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Hot, Flat, and Crowded 2.0: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America |  | Author: Thomas L. Friedman
Publisher: Picador
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
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Rating:  19 reviews
Media: Paperback
Edition: Exp Upd
Pages: 528
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 1.1
ISBN: 0312428928
Dewey Decimal Number: 320.58
EAN: 9780312428921
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Product Description
A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year
A Washington Post Best Book of the Year
A Businessweek Best Business Book of the Year
A Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year
In this brilliant, essential book, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Thomas L. Friedman speaks to America's urgent need for national renewal and explains how a green revolution can bring about both a sustainable environment and a sustainable America. Friedman explains how global warming, rapidly growing populations, and the expansion of the world’s middle class through globalization have produced a dangerously unstable planet--one that is "hot, flat, and crowded." In this Release 2.0 edition, he also shows how the very habits that led us to ravage the natural world led to the meltdown of the financial markets and the Great Recession. The challenge of a sustainable way of life presents the United States with an opportunity not only to rebuild its economy, but to lead the world in radically innovating toward cleaner energy. And it could inspire Americans to something we haven't seen in a long time--nation-building in America--by summoning the intelligence, creativity, and concern for the common good that are our greatest national resources. Hot, Flat, and Crowded is classic Thomas L. Friedman: fearless, incisive, forward-looking, and rich in surprising common sense about the challenge--and the promise--of the future. Thomas L. Friedman, a world-renowned author and journalist, joined The New York Times in 1981 as a financial reporter specializing in OPEC- and oil-related news and later served as the chief diplomatic, chief White House, and international economics correspondents. A three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, he has traveled hundreds of thousands of miles reporting the Middle East conflict, the end of the cold war, U.S. domestic politics and foreign policy, international economics, and the worldwide impact of the terrorist threat. His foreign affairs column, which appears twice a week in the Times, is syndicated to seven hundred other newspapers worldwide.Friedman is the author of From Beirut to Jerusalem, which won both the National Book Award and the Overseas Press Club Award in 1989 and was on the New York Times bestseller list for nearly twelve months. From Beirut to Jerusalem has been published in more than twenty-seven languages, including Chinese and Japanese, and is now used as a basic textbook on the Middle East in many high schools and universities. Friedman also wrote The Lexus and the Olive Tree, one of the best selling business books in 1999, and the winner of the 2000 Overseas Press Club Award for best nonfiction book on foreign policy. It is now available in twenty languages. Another of his books, Longitudes and Attitudes: Exploring the World After September 11, consists of columns Friedman published about September 11 as well as a diary of his private experiences and reflections during his reporting on the post-September world as he traveled from Afghanistan to Israel to Europe to Indonesia to Saudi Arabia. In 2005, The World Is Flat was given the first Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award, and Friedman was named one of America's Best Leaders by U.S. News & World Report.Friedman graduated summa cum laude from Brandeis University with a degree in Mediterranean studies and received a master's degree in modern Middle East studies from Oxford. He has served as a visiting professor at Harvard University and has been awarded honorary degrees from several U.S. universities. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with his wife, Ann, and their two daughters. A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year
A Business Week Best Business Book of the Year
A Christian Science Monitor Best Book of the Year
A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Best Book of the Year
A Booklist Editors’ Choice Best Book of the Year
Finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize
Thomas L. Friedman’s number-one bestseller The World Is Flat has helped millions of readers to see the world in a new way. In Hot, Flat, and Crowded, Friedman takes a fresh and provocative look at two of the biggest challenges we face today: America’s surprising loss of focus and national purpose since 9/11; and the global environmental crisis, which is affecting everything from food to fuel to forests. In this groundbreaking account of where the country stands in 2008, he shows how the solutions to these two big problems are linked—how Americans can restore the world and revive America at the same time.
Friedman explains how global warming, rapidly growing populations, and the astonishing expansion of the world’s middle class through globalization have produced a planet that is “hot, flat, and crowded.” In this Release 2.0 edition, he also shows how the very habits that led us to ravage the natural world led to the meltdown of the financial markets and the Great Recession. The challenge of a sustainable way of life presents the United States with an opportunity not only to rebuild its economy, but to lead the world in radically innovating toward cleaner energy. And it could inspire Americans to something we haven't seen in a long time—nation-building—by summoning the intelligence, creativity, and concern for the common good that are our greatest national resources.
