Thomas Friedman 1: Getting Americas Groove Back in a World That's Hot, Flat & Crowded?

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From Barnes & Noble
In his latest best-seller Hot, Flat & Crowded - Thomas Friedman, the influential New York Times Op-Ed columnist, presses his case that Green is the new Red, White, and Blue. Friedman argues that environmentalism isn't just a survival imperative; it's the best way to make America richer, more productive, and, not least, more secure. Spanning the globe, he presents case study after case study that shows that Green-oriented practices and technologies are the key to revitalizing our country and stabilizing an increasingly energy-starved world.

Publishers Weekly
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http://www.eco-rescue.com

How can America get its groove back? By fixing a world that is Hot, Flat & Crowded? These are excerpts from Thomas Friedman, the multi-Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times columnist and author, while speaking at Governor Schwarzeneggers Global Climate Summit 2 in Los Angeles, October 2, 2009. See book review & verbatim of excerpt below. From Barnes & Noble
In his latest best-seller Hot, Flat & Crowded - Thomas Friedman, the influential New York Times Op-Ed columnist, presses his case that Green is the new Red, White, and Blue. Friedman argues that environmentalism isn't just a survival imperative; it's the best way to make America richer, more productive, and, not least, more secure. Spanning the globe, he presents case study after case study that shows that Green-oriented practices and technologies are the key to revitalizing our country and stabilizing an increasingly energy-starved world.

Publishers Weekly
Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman (The World Is Flat) covers familiar territory (the need for alternate energy, conservation measures, recycling, energy efficiency, etc.) as a build-up to his main thesis: the U.S. market is the "most effective and prolific system for transformational innovation.... There is only one thing bigger than Mother Nature and that is Father Profit." While he remains ostensibly a proponent of the free market, he does not flinch from using the government to create conditions favorable to investment, such as setting a "floor price for crude oil or gasoline," and imposing a new gasoline tax ($5-$10 per gallon) in order to make investment in green technologies attractive to venture capitalists: "America needs an energy technology bubble just like the information technology bubble." To make such draconian measures palatable, Friedman poses a national competition to "outgreen" China, modeled on Kennedy's proposal to beat the Soviets to the moon, a race that required a country-wide mobilization comparable to the WWII war effort. Recognizing the looming threat of "petrodicatorship" and U.S. dependence on imported oil, this warning salvo presents a stirring and far-darker vision than Friedman's earlier books. EXCERPT VERBATIM: But what I really focused on is how we get our groove back as a country.
And I think we get our groove back as a country by taking on the world's biggest problems. 2:09 and I think those are the green problems, but problems of the planet becoming hot, flat and crowded. Now what is this hot, flat, crowded all about.? Hot obviously refers to global warming. Flat refers to the rise of the emerging middle class is all around the world, who are increasingly living, driving, and eating like Americans. And crowded obviously refers to the fact that we are going to add about 2.5 billion people, more and more of whom are going to want to live like us, between now and 2050.

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Friedman nails it... once again!