Carbon-Copying Americans - Thomas Friedman

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2008/09/23/Tom_Friedman_Hot_Flat_and_Crowded

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and columnist Tom Friedman discusses the increasing trend of developing nations to aspire to U.S. levels of economic consumption, and warns that this trend may be extremely detrimental to the global environment.

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In this talk, New York Time columnist and author Tom Friedman exposes the irrationality of U.S. policies that promote consumption of vast quantities of oil.

Friedman stresses that the United States must lead efforts to develop energy alternatives that would 1) free us from our dependence on petro-dictatorships and 2) help preserve the earth, oceans, and biodiversity.

The program concludes with a Q and A between Friedman and Editor of The New Republic, Frank Foer - Sixth and I Synagogue

Thomas L. Friedman, a columnist for The New York Times, is a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner and a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board. Friedman was bureau chief for The Times in Beirut and Jerusalem before writing, From Beirut to Jerusalem, which won the National Book Award for non-fiction. His book, The Lexus and the Olive Tree won the 2000 Overseas Press Club award for best nonfiction book on foreign policy. His latest work, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century, won the inaugural Goldman Sachs/Financial Times Business Book of the Year award. He has a B.A. in Mediterranean studies from Brandeis University and a Master of Philosophy degree in Modern Middle East studies from Oxford.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• green
• globalization
• globalisation
• economy
• economics
• consumption
• sustainability
• unsustainable
• economic
• growth
• carbon
• fora.tv
• foratv
• fora
• tv

[sugarpuddin88]

Rockefeller & Dewey created the US education system by using the philosophy of Hegel & Wundt

The same two men to whom Marx & Trotsky used to create Communism

In their own words, "to create a passive society of people who merely act as cogs in the wheel of society"

Thus, Americans are NOT critical thinkers - They just "go along"

That is why that nation is completely & utterly Bankrupt

[SaraCares]

"Meanwhile, it'd be nice to replace coal with nuclear. Very easy and doable. It'd help with carbon emissions immensely."

Variablast, it's true that it would help with C emissions, but it's not an easy process- it's very expensive- nuclear plants take long to build and are costly to operate. (too late to solve the current energy crisis)

On top of that, it would deprive other environmental efforts like conservation, energy efficiency, etc & not to mention the radioactive wastes!

[tonylee1973]

something else tom friedman is actually in bankruptcy. believe it or not this clown who is always screaming about consumerism married into a family that owned 200 malls. the economic downturn sent them into bankruptcy.

[Unity4allhumans]

but the question is would u send your kids to school?

[newexperiment]

well he said they'd need 10 new power plants in the beginning. But he forgot that half of the people living alone will be living with partners as more people get married. so.. only 5 new plants. Then most families have 2 kids or more. so at most 2.5 new plants. Then all the elderly die. Depends on birth rate VS death rate. But the rate of growth isn't what he's suggesting.

[popinjay3000]

excellent comment

[uch]

oohh...i thought you said that the 'process' of 'hydrolysis' can be used as an energy source, whihc would have been absurd. You are talking about hygrogen fuel cells right?? yup tats true, infact there is one standing in my univeristy!!!

[dstone2004]

Hydrogen from ocean water hydrolysis can be used to completely replace gasoline and possibly other fossil fuels.

Distilled water hydrolysis requires more energy than salty ocean water hydrolysis.

However, wind and solar could be the main energy sources within 50 years.

The electric car was invented decades before the gasoline car, but "big oil" has continuously prevented electric cars, and alternative energy sources, from being mass produced.

[fakeshani]

truthadvocate. Ok. i understand what you mean. to be precise, i think we have to recognize that the world is scarce in resources, it is not denied that the resources are limited and we have to make the most of them correctly and save them for future generations. Now i say mass production is ok, but those should be recycleable so that people can live in the future.

[hugozoom]

Friedman is a dork, constantly and uncritically promoting globalization. I'm tired of hearing about his stupid world is flat metaphor. If he wants people to spend less energy he could start by going on fewer unnecessary book tours touting his unnecessary books.