In vivid, entertaining chapters, Friedman makes it clear that the green revolution the world needs is like no revolution before. It will be the biggest innovation project in American history; it will be hard, not easy; and it will change everything from what you put into your car to what you see on your electric bill. This is a great challenge, Friedman explains, but also a great opportunity, and one that America cannot afford to miss. Not only is American leadership the key to the healing of the earth; it is also our best strategy for the renewal of America.
Hot, Flat, and Crowded is classic Thomas L. Friedman: fearless, incisive, forward-looking, and rich in surprising common sense about the challenge—and the promise—of the future. "When the Soviet Union chucked Sputnik into space in 1957, it galvanized America to come from behind and win the space race. The federal government opened its checkbook to finance an array of projects. Students shifted to new subjects like astronautical engineering and Russian studies to help the United States understand and eclipse the Soviet Union. The moon shot inspired a patriotic nation and produced useful commercial technologies along the way. The space race was expensive, but it worked. Thomas L. Friedman’s latest book is a plea for a new Sputnik moment. His breezy tour of America’s energy policy documents a nation that has become dangerously dependent on fossil fuels . . . Mr. Friedman’s voice is compelling and will be widely heard . . . Mr. Friedman’s strength is his diagnosis of our energy and environmental nightmares . . . The most intriguing chapter in Mr. Friedman’s book is his last, which poses the toughest challenge. Can America be like China, where a visionary government can impose a new direction on the country in the face of national emergency? Or will America devolve into a country that is so mired in red tape and local opposition that it builds absolutely nothing anywhere, near anything? Societies like that get stuck because they can’t embrace new technologies, like the cherished wind turbines and the power lines needed to carry their current . . . Heads will be nodding across airport lounges, as readers absorb Mr. Friedman’s common sense about how America and the world are dangerously addicted to cheap fossil fuels while we recklessly use the atmosphere as a dumping ground for carbon dioxide. The Sputnik is heading into orbit, thanks to high energy prices, growing fear of the changing climate and pleas like Mr. Friedman’s. But whether we as a nation—and with us, the world—are really prepared to do anything to solve the problem is still in doubt."—David Victor, The New York Times "When the Soviet Union chucked Sputnik into space in 1957, it galvanized America to come from behind and win the space race. The federal government opened its checkbook to finance an array of projects. Students shifted to new subjects like astronautical engineering and Russian studies to help the United States understand and eclipse the Soviet Union. The moon shot inspired a patriotic nation and produced useful commercial technologies along the way. The space race was expensive, but it worked. Thomas L. Friedman’s latest book is a plea for a new Sputnik moment. His breezy tour of America’s energy policy documents a nation that has become dangerously dependent on fossil fuels . . . Mr. Friedman’s voice is compelling and will be widely heard . . . Mr. Friedman’s strength is his diagnosis of our energy and environmental nightmares . . . The most intriguing chapter in Mr. Friedman’s book is his last, which poses the toughest challenge. Can America be like China, where a visionary government can impose a new direction on the country in the face of national emergency? Or will America devolve into a country that is so mired in red tape and local opposition that it builds absolutely nothing anywhere, near anything? Societies like that get stuck because t...
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 19
 Hot Flat and Crowded January 4, 2010
M. Coniff (San Diego, CA USA)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Hot Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman is a timely book that leaves the reader with a fear and at the same time hope for the world we live in. The book tells us about topics such as the US dependency on oil, and how some people believe that Global warming is a myth created to slow down China's industry, and how today we live in a world where the same job can be done by someone living in India just as well if not better than someone in the US. Friedman's book goes in depth into three related topics, which are the world's current state of being Hot (global warming), Flat (Internet leveling the playing field) and crowded (self explanatory). This book doesn't stop with explaining these issues or with giving examples of each in vivid detail, or with citing evidence to support the accusations but goes on to tell us what we, not only as a country, but as part of the greater community of planet earth must do. This book is exciting. This might be hard to believe given that the topics on the surface might seem terribly dull and bland, but when delved into deeper with more attention to detail, and when given a better understanding (which the book provides) these issues and topics become so much more than just a bunch of dull economic situations. As a sixteen year old high school student I cannot stress how strongly I believe that this book should be read by every single person in America of high school age or older. For a youth like myself this book served as an eye opener to what our world's situation is and how my generation needs to be the generation that makes the necessary changes. For older readers like my parents this book serves the purpose of encouraging them to elect strong and innovative leaders and for they themselves to start on the process of adjusting their lifestyles. To all readers; young, middle aged, and elderly, this book tells us that just because there is no attack on Pearl Harbor or missiles aimed at us from Cuba there is still a very real threat. The threat is not communism or Nazi aggression but an aggressively growing world wide middle class that when combined with our fossil fuel dependence creating global warming we have a combustible situation.
