For the last several weeks, I’ve been digesting the audio version of Thomas L. Friedman’s Hot, Flat and Crowded. My commute is 130 miles round trip so I get a lot of audio books.
Friedman’s postulate that we need to focus on more green energy is dead on track. I completely disagree with his methodology. I don’t want or need a bigger federal government or one world government – we have enough bureaucrats controlling enough areas of our lives.
Is green energy critical to ensuring a sustainable future for coming generations? Yes. That alone makes Hot, Flat and Crowded worth reading or listening to. However, I would suggest to Mr. Friedman that we have to change the memes from the bottom up and not the top down as he suggests. Voluntarism is the right way to get people to change bad habits.
Freidman disparages magazine articles that give householders 10 easy ways to go green but those articles are changing memes without anyone needing to use a gun to force change. I would like to see more voluntary community programs and more cooperation between states to create environmental energy incentives. It is demand from the public that will force companies to change.
Let’s focus on incentives and not penalties, on cooperation and not regulation. This is the area where I find Friedman to be least helpful. In providing statistics and a clear and compelling case for us to change our habits and consumption levels though, he is spot on. On the whole the book is well worth your time.