Finally I am pushing my way through Tom Friedman’s Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution–and How It Can Renew America. If your a fan of his The World Is Flat series you’re in for a fast, real-world update about the state of the environment. Its safe to say our global carbon footprint is ruining the planet.
I was very impressed with his chapter on energy poverty was very well written. Energy is the capacity to do work: 1 in 6 people do not have access to energy. Even in India almost 700,000,000 citizens are not on any energy grid. There has not been a power plant built in over 30 years anywhere across Africa … with the exception of white South Africa. I never really considered Africa’s real problem has been an energy problem all along. Fighting AIDS, hunger and the other noble causes are quite restricted when you cannot even turn on a lamp at night.
But as Friedman outlines in the book Africa needs green energy. Coal burning solutions that would only contribute to the world’s global warming problems. And China is bringing on new coal burning plants every other week?
For the health of the planet we need to place as much green energy as possible – Friedman acknowledges that many green solutions cannot yet scale to cover Africans, Indians, Chinese AND Americans – at the base of every country’s economic pyramid.
Looking forward to the remaining half of the book.