An Important Book That Will Be Lost in The Shuffle

Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution - and How It Can Renew America - Thomas L. Friedman

Originally published in hardcover in 2008 - Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Click me!

I thought I would have questions about a journalist's ability to effectively write on the subject of sustainability (given that he cut his teeth on the Middle East) -- but that presupposition proved false. I thought perhaps Friedman's attempt would get bogged down by anecdote, too encumbered with trying to prove his point -- but here too he did not fail. And yet in the end I fear the warning bell he wishes to ring will not be heard by enough... or rather will not move enough of us, create enough inertia, to be meaningful. Oddly enough I dont blame Friedman or his book though. I'm not sure what the call to action would take on this topic. 


There is a lot of meat in this book within which to sink your teeth... a lot to discuss (as I did in a book group) and a lot to make you think, especially about our impact on Earth both as humans and as Americans. 


One of the most interesting tidbits for me, though not mentioned once by Mr Friedman, is the choice (his?) of Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights on the cover. Fascinating pick given the subject matter.


Amazon description - Thomas L. Friedman’s no. 1 bestseller The World Is Flat has helped millions of readers to see globalization in a new way. Now Friedman brings a fresh outlook to the crises of destabilizing climate change and rising competition for energy—both of which could poison our world if we do not act quickly and collectively. His argument speaks to all of us who are concerned about the state of America in the global future. 


Friedman proposes that an ambitious national strategy— which he calls “Geo-Greenism”—is not only what we need to save the planet from overheating; it is what we need to make America healthier, richer, more innovative, more productive, and more secure. 


As in The World Is Flat, he explains a new era—the Energy-Climate era—through an illuminating account of recent events. He shows how 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the flattening of the world by the Internet (which brought 3 billion new consumers onto the world stage) have combined to bring climate and energy issues to Main Street. But they have not gone very far down Main Street; the much-touted “green revolution” has hardly begun. With all that in mind, Friedman sets out the clean-technology breakthroughs we, and the world, will need; he shows that the ET (Energy Technology) revolution will be both transformative and disruptive; and he explains why America must lead this revolution—with the first Green President and a Green New Deal, spurred by the Greenest Generation. 


Hot, Flat, and Crowded is classic Thomas L. Friedman—fearless, incisive, forward-looking, and rich in surprising common sense about the world we live in today.