Three years after his best seller, “The World is Flat,” Thomas Friedman returns with another catchy title, “Hot, Flat and Crowded.” His concern for globalization has given way to fears related to the environment. As in his previous book, Friedman does not make any breakthrough revelations: We already know what he is talking about. Friedman’s success lies in the way he tackles his subject. He has a unique technique of using appropriate anecdotes and examples from around the world. With facts, figures and quotes from endless interviews, he has the knack to present complex issues in a clear fashion and, more often than not, gets his readers to share his thoughts and dreams.
In a nutshell, the first part of the book familiarizes us with the energy, climate and biodiversity challenges the world faces and the second part focuses on possible solutions. Friedman enjoys coining expressions. In his previous best seller, he got it absolutely right. Once you have read “The World Is Flat”, you cannot think of a better way to describe the economic effects of globalization. The word, flat, says it all. In this new book, the author introduces several new concepts such as Energy-Climate Era and Code Green.
Friedman is convinced the convergence of global warming, global flattening, and global crowding is the most important dynamic shaping our current world: “My shorthand for this convergence is the title of this book, “Hot, Flat, and Crowded” and my shorthand for the historical epoch this convergence is giving birth to is the Energy-Climate Era.”
As for the expression, Code Green, it means turning America into the world’s leader in developing clean power and energy-efficienct systems and inspiring an ethic of conservation for the endangered natural world.
Friedman agrees with Fareed Zakaria, author of “The Post-American World” that America, since the end of the Cold War, has forgotten its identity and Americans, addicted to consumerism, have become complacent and lazy. Moreover, “The paralysis of the American political system, its inability to tackle any big multigenerational problem anymore, will just very slowly erode our strengths and assets as a society,” says Zakaria.
Friedman readily admits that China has the ability to order drastic reforms and sweeping changes in prices, regulations, standards that would take Western democracies years to discuss, vote on and implement. But he strongly believes that, if America would become the world leader in building clean energy technologies and promoting conservation, it would lead the whole world in that direction. And he is not the only one; he mentions French President Nicolas Sarkozy who wonders what has happened to the American dream and begs the Americans to be a role model and spearhead the battle for the environment. Similarly, Sigmar Gabriel, Germany’s environment minister, declares: “If the Americans are going green, the whole rest of the world is going green.”
In the second part of the book, focused on “How We Move Forward,” we are asked if there exists a political energy to carry out such a mission. In an article published by The Washington Post, Michael Maniates, a professor of political science and environmental science, complains that the greatest environmental problem isn’t about melting ice, the scarcity of natural resources but it is being ruled by leaders who are ignoring environmental issues and lack the vision and authority to set up a green policy system.
These green rules will make us aware of the true cost of climate change and the true cost of biodiversity loss. We have reached a stage when nothing can remain hidden. There are no substitute oceans, no endless forests to cut down. The planet’s savings account is empty and “the days of a sub prime planet are over, a planet we could own for no money down, where there were no interest payments until far into the future and all the true costs were hidden, or chopped up into such little pieces and scattered in so many directions that no one knew who owned what,” warns Friedman.
Besides green legislation, the world also needs a market selling green technology. Environmentally friendly products should be readily available and customers should want to buy them. In order for this to happen, we need inventors to work on commercial breakthroughs with specially allocated private and public funding.
Another way to encourage economic growth, in a world in which natural resources are limited, is to apply the “cradle to cradle” concept whereby we don’t send things to landfills or incinerators, but reuse them over and over. There is no more waste; everything is in a closed cycle. Manufacturers have to make their products out of materials that can either be reused or that are completely biodegradable. The consumer can then buy without feeling guilty: Whatever “cradle to cradle” product he purchases will either return to nature or back to industry where it will be reused. This act of “down cycling” also creates jobs locally.
An inspiring new trend is also developing: Enlightened individuals all around the world are working hard to create sustainable villages. In order to stop the rural poor from cramming themselves into big cities, we have to empower rural people and give them challenging job opportunities.
Friedman introduces us to the village of Ethakota, in Andhra Pradesh, where a successful example of localization is taking place. Satyam, which runs the back office and outsourced operations for global companies, has set up a remote data center, in rural India, enabling villagers to find interesting and well-paid employment. Satyam trained 120 college-educated villagers and employed them to process data for a British magazine publisher and sell services for an Indian phone company.
Thanks to the Internet, people all over the world can connect globally. K.R. Sridhar, the Indian-born co-founder and CEO of Bloom Energy, says “If the rural poor on every continent no longer feel they have to move to cities and take manufacturing jobs or drive taxis or work as maids, because they have the tools and skills to connect globally, they will be able to get the best out of both localization and globalization.”
“Hot, Flat, and Crowded” addresses burning issues. Many books have already been written on the same subject but nothing really has been done to meet the environmental challenges our planet is facing. The world needs strong political resolve and sincere commitment to produce concrete solutions. We can only hope that this book will inspire true leaders to come forward and make the decisions which have already become inevitable.