For the past few weeks I’ve been listening to the audio book of Thomas L. Friedman’s Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution–and How It Can Renew America. Sometimes it’s hard to write a review after “listening” to a book because I can’t refer back to the brightly colored stickies I usually place on the parts that I liked. However, considering the topic of this book, I was starting to feel bad about the great numbers of stickies I normally use while doing book reviews.
Still, I realize that this is minimal waste (and I do reuse them when I can), as one of the main themes of the book is that the environmental crisis we are facing is so huge that reducing our own individual carbon footprint is but a drop in the bucket. Sure, we should do it, but that alone won’t correct the treacherous path we are headed down.
The book is jam-packed with information; while it’s preachy and clearly takes the liberal path (promoting government-backed solutions), there were some universal themes in there that we all need to know about.
Small disclaimer. I have to admit, while listening to this book, I couldn’t help but think of it as the back story to my two favorite books growing up as a child: The Lorax by Dr. Seuss; and The Wump World by Bill Peet; as well as the more recent children’s movie Wall-E. All are identical in theme, so you can probably tell where I fall on this spectrum, having been inducted into the “save the environment” cause from age 5. Yet, here are some of the concepts from Friedman that struck me as new and different.
Global weirding. As I sit through the wettest and coldest New England summer that I can remember, I agree that “global warming” is not the best term to describe the climate. It’s not necessarily warmer, but the weather is certainly weirder.
The rise of India’s and China’s middle class. Friedman talks about how the rise of two enormous middle classes (this is where the flat and crowded part comes in) is going to have an unprecedented effect on our climate, such that even if all Americans reduced their carbon footprint, it wouldn’t be enough to curtail any climate changes.
The role of TV weatherpeople. I recall hearing about the controversy in December 2006 when Weather Channel personality Dr. Heidi Cullen called for meteorologists to educate themselves and their TV audiences about global warming. The backlash from the global warming skeptics was huge, claiming that meteorologists shouldn’t be political. As Friedman makes clear . . . weather/climate should not be a political issue.
The second point that was made in this section was the disconnect between the hard-core scientific community and the TV personalities. If you are a TV personality, then you can’t be doing serious science. Yet these are the folks who can get America’s attention. Somehow these two groups have to find common ground.
Detroit. Friedman trots out the story of Detroit’s excuse for making the Hummer. They claimed that this is what Americans wanted, so they gave it to them. Just because a few people want something doesn’t mean it’s a good thing . . . not to mention that if people never knew they could have it, would they really want it?
This story always makes me cringe because the right to oversize SUVs seems to be ingrained in our society. For example, I recently had a conversation about Hummers with a very good friend who is a tutor. He made a comment about how one of his students needed a Hummer because she attended Colgate University in upstate NY and the snow is really bad. It only took him a few seconds to see the humor in the situation as I reminded him that once upon a time I, too, went to Colgate University, and my Honda Civic–the very same one that was nearly totaled by a deer while visiting him at Princeton 20 years ago–worked just fine (although I did have to toss a couple of sandbags in the back). That Honda Civic and I even managed to chauffeur Joe Biden around campus one dark and snowy night . . . another story worth telling someday.
So, what’s the takeaway from all these points?
- We have a problem too big for individual efforts or possibly even the government to resolve.
- We need entrepreneurs (i.e. people who think differently) to help come up with some sort of solution.
- We need to sit the entrepreneurs down in a room with the scientists and some marketing folks.
This is a huge project. But it’s possible. For example, some very smart people in New Orleans realized that the government wasn’t coming to fix things, so they put out the call to entrepreneurs. Groups such as www.ideavillage.com are still there trying to attract and empower entrepreneurs in NOLA. We need something like that on a global scale that centers around our climate.
The Top Shelf Bottom Line: Friedman is very good at boiling down complex ideas so all of us can understand them. Like The World is Flat, it’s a concept book with a lot of examples and illustrations. I actually like that, as some of these stuck with me, and some of them didn’t. Worth wading through for entrepreneurs because this is a problem that needs an entrepreneurial solution.
But now, says the Once-ler,
Now that you’re here,
the word of the Lorax seems perfectly clear.
UNLESS someone like you
cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better.
It’s not.
– Dr. Suess, The Lorax, 1971.
7 Responses to “Hot, Flat and Crowded: What Would the Lorax Say?”
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August 3rd, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Thanks for the review! I also read Hot, Flat and Crowded and I thought Friedman’s main point, that a ‘Green Revolution’ is good for America, business AND the world was an important one. Too often, we think in terms of tradeoffs – we can either have a strong economy OR a clean environment. Friedman helps to reframe the conversation and show how and why we can have it all. He argues that investments in clean technologies will make America stronger, enable American entrepreneurs and businesses to thrive AND create a cleaner, greener world. It’s refreshing to have a prominent journalist propose a solution in which everyone can win.
August 3rd, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Diane,
I will have to read this new book from Thomas Friedman as I have read his others. His book the World is Flat was very good and explained in layman terms economics. The World is Flat is now required reading in college economics classes and was required reading for AP Economics at St. Johns Prep. Thanks for the review
Doreen Blades
President
http://www.funlovingpets.com
August 3rd, 2009 at 7:46 pm
Dave. Amen to a win-win. Let’s leave the politics out of it and get on with it.
August 6th, 2009 at 4:39 am
I drove a (new) Volkswagen Beetle at Colgate and never had any real problems. I’m not sure that a Hummer would actually be any better – one snowy day two girls came into class late with the excuse that their Cadillac Escalade “doesn’t handle snow well” so they almost drove off the hill on the way up to class.
August 6th, 2009 at 4:48 am
Lydia-That is so funny! I’m a VW gal myself now. Thanks for sharing.
August 8th, 2009 at 2:08 am
Hi, great blog!
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September 1st, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Steve Noel Sr….
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