Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution and How It Can Renew America

I’ve been reading books on climate change for years. Almost all of them deal with just the science behind climate change and how science can stop or reverse climate change. Thomas Friedman’s book looks at climate change from an economic point of view.

His thesis is that climate change is caused be economics. It’s not bad enough that the American way of life is the worst in terms of pollution. Even worse is that the citizens of the developing world aspire to an American lifestyle. The effect of that many people all living an American lifestyle would be devastating for our planet.

Fortunately, Mr. Friedman’s thesis goes on to say that economics can save the world that we are currently destroying. His thinking is that the same ingenuity and resourcefulness that were responsible for the rise of America, making it the aspirational lifestyle of the third world, can be channeled into new, green industries that will mitigate the worst effects of climate change.

He rightly points out that it will take more than the lists of “easy ways to go green” that are so popular these days. There is nothing easy about going green to save the planet. It will require a radical rethinking of how we live, work and play.

His final argument is that this same need to develop technologies to save our planet will benefit us economically. Whole new industries will arise and new jobs, which are so desperately needed now, will be created. No matter how you look at it, ecologically or economically, we cannot afford not to go green.