Latest read: Hot, Flat and Crowded

Over the long holiday I finally finished Tom Friedman’s book Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution–and How It Can Renew America. The book is a mixed blessing.  Friedman has written one of the best books to understand the emergency need for a global environmental revolution.

Friedman provides detailed examples of how the world has been wasting energy resources since the industrial revolution. Sadly I am convinced we are (environmentally speaking) screwed.

Friedman provides well written pages that will awaken those still asleep on the environment’s impact on the human race.  If you think “green” is a movement to replace your light bulbs with Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs your WAY off base.  Its about re-educating how we waste energy and in today’s global economy risk losing more industries to countries around the globe.

The major challenge?  This issue is no long America’s alone to fix. Thanks to globalization its now a problem for the entire world.  Mother Earth needs assistance from China and India. Both must engage in green technologies to ensure planet earth’s health for the long term.

For China and India that includes all 3.5 Billion of their citizens who are just coming out of poverty.  Their governments cannot permit new coal plants to dominate their air pollution.  China alone brings coal-fired (dirty) power plants online every two weeks and will continue to do so for the short term future.

The Beijing Olympics was a perfect example of population and industrial pollution impacting the Chinese environment … and their economy.

Why China and India are causing the price of gasoline to rise.
When I was born in 1966 the earth’s population stood at 3.4 billion.  When my son was born in 2007 the population doubled to 6.7 billion.  What does our future hold when the earth’s population reaches 9 billion in 2050?  Forget fuel costs for a moment.  How much will it cost to feed your family?

Thanks to globalization (outsourcing & offshoring) a lot more Chinese (more than 1.3 Billion as of 2007) are for the first time purchasing cars to drive their countryside as America embraced the 1950s.

The city of Beijing ‘officially’ registers more than 1,500 cars/day.
How many does your city register?

Consider China’s gasoline demands: its not a surprise gasoline rose above $4.00/gallon in the Midwest during the summer of 2008.  China is now the largest importer of gasoline.  Enter almost another billion citizens from India and the former Soviet Union and you see why the need for green transportation is key to a green revolution.  Without China, India and Russia embracing green hybrid technologies mother earth will continue suffocating on huge carbon footprints.

Fail in China and India and there is nothing America can do but stand on the sidelines and absorb the impact.  This clearly a message Friedman continues to convey from his World is Flat series. The global economy has changed business (and finance) much more quickly than many Americans are aware of especailly in regards to local impact by global forces.

In a closing chapter Friedman shares the story of a green solar technology developed back in my hometown Toledo Ohio. Yet finding no takers in Ohio or America and rebuffed by Ohio’s senator George Voinovich who voted against extending solar tax credits, First Solar was forced to shift production to Germany. Sales then jumped $20 million and more importantly 540 good paying jobs left Ohio for the German cities of Mainz, Frankfurt and Berlin.  This was part of his NYTimes article Dumb as we want to be.

Consider how many vending machines you see in your child’s school and  think about how many there are around the entire school district.  Remember they run all day and night and until 2000 were about as energy efficient as a WWII-era refrigerator.  Do you know how many organizations actually lost money on their deals with Coke and Pepsi?  They never negotiated the energy cost of those vending machines.

And until recently Coke and Pepsi really didn’t care how much it cost … they weren’t paying the electricity bills.  Friedman will force you to look at the world differently.  If not for you — then for our children.

Tags: Tom Friedman, Hot, Flat and Crowded, environment, globalization, Green revolution, First Solar, Toledo, education, Germany, population, offshoring, Outsourcing, India, coal, manufacturing, technology, reading, trends