Workers in certain industries can have more comfort in knowing that, even if they are fired, there is so much demand they should be able to find another job very quickly.

Talk of a recession and creeping unemployment rates are enough to make you wonder: Where can you find stability in unstable times? Kiplinger consulted career experts and combed through job trend data to come up with five industries that should provide safer havens to workers, no matter what the economy is doing. No matter what field you work in, you have the possibility of losing your job. But there are things you can do to protect yourself and increase your odds of getting another job, just in case.

Healthcare  
Many of the nation’s fastest-growing careers are in the health care industry, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. An increasingly aging population fuels demand in this field. Some specific jobs with stable prospects include doctor, nurse, pharmacist, physical therapist and physician assistant.

Education
Teachers for any grade level who specialize in high-demand fields such as math, science or bilingual education should have an easier time finding and keeping a job. And the outlook for college instructors looks stable, too. College enrollment is rising as the number of 18- to 24-year-olds increases. Some areas of the country are more stable than others for teachers because education jobs follow population trends. So teachers in fast-growing states in the South and West, such as Nevada, Arizona, Texas and Georgia, will have more opportunity than in slower-growth areas in the Midwest and Northeast.

Security
Crime doesn’t stop in a recession. That makes security jobs, such as police officers, detectives, private security guards and international security experts, a good bet. Layoffs in this industry are rare. In the off-chance law enforcement officers lose their jobs to budget cuts, they have little difficulty finding jobs with other agencies because demand is so high.

Environmental Sciences
The current “green” movement reaches far beyond changing your light bulbs to fluorescents. It’s also translating into a solid career choice. The BLS expects environmental careers, including ecologists, hydrologists, environmental chemists and others, to grow 25% over the next decade.

Government
Some of the most stable jobs around are within the federal government, where firings and lay-offs happen at just one-quarter the rate in the private sector. One reason: Even in hard economic times when big businesses are forced to downsize, the government must carry on. And only one in every 5,000 non-defense workers is ever fired for poor performance each year. Crazy odds! Due to an increasingly aging workforce, the government is doing a lot of hiring lately, especially among the 20-something crowd.

Consumers still face at least 10 years of more expensive food

From subsistence farmers eating rice in Ecuador to gourmets feasting on escargot in France, consumers worldwide face rising food prices in what analysts call a perfect storm of conditions. Freak weather is a factor. But so are dramatic changes in the global economy, including higher oil prices, lower food reserves and growing consumer demand in China and India. While the price of spaghetti has doubled in Haiti, the cost of miso is packing a hit in Japan.

In the long term, prices are expected to stabilize, but consumers still face at least 10 years of more expensive food. The Chinese middle class is starting to change the traditional thought process of beef as a luxury. Attempts to control prices in one country often have dire effects elsewhere. China’s restrictions on wheat flour exports resulted in a price spike in Indonesia this year, according to the FAO. Ukraine and Russia imposed export restrictions on wheat, causing tight supplies and higher prices for importing countries.

“Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need.” ~From the movie Fight Club

Researchers have found that low self-esteem and materialism are not just a correlation, but also a causal relationship where low self esteem increases materialism, and materialism can also create low self-esteem. They also found that as self esteem increases, materialism decreases. The study primarily focused on how this relationship affects children and adolescents. Researchers found that even a simple gesture to raise self-esteem dramatically decreased materialism, which provides a way to cope with insecurity.  By the time children reach early adolescence, and experience a decline in self-esteem, the stage is set for the use of material possessions as a coping strategy for feelings of low self-worth.

Most of us want more income so we can consume more. Yet as societies become richer, they do not become happier. In fact, the First World has more depression, more alcoholism and more crime than fifty years ago. This paradox is true of Britain, the United States, continental Europe and Japan. Statistically people have more things than they did 50 years ago, but they are actually less happy in several key areas. There is also the considerable cost of what materialism does to the environment. We don’t yet know what final toll that could take in terms of quality of life and overall happiness. What many people don’t understand is that if we want to save the environment then at some level we have to buy and consume less.

The reason people want whatever is currently “hot” is because they believe it will contribute towards their satisfaction and happiness in life. The word “believe” is the key here. People believe that buying more and more things will make them happy, when in fact research has shown time and time again that this simply isn’t the case.

Unhealthy For Dogs? I can only imagine how schizo those dogs must be.

After a $150 initiation fee, and $49.95 in monthly membership fees, and $99.95 in annual maintenance fees—you can rent a dog for $39.95 a day on weekends and $24.95 per day on weekdays. What a steal! So when can I rent a kid? Earlier this year a San Diego-based company started renting man’s best friend for pet lovers who might want to take a dog on a long walk and maybe play a game of fetch, but don’t have the time to own a pet full time. The service caters to people who like dogs but just don’t have the time to take care of them. The customers are happy, but the ASPCA thinks it’s not healthy for the dogs.

