“Green is the new red, white and blue.”
Three-time Pulitzer prize winning author Thomas Friedman changed the way we think about globalization with his 2005 best seller The World is Flat. His new book Hot Flat and Crowded: Why We Need an Energy Revolution – and How it can Renew America is poised to help transform the way we think about climate change. Although Friedman clearly outlines the dangers of climate change in the first section of his book, he goes far beyond that to offer a compelling argument for why the United States should take the lead in developing new, efficient, clean sources of energy. He explains that, “Everything America…can do to go green today will make it stronger, healthier, more secure, more innovative, more competitive, and more respected. What could be more patriotic, capitalistic, and geostrategic than that?” (p. 173)
Friedman weaves together hundreds of interviews, examples, and anecdotes from all over the world to help him state his case. His first-hand accounts of deforestation in Brazil and Indonesia lend a chilling urgency to his arguments. I was especially moved by one observation from environmental scientist John Holdren, “The biodiversity of the planet is a unique and uniquely valuable library that we have been steadily burning down – one wing at a time – before we have even cataloged all the books, let alone read them all.” (p.142) After spelling out the vast scope of the problem, Friedman insists that we have both the obligation and the ability to fix it. “Unlike Noah, though, we – our generation and our civilization – are responsible for the flood, and we have the responsibility to build the ark.” (p.141)
Friedman’s driving point in the second half of the book is that making our economy energy-efficient is more than just good for the planet – it’s good for business. Again he uses interviews with business leaders across the world to make his case. Take the example of David Douglas, vice president for eco-responsibility for Sun Microsystems, on the huge sales of their new energy-efficient processing chip called Niagara: “’It’s like there was all this money lying all over the floor, and we finally decided to have our employees reach down and pick it up.’” (p.335) Friedman warns that if we miss this great opportunity, the United States will lose its economic prominence in the world. He gives a chilling example from Rhone Resch, president of the Solar Energy Industries Association, who told him a story about a,”European solar manufacturer was looking to outsource production of his solar panels to America. They would do all the innovation in Europe, he said, but do the blue-collar assembly in America, where the cheap dollar had made everything half price for companies with foreign currency to spend. ‘He told me,’ said Resch, ‘You are the new India.’ It sent a chill down my spine.” (p.380)
What about China? China is one of the worst polluters today, and as Friedman’s predictions in The World is Flat come true and another billion Chinese rise to the middle class over the next few decades, the soaring demand for energy could cause a true climatic disaster. However Friedman gives many encouraging examples of attempts at energy efficiency in China and stresses how critical is it that the United States set an example of the correct path. He states that, “the greatest thing that the US could do today for itself, for China, and the world is to publicly state its intention to ‘outgreen China’ – to let the Chinese know every day in every was that we are going to try to clean their clock in the next great global industry: clean power. Just as we and the Soviets had a space race…that greatly strengthened our own society, from education to infrastructure – we, the European Union, and the Chinese, need to have a similar race today. Only instead of a race to put a man on the moon, it has to be a race to preserve humankind on earth.” (p.365)
I came away from this book not just with an increased sense of urgency to improve energy efficiency in my own life, but also a more global perspective on the business and political factors that will determine whether we as a nation will succeed or fail. Ultimately I am hopeful, as I think is Friedman, that we will meet this great challenge and “renew America.”
