Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America by Thomas L. Friedman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Whew, this was a monumental read. So much data to absorb, I took my time and took a couple breaks with other books to let the message soak in.
This is definitely a worthwhile read to understand all sides of the climate/energy dilemma that is facing our generation. I'm sure many conservatives will and have worked hard to debunk the ideas and theories in the book related to climate change, but the key message of the book is not necessarily to push Al Gore's agenda. The key message is that if the U.S. doesn't start funding and investing in clean energy, we will be left behind economically because that is the next big economic revolution. In order to keep our socio-economic way of life, we must become the climate/energy leaders.
While I agree with the premise and can see that Mr. Friedman is right in his assessment, I feel much more could happen to move the U.S. (and the world) toward a better future if we weren't worried so much about the American way of life and spent much less money on crap that doesn't matter. (Do you really need 3D-HD?) Recalibrating our mindset to one of contentment would allow us to focus more on the important issues of the environment, food insecurity and the least of these. If I put my own philosophy aside though, "Hot, Flat and Crowded" does highlight a viable path to at least not making food insecurity and poverty worse by reducing the effects of serious global climate change.
If the U.S. continues on it's path of sticking it's head in the sand on energy and climate issues, yes, we will likely fall behind and become less of a force in the world and without us in the lead, the effects of our bad environmental habits may reach the tipping point. However, if the world doesn't wake up and realize that the American way of more and more stuff is a path to destruction aside from climate and energy, it really won't matter how uninhabitable the earth becomes. Extreme poverty and food insecurity will erupt into wars that will become global and deadly long before that happens.
simply,
Tim
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