A utopian view of our future February 12, 2010
Dirk J. Willard (Chicago, IL)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Tom Friedman presents a refreshing, journalist's review of the new possibilities for the so-called green revolution. The author examines several good ideas for substainability and a few poor ones.
Take Cap-and Trade. Jim Hansen, NASA climatologist, describes it as a "Temple of Doom" for life on our planet. Friedman brings up the European example as a failure of the program:
"The case in point is the European experience: they spent $50 billion on carbon trading, their CO2 emissions actually increased, and the largest payment went to a German coal-burning utility!"
Friedman offers a counter-suggestion: carbon tax:
" But the whole point of a cap-and-trade regime is to disguise any pain and pretend that we aren't even imposing a tax. To my ear, it is like trying to desegrated the University of Mississippi, Ole Miss, in 1962 by letting James Meredith go to night school."
"Some argue that a carbon tax would handicap the American economy by making our exports more expensive and less competitive. He make note that countries like Denmark and Norway have imposed a CO2 tax for many years. "Denmark today is the world's leading exporter of wind turbines and has 4% unemployment --in part because the way it has taxed energy has helped stimulate a whole new clean-tech industry there."
The author presents case studies of successful programs the United States has already implemented. He recalls the Porter hypothesis, "appropriately planned environmental regulations will stimulate technological innovation, leading to reductions in expenses and improvements in quality." In 2004, the EPA introduced new Tier II standards on diesel engines for nitrogen oxide.
GE was forced to produce diesel locomotives to meet these new standards. Rather than strap on improvements to existing models, an approach the Big Three automakers did poorly in the 1970s to improve milage, GE's approach was different, better. They invented a new locomotive from the wheels up. Even China buys its locomotives from GE's Erie, PA plant. The new engine produces the same horsepower with twelve cylinders as the old one did with sixteen cylinders. "Best of all is that these locomotives are reliable. "They don't stop on the tracks," says John Dineen, GE's Transportation president and CEO. The Germans and Chinese are buying these locomotives as fast as Erie can make them.
The author overlooks the changes needed in corporate structure. GE is a nimble conglomerate that seeks talent and promotes sucess and takes risks. Could you see BP or GM taking those kind of risks. Not in our current view of the corporation!
There are some journalistic failures though. Friedman touts the success of California in cutting greenhouse gases by half . Certainly, California is to be commended for setting the mark high for efficiency standards affecting cars, refrigerators and air conditioners. However, this was at a price. I lived in California during this time. I defy him to show how California decreased emissions without the loss of industrial jobs.
This is the failure of this book. Tom Friedman is an optimist. Late in the book he shrugs and admits that America must reform its political system before it can compete with China and Europe. He waxes poetically, "Why can't America be China for just one day?" But, he does not give any insight into how we may reform our politics. It's a shame the author spent so much time with CEO and other executives instead of engineers. We've seen our jobs go overseas. It is hard expect engineers in the present political framework to challenge corporate authority who promote globalization and the quarterly view. We engineers can't invent our way out of our troubles, certainly not alone.
No, the lessons of this book are: America is still the land of great possibilities but not without changing things from the bottom up.
If this review was helpful, please add your vote.
Just the Facts Jack April 5, 2010
Derek (Northern Virginia)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
As a military veteran I see a lot of detailed information in this book relating to America becoming Energy Independent and improving our National Security. The reviewers who gave this book negative reviews or said it's just a bunch of opinions sound more supportive of the Oil and Coal industries than in Americas energy and economic independence.
