Hot,+Flat,+And+Crowded

Thomas Friedman: Hot, Flat, and Crowded

The title of Friedman’s novel Hot, Flat, and Crowded, is based off of the fact that the world is getting hotter, flatter, and more crowded. He claims that due to our need for fossil fuels, and poor standards for energy we have set off a global trend of industrialization, that is destroying the world’s climate. The world is becoming flatter, people all around the globe has more access to the global market, a person in America can buy a product from China in the comfort of their own home. The world is also becoming much more crowded than ever before, with a population projected at 9 billion by 2050. Friedman calls for an immediate revolution of our lives, and how we deal with energy as Americans, because of our frivolous waste of energy, and poor standards, we have set a stage for many other nations who’s people want to live like us, and who’s leaders take advantage of our addiction to fossil fuels. Friedman calls them petro-dictators, and petro-politics, dictators who come to power by use of oil, or who run a country according to the demand for oil. Friedman’s novel is divided into four parts, “Where We Are”, “How We Got There”, “How We Move Forward”, and “China”. Where We Are: Where we are, is a country with an addiction to foreign oil, and energy, with no resolve to become greener and more efficient. Friedman claims that due to poor governmental policies in the early 80's and 90's, we as a country have slack standards now. Big name auto industries lobbied against the sort of legislation that would require them to make more costly vehicles that received better gas milage. Where during the same time Japan, and some European nations had the same standards in the 90's that we plan to achieve by 2020. As a result of our poor standards and the auto industries aid, Americans have become accustomed to a mentality that it is easier to pay for poor energy, than to fund newer greener energies, so why not wait until we “have” to change our methods of powering out nation. Friedman makes the claim that this “we’ll get around to it when we get around to it” idea is stalling America from being the greenest country in the world, because no one has the ambition or the will to make our energy greener. Instead we let petro-dictators walk over us with oil supplies, and charges, because its easier than attempting to change things. How We Got There: Friedman starts the section by blaming our “carbon copies”, that is the people who embrace America’s idea of frivolous energy consumption, and Americans themselves, who for the most part consume energy with the “we’ll get around to it when we get around to it” mentality. He also claims that the supply and demand of energy is a large part of the world’s problem. Many of the countries with the ability to export energy that we as Americans use do not agree with American ideals, making it increasingly harder to maintain a consistent trade, and we in turn are trading with countries whom we do not see eye to eye with. Some countries that have come to power are becoming energy consumption powerhouses as well, such as Dalian, China, and Doha, Qatar, with many more countries and cities Friedman believes will follow suite. Friedman lays the blame at America’s feet, because for all of her history, America has been a source of invention and innovation, however seems to lag behind when it comes to greener energies, which in turn sets a poor bar for the rest of the world. In his book, Friedman quotes a young Chinese man as saying “You Americans got to grow dirty for 150 years. Now it’s our turn” (240-241). Friedman states that if America makes steps towards finding greener energies, and becoming a greener nation, others will follow, and we as a society would have more of an incentive to take care of the world and the dire climate situation. How We Move Forward: Friedman opens part three with a chapter entitled “205 Easy Ways To Save The Earth”, his way of saying that it isn’t just that easy, and we shouldn’t expect it to be. He calls for a real revolution, a complete change in the way we use our energy, and where we get it from, he says “people have to give up stuff...they have to make sacrifices” (209). He sums up the idea that we need this revolution, and we need to find some solutions with his chapter entitles “The Stone Age Didn’t End Because We Ran Out of Stones”, meaning that its not because we are out of fossil fuels at the moment, but rather because something better lays beyond them, and we should be looking for that solution, rather than sticking with our barbaric forms of energy. Friedman believes that we should be looking for ways to endorse a greener America, and he views the internet as a place of endless possibilities. The idea of an “Energy Internet”, something that could handle all of the things that a greener society would need from a technological stand point, smarter power grids, and a way to push new ideas and innovations around the world. He claims that these places already exist, in basements and garages of people who want to make the world better. In his chapter “A Million Noahs, A Million Arks”, Friedman says that all conservation is local, and that these people need to work together as “coalitions on the ground bound together by an interlocking wed of self-interests...”(309). China: In this section of the book, Friedman gives praise to the Chinese for their ability to get the things that need to be done, done. He cites a mandate that forced all of the plastic bags to be removed from department stores, and supermarkets in less than a year. He says that in the most ideal of situations being able to be China for a day, would enable us to make the necessary changes by cutting through the red tape, and circumvent the lobbyists that hold up changes and actually give the government the ability to get those changes made. He closes his novel with “We are the first generation of Americans in the Energy-Climate Era” (412), green is no longer about saving animals or plants, it should come to every person as a necessity to save our selves from our self destructive habits and clean up the world we’re living in. All in all, I felt that Friedman’s book makes a convincing point as to why it is indeed necessary for everyone to actually take part in solving the mess we have put ourselves in. It doesn’t have to be isolated events or innovations, but a collective work as a whole society in order to better and change ourselves so we can over come a world that is becoming hot, flat, and crowded. If we continue with our current mentality and habits, we will lose precious time to solve the problem, while the solutions that could better our future sit at our feet. We just have to reach out and take the steps towards making the kind of changes that would allow us to become a greener and cleaner society. Friedman calls for a revolution, and says that it won’t be easy, however breaking habits never is, and its time for society to take responsibility for its actions. Matthew “Carnage” Pimenta is also my hero.