Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas Friedman

Release date: 2008 / 415 pages

Synopsis (from back cover): “New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas L. Friedman addresses the red hot topic of global climate change. Here, he proposes a national plan for going green that will not only benefit the earth, but also make America’s economy stronger and its borders more secure.”

Review: Having read Friedman’s The World is Flat, I should have been anxious to read Hot, Flat, and Crowded.  However, I must admit that I was reluctant. 

First, when it comes to the environment, I believe that I get it.  I am not one of the few remaining “ostriches” who insist on keeping their heads in the sand — writing off our current environmental crisis as a left-wing hoax in a refusal to change lifestyle habits.  I’m trying lessen my carbon footprint — I drive a hybrid, have replaced conventional lightbulbs with CFLs, use environmentally safe cleansing products, eat low on the food chain as a vegetarian, and shlep my own cloth bags to the grocery store.  I’m always looking for new ways to tread softer upon the earth and wasn’t sure I could handle 400 plus pages directed toward those who choose not to — whether due to ignorance or selfishness.

Second, the sheer length of Friedman’s latest was daunting. Seriously.  However, I eventually decided to comprimise and request it on CD.  17 discs and 21 hours later, I am so glad I invested the time.

First of all, I quickly realized that I really hadn’t understood just how frightening our environmental crisis is.  “Petrol Dictators” had never crossed my mind, although it should have.  I’m not sure where I thought our oil dollars were specifically going, but now I know we are not only dependent on, but directly funding governments whose values we oppose.  Every mile we drive, we make it easier for our enemies to destroy us.

Second, to my great surprise, I actually feel much more optimistic about our future.  Friedman knows Americans, so he frames our need in terms of market dominance and economic growth.  He does not try to convince us to do the moral and ethical right thing simply because we should — he knows that just won’t cut it for most Americans, unfortunately.

Instead, he explains the monetary advantage of becoming leaders of Green Technology.  And then he presents innovation after innovation — many, many ways to dominate the Green market.  His mantra is “innovation, not regulation” (obviously placating the conservatives) and suggests many interesting and exciting ways for us to move from “fuels from Hell” (coal, oil, gas, and other dirty, finite fuels that cannot be renewed and, by the way, destroy the environment) to “fuels from Heaven” (wind, water, sun — renewable, clean fuels).

What I particularly loved about his ideas was that they actually would save money for those of us who “get it” — and would require the ostriches to pay for their inability to wake up and do the right thing.  So, future generations would no longer be dependent on those who choose to be “dumb as they want to be” and ignore the ever-mounting evidence of “global weirding.”

It was embarrassing to hear just how far behind we are already — behind Europe, behind Japan, even behind China — with regard to Green technology, but as I flew home from Chicago recently, I noticed the man across the aisle reading Hot, Flat, and Crowded and couldn’t help but hope…  As Clinton recently said on Letterman, “Americans, after trying everything else, eventually do the right thing.”  Here’s to hoping!

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