Gale Buchwald, senior vice president of the ASPCA Pet Adoption Center and Mobile Clinic Program, said it  violates the human-animal bond. She said dogs that don’t form a strong bond with one family often end up becoming aloof and self destructive. Here’s an alternative: Volunteer to walk dogs every weekend for the local no-kill shelter. I doubt they charge for the privelage of playing with the puppies.

But Al Gore for President isn’t likely 

Awareness of global warming may rise after the Nobel Peace Prize awarded Friday to former Vice President Al Gore and a United Nations science panel for their work on the issue. Mr. Gore won’t likely take the one action that could immediately alter the political dynamic at home — entering the 2008 presidential race. Still, the award will likely put pressure on presidential hopefuls from the Democratic and Republican parties to address the issue. The prize isn’t expected to do much to remove political barriers to action in the U.S. or overseas, and Gore likely won’t enter the presidential race.

You can’t kill an electric car you can’t catch

Tesla Motors is a car company that’s both decades ahead of its time, and a year behind schedule. Soon, it will become clear which is more important to Tesla’s long-term future, and the future of the disruptive ideas the company represents. For those who somehow missed the blizzard of publicity that has swirled around this company for the past 18 months or so, Tesla (www.teslamotors.com) is a Silicon Valley start-up, bankrolled by some of the same people who brought you the Internet boom of the late 1990s. The company’s stated ambition is to develop over the next several years a full array of electric cars. Many influential leaders of Silicon Valley’s “clean tech” green-technology movement see Tesla as an icon of the broader effort to make big money by unshackling the U.S. economy from petroleum.

Tesla’s first model will be a $98,000 electric roadster, developed around the architecture of a Lotus Elise, that uses 6,831 lithium-ion batteries similar to those used in laptop computers, a patented electric-motor system, and a highly sophisticated package of controllers and software to deliver an exotically attractive car that zaps from standstill to 60 miles per hour in under four seconds and can travel up to 245 miles on a single charge. Tesla isn’t planning any traditional advertising, but if it did, one slogan could be: “You can’t kill an electric car you can’t catch.”

Tesla recently told potential customers that it can no longer guarantee delivery of 2008 models. Newcomers to the waiting list might well get 2009s. Tesla’s Big Idea was to start with an electric car that appeals to the id, not the superego. From the start, co-founder Martin Eberhard says he wanted a car that could outrun a Porsche in a 0-60 trial, and would go 250 miles on a charge. The production Roadster will hit the under four-second target for the 0-60 dash, and will get very close to the original goal on range.

Tesla so far has raised $105 million from venture-capital firms and Chairman Elon Musk, the PayPal founder who was a ground floor investor. That’s a lot for a tech startup, but it’s chump change in the auto industry, where car programs with century-old, conventional technology can easily cost $500 million to $1 billion.

How did they pick the name Tesla? Tesla is named for Nikola Tesla, the godfather of alternating current and radio who nonetheless died poor, in part because his weirdness wound up obscuring his genius. In recent years, Tesla has become a patron saint of Silicon Valley.

Green Investments Getting Greener

Green not greed is good these days, especially if you’re rich and want to be seen to care. Some clients are increasingly seeking environmentally friendly investments and ways to minimize their impact on the environment. There’s more interest to participate not just because of wanting to be green but also there are opportunities as the world starts focusing on climatic change and starts focusing on alternative energy sources because there will be companies that will benefit from that because governments will have to spend money to get things done.

Wealth managers help rich customers — typically those with assets of $5 million or more — manage their fortunes and their services include investment advice, estate planning and various other tailored services. The most common way that the wealthy participate is by investing part of their assets in clean energy or sustainable businesses. Al Gore, the former U.S. vice president who has pushed for greater awareness of environment issues, is involved in running a fund that seeks to invest in clean energy and environment-friendly businesses, while aiming for high investment returns. It’s these kinds of funds where the rich seek to put their assets.

Philanthropy is also an area where the rich are shifting their attention, as wealth managers are already becoming more involved in how their clients give to charities. Carlson says that the rich are likely the pioneers, as they are willing to spend money at the early stage of a product or technology before its becomes more affordable for the masses, drawing an analogy with the early use of mobile phones by the wealthy.

Abandoned Power Plants Come Back To Life

The nuclear power industry is trying to come back. With natural gas prices volatile and people anxious about climate change, the nuclear power industry is touting its technology as a way to meet the nation’s growing energy needs without emitting more greenhouse gases. Over the next two years, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission expects applications to build as many as 32 new nuclear reactors. Uh… Yikes?

Utilities and independent power companies are laying the groundwork for a new wave of U.S. nuclear plants. On Sept. 24, NRG Energy filed the first full application for a new nuclear unit since the partial meltdown of Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island plant in 1979. There is still a lot of worry about the economics of nuclear power. Nuclear plants are hugely expensive to build; they have long lead times and a history of cost overruns. Bottlenecks loom for key components if more than a few plants are built. The price of uranium has soared in recent years. So has the cost of construction materials and skilled labor, which is in short supply. Politicians, environmentalists and business still can’t decide how to dispose of radioactive waste. Well, there’s outer space!

