t think it’ll be easy nor without significant sacrifices and collateral damage along the way. You and I will of course never see what the world will look like in 2108, but I’m certain that most of us would have liked to have a peak at what the future has in store. What would we have seen if time-travel were possible? Progress? Destruction? Peace? War? Good? Bad? Something unimaginable?

How we approach and resolve the issues below, and how effectively the world collaborates, will ultimately define and shape the next one hundred years. These issues are increasingly moving to the forefront of the agenda of many nation states and I expect they’ll only grow in importance as we continue our journey into the 21st century.

        EXPLOSIVE POPULATION GROWTH 
            1950: 2.5BN, 2008: 6.8BN – CONSEQUENCES OF EXPONENTIAL GROWTH?

        ACCELERATING TECHNOLOGY ADVANCEMENTS
            ANYTHING BECOMES POSSIBLE - COULD NEW WEAPONS/WARFARE EMERGE?

        UNPRECEDENTED SHIFT IN WORLD ECONOMIC EQUILIBRIUM
            WILL RISE OF CHINA, INDIA AND ASIA LEAD TO DECLINE OF THE WEST?

        DEPLETION OF FOSSIL FUELS
            HAVE WE CRESTED THE HUBBERT PEAK - IS CHEAP ENERGY A THING OF THE PAST?

        GLOBAL WARMING
            COULD CLIMATIC SHIFTS WITH UNFATHOMABLE CONSEQUENCES HAPPEN?

        DEADLY VIRUS STRAINS AND DISEASES
            COULD ENTIRE POPULATIONS BE WIPED OUT?

        TERRORISM & SOCIAL UNREST
            WILL GLOBAL TERROR BE PART OF FUTURE LIFE?

What do you think the year 2108 will be like? 

                                                            -Nick
                                                            www.nickraybourne.com

Global Reset: A Suspense Novel

Watch out for my debut novel, Global Reset, available in January '08 through all major on-line booksellers including amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Borders and AuthorHouse.com!

Is it possible that one single individual could ultimately determine the fate of our increasingly fragile planet? Explosive population growth, a dramatic shift in the global economic equilibrium, accelerating technology advancements, global warming, and escalating political, cultural and religious tensions all contribute to making this world gradually more volatile. Could these terrifying and complex issues spark a catastrophic event that would set us back 200 years or more? Is it possible that the United States, perhaps even the White House, could somehow be the catalyst for such a horrifying apocalypse?

I explore this chilling scenario in my debut fiction thriller, Global Reset. A software entrepreneur, Peter Walker, is unknowingly drawn into a treacherous maze lined with murders, terrorism and high-tech sabotage, but does not realize he is nothing but a pawn in much bigger plot designed to destabilize the world. He soon becomes the target of assassins and ultimately the entire U.S. government and, while desperately fighting to stay alive, travels the globe in an attempt to unravel the intricate web he finds himself trapped in. In the end, it is left to Peter to avert the imminent global Armageddon.

Inspiration for the book came from my many travels and provides the reader with a suspenseful and entertaining yet thought-provoking and interesting story. The exciting plot is set in a backdrop of current global issues, domestic politics and high technology. Global Reset is a fast-paced suspense novel that takes the reader on an electrifying journey filled with surprising twists and turns to every corner of the world.

If you like suspense novels and fiction thrillers I think you'll want to read Global Reset.

My web site www.nickraybourne.com will be coming soon and is meant to be primarily for disseminating information. The purpose of this blog, however, is to provide a forum where I, along with a few guest authors, will be exploring issues and events related to my novel in what I hope will be an interesting and provoking manner. The blog is meant to be a two-way conversation with you, my readers, where we'll explore a wide range of topics. I expect and hope we'll disagree on many issues, which is the way it should be and what will spice up this blog. I encourage you to make comments to the blog and I will do my best to answer you in a timely and thoughtful manner.

I hope you enjoy the book and look forward to hearing what you think!

                                                      

                                                                        -Nick