Fact ~ Marine Major General Richard C. Zilmer requested support in saving his marines based in Iraq from getting killed and maimed by IED's and snipers while transporting Oil for his unit. The solution was combining Energy Efficiency, Insulation, Wind and Solar renewable energy technologies. Fact ~ this saved lives of US troops in the field.
Fact ~ the US imports and uses Billions of gallons of Oil from the Middle East annually, and a lot of our money goes towards funding Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups seeking to kill US troops and citizens. Reducing our reliance on Middle Eastern Oil through improved mileage standards, taxes on imported Oil, and investing in home production of Biofuels reduces the funding for terrorist organizations.
Fact ~ the US can produce its own energy so long as we move away from relying on foreign Oil. We have enough natural resources in Wind, Solar, Geothermal, Hydro, Biomass, Biofuels, Nuclear, and Natural Gas to replace all our Coal fired plants many times over while creating more Jobs and Globally in demand Technologies and Products that we can export. Add to that our massive resources for fresh Water, much of which is currently being wasted and polluted by the livestock industry. China and the Middle East are suffering from Water shortages while we are Rich though some Western states are having their water wasted and polluted by the Livestock industry as well as from Oil and Coal production.
Fact ~ this book lays out clear cut examples and processes for America to become Energy Independent, as well as improve both our Economy and National Security.
An outstanding overview of the energy challenges we face April 15, 2010
Francis Tapon (San Francisco, CA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
OVERVIEW: I'm a libertarian and I expected it to annoy me with its arguments that the government knows best and that the free-market is a failure. I was shocked and pleasantly surprised by his balanced approach.
PROS:
- Extremely well written: lively, flows well, entertaining
- Packed with useful facts and told in a way that is unforgettable
- He nails capitalism's biggest shortcoming: its inability to capture externalities, like pollution. He's absolutely right that we must price those externalities into the cost of dirty energy.
- He's also right that the cap-and-trade system is a wimpy solution which will only happen because the public hates the word "tax."
- He's right that all these problems are not the government's fault, or the politicians, or the big business. It's OUR fault. We the people ask for it. We don't want a carbon tax which triples are dirty energy bill and would make solar/wind more competitive, so politicians don't give put in a carbon tax. We don't want a gas tax that makes gas $10/gallon, so politicians don't give us one. We are the only ones to blame.
CONS:
- He's unconvincing that we need the government to do basic research because the private sector won't do it. Wrong. The next paragraph he will talk about the amazing basic research going on in Bell Labs (a private company). His main argument is better: send a price signal, by taxing carbon, and then businesses, universities, and guys in the garage will do the basic research necessary to take advantage of the business opportunity. We don't need the government to fund the research directly. Just tax what you want us to use less of (coal/oil/gas) and the market will innovate.
- He sometimes exaggerates the environmental problems we face, as if the human race will disappear. Yes, we'll kill off hundreds/thousands of species and screw things up, but we'll change once it becomes less painful to change than not to change.
CONCLUSION
Densely packed with information, yet never boring, this book is my favorite book of the year!
100% On Target June 16, 2010
William LaFleur (Maine)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I loved this book for a couple of reasons. First, it is chock full of factual data. Page after page has quotes from studies or statements by informed people showing that we really are in trouble and need to do something about it. Second I agree totally with his proposed solution. The American free market, when properly guided, can do just about anything. Send the right price signal and we'll change the world.
One anecdote I should relate as well. I was recently in Costa Rica [which itself has a great track record on environmental friendliness] talking to Costa Ricans and few people from India. They were relating how more and more they are becoming "Americanized". Big houses, big cars, the kids play video games, they eat more meat, etc. When I talked about how the idea of billions more Americans could be scary for the planet, they said, "Oh, we know that." Then when I asked why they don't come up with a new way of doing things, they said, "We can't. We want so badly to be like you that the consequences be d--ned. If the world is going to change, you Americans are going to have to lead the way..."
Friedman is 100% on target with this book, I wish I could buy a copy for everyone in the country...
Showing reviews 1-5 of 19
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