I don’t want to get run over by a quiet car

Gas-electric hybrid vehicles, the status symbol for the environmentally conscientious, are coming under attack from the blind. Because hybrids make virtually no noise at slower speeds when they run solely on electric power, blind people say they pose a hazard to those who rely on their ears to determine whether it’s safe to cross the street or walk through a parking lot.“I hadn’t imagined there was anything I really wouldn’t be able to hear,” said Deborah Kent Stein, chairwoman of the National Federation of the Blind’s Committee on Automotive and Pedestrian Safety. “We did a test, and I discovered, to my great dismay, that I couldn’t hear it.”

The tests (admittedly unscientific) involved people standing in parking lots or on sidewalks who were asked to signal when they heard several different hybrid models drive by. “People were making comments like, ‘When are they going to start the test?‘ And it would turn out that the vehicle had already done two or three laps around the parking lot,” Stein said.

National Federation of the Blind President Marc Maurer was quick to point out that they’re not advocating a return to gas guzzlers. They’d just like the fuel-efficient hybrids to make some noise. “I don’t want to get run over by a quiet car,” Maurer said. Manufacturers are aware of the problem but have made no pledges yet. Toyota is studying the issue internally. The Association of International Auto Manufacturers and the Society of Automotive Engineers are considering the possibility of setting a minimum noise level standard for hybrid vehicles.

A Bright Spot in California’s Real Estate Market

Solar-powered homes are starting to outsell traditionally electrified new homes in several markets, and developers are stepping up their use of the technology. The growing popularity of household solar power is an encouraging sign for the thousands of solar enthusiasts and vendors gathering in Long Beach this week.

“The increase in sales velocity is actually paying for the solar systems,” says Julie Blumden, a vice president of a San Jose-based manufacturer of solar roof tiles. “The last time we saw interest in solar that was anything close to this was back in the 1980s, the first time there were federal tax credits for solar energy,” said Julia Judd Hamm, executive director of the Solar Electric Power Assn. “But the numbers then aren’t even comparable to what we’re seeing now.” Solar power is hotter than ever, helped by California’s ambitious Million Solar Roofs rebate program, federal tax credits and growing public and political support for renewable power of all kinds.

Your Purchasing Limit Of Balloons: 10

The worldwide helium demand is outpacing supply, and any interruption in production and delivery can throw the market off balance. Helium plants expected to be fully operating this year in Qatar and Algeria were delayed and, in some cases, shut down. In September of last year, Exxon Mobil Corp., one of the nation’s largest private producers of helium, shut down a plant in Wyoming for scheduled maintenance. Two months later, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management — which operates the Federal Helium Reserve near Amarillo, Texas, and provides crude helium to private refineries — did the same with its helium enrichment plant.

A Little Helium History: Helium, the most stable of all the elements, is used to cool the magnets used by MRI equipment and purge the space shuttle’s fuel tanks. Helium also is used in detecting gas leaks in other products and conducting state-of-the-art particle physics research. The gas even has a hand in the semiconductor and computer chip manufacturing process and plays a role in the guiding mechanisms of air-to-air missiles. The federal reserve has become a major world supplier, but that was not the government’s intention. When private demand outstripped the federal need, Congress passed the 1996 Helium Privatization Act, and the reserve was intended to supplement private sector production. The program, however, now supplies about 42% of the domestic demand for helium and 35% of the global demand. Picture Above: Balloon Man: A petrol station owner filled 105 balloons with helium, attached them to his favorite lawn chair, then sat back and drifted away.

Pass This On To Your Spouse, Friends, Whoever Makes Household Decisions

• Switch your incandescent bulbs for compact florescent light bulbs. It can save you 50% a year on your lighting bill. If every household in the country did this, it would cut the same amount of greenhouse gas as removing 8 million cars a year from the road.
• Buy local produce. Shipping produce can drive up prices. Buying foods in season from local farmer’s markets and roadside stands not only improves quality, but cuts cost. Go to LocalHarvest.org to find a market in your area. Helps keep gas-guzzling trucks off the road.
• Install a programmable thermostat. Homeowners can save more than $100 a year on their energy bills by installing a programmable thermostat. If 1 out of every 10 U.S. households used programmable thermostats, it would eliminate 17 billion pounds of greenhouse gases.
• Choose Energy Star appliances. Energy Star appliances use up to 50% less energy compared with other home appliances. Using them saved American consumers $14 billion on their utility bills last year. Last year the use of energy-efficient appliances cut greenhouse gas emissions as much as removing 25 million cars from the road.
• Pay bills online. Other than those $0.41 cent stamps adding up, some companies are starting to charge additional fees for processing paper bills ranging from $0.99 to $2. Paying online allows you to bypass these fees and minimizes the chance of identity theft. Not only does it eliminate clutter, you can also save trees!

Start making a stand to protect your earth and wallet.