Review of “Hot, Flat and Crowded”

I recently finished reading Thomas Friedman's Hot, Flat, and Crowded, his follow up to The World is Flat. In this new work however, Friedman focuses much less on 'Flat' as a phenomena, and much more on it as a solution to the problems of the world being 'Hot' and 'Crowded.'

Friedman's basic thesis takes the pretty much universally accepted notion that the “American” (applying also to Western Europe and parts of Asia) style of living is environmentally and economically unsustainable. Friedman however takes his 'Flat' thesis, that techonolgy and communication are increasing exposing the previously undeveloped nations, in particular the BRIC nations, to the knowledge and means to obtain this American way of life. Friedman argues that based upon this flattening of the world, projections about how fast the impact of this lifestyle is wrecking havoc on the Earth are vast underestimates. The 1^st part of his book is dedicated to explaining how the growth of BRIC as well as how the current path of environmental degradation only creates the opportunity for an exponential increase in that degradation going forward.

But Friedman's book is less about the havoc and more about the opportunity that the crowding and heating of the world presents for us, the West, and America in particular. In his words: 

“But this challenge is actually an opportunity for America. If we take it on, it will revive America at home, reconnect America abroad, and retool America for tomorrow. America is always at its most powerful and most influential when it is combining innovation and inspiration, wealth-building and dignity-building, the quest for big profits and the tackling of big problems. When we do just one, we are less than the sum of our parts. When we do both, we are greater...”

Friedman outlines what he calls “Code Green,” a coordinated, concerted and national focus on renewability and sustainability of production, energy and consumption. What is most compelling about Friedman's argument is that unlike so many other doomsday environmental analyses, is that he comes at the problem from the Center, rather than the far Left or far Right.

However he doesn't rely on the Left or the far Left arguments that either we must reduce our consumption and production, even at the expense of GDP and our standard of living' but need to do so unilaterally, absent the participation of the BRIC nations, because they have the same right to quick, unsustainable industrial development that we did.

Nor does Friedman embrace the Right's notion that we can cannot accept any environmental restrictions that would impact even a dollar of GDP if the rest of the world is not fettered to an equal (or even greater) degree.

What Friedman does argue for is government intervention in the market to the extent that it points the market in the right direction. Make it cheaper for good environmental programs to come about. Subsidize high-tech education in engineering and science, arguing that the solution to sustainability will not come out of far-left history or theory classes, but rather the hard sciences. Friedman argues that we need to utilize our leadership in the fields of Finance and start-up technology to create better markets both for dirty energy (pricing in many of the social costs) as well as clean energy (discounting based upon the social benefits). We are the un-rivaled masters of markets and when the market forces are aligned correctly, the innovated and entrepreneurial potential of our nation will be turned to the enormous profit, and by extension socially beneficial opportunity presented.

I think this was an excellent book, there was certainly plenty I disagreed with, however the issues that Friedman raises are important points for consideration regardless of where you stand on environmental issues.