Smart book about complex green revolution

Published 7 December 2008 in Winnipeg Free Press:

Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution – and How it Can Renew America
By Thomas L. Friedman
Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 438 pages, $30.95

Reviewed by Michael Stimpson

As Barack Obama's team considers ways to fulfill the U.S. president-elect's environmental commitments, they would do well to consult the latest book by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman.

The three-time Pulitzer Prize winner's previous tome said the world had become "flat," meaning technology had enabled more and more people to compete and collaborate almost regardless of where they live.

For the title of this book, his fifth, he has added the adjectives "hot" and "crowded." The former refers to global warming while the latter refers to population growth that has placed considerable strain on resources.

These trends "have converged in a way that could make our planet dangerously unstable," he states in the opening chapter. Energy demand is growing faster than supply, and the ways we commonly generate energy accelerate global warming. And that's just for starters.

Friedman makes a passionate and persuasive argument that humanity needs to do something, and soon, to save itself -- and that the U.S. can and should lead the way.

The first 200 pages of Hot, Flat, and Crowded will appeal to environmentalists, as Friedman explains how climate change, species extinctions, expanding middle classes and other "interwoven global trends" are pushing us toward a crisis point.

Policy wonks will enjoy the remainder of the book, which focuses on what governments can do. One intriguing idea is a "feebate" system for automobile purchases: Buy a gas guzzler and pay a big tax on it; buy a fuel-efficient car and get a rebate.

Friedman says the focus should be on taxes, regulations, incentives and disincentives that create the right market conditions for "green" innovations. He envisions not a Manhattan Project of a few government-paid brainiacs designing the ultimate generator, but rather an assortment of inventors in "10,000 garages and 10,000 laboratories" independently searching for "transformational breakthroughs."

Friedman says that Washington needs green policies not only for the planet's sake, but to make the U.S. more innovative, productive and secure. A green America would be in a better position to compete with China.

"Everything America (or any country) can do to go green today will make it stronger, healthier, more secure, more innovative, more competitive, and more respected," he writes in a chapter titled Green is the New Red, White, and Blue.

It's thought-provoking stuff, but the book has a few minor flaws. For one thing, Friedman's penchant for analogies and metaphors can be tiresome.

So can the long anecdotes that occur throughout: It's obvious Friedman has travelled quite a bit in the last couple of years -- to China, Indonesia, India, Egypt, Brazil and sundry other destinations around the globe.

Is it a cheap shot to point out what a huge carbon footprint this champion of environmental responsibility must have?

Also, it's a little frustrating that he inserts a defence of the Iraq invasion and occupation into a book that's supposed to be a call for a "green revolution." That only distracts the reader from the book's focus.

Still, these are minor quibbles. Friedman has produced a smart book about complex and important problems. Here's hoping the right people are paying attention.