Summary: Hot, Flat and Crowded

Review and Analysis of Friedman's Book

BusinessNews Publishing

• Publisher: Must Read Summaries
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9782806246660
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Environmental Economics
• Index: Economics

The must-read summary of Thomas Friedman's book: `Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution – and How It Can Renew America`.

This complete summary of the ideas from Thomas Friedman's book `Hot, Flat and Crowded` shows that we are at a nexus of global warming (hot), globalisation, which means an affluent middle class wants to enjoy success, even at environmental expense (flat) and population growth (crowded). Green solutions are the only way all three of these issues can be resolved satisfactorily. It’s also a huge commercial opportunity: the replacement of fossil fuels is a golden business opportunity. Friedman believes we need to declare a “code green” to stimulate industry, education and science in pursuit of environmental goals. In short, as Friedman says, “this is not about the whales anymore. It’s about us.” This summary explains how we got the current situation, and the most effective ways we need to move forward. Environmental awareness needs to be a society norm; there needs to be incentives for individuals to build their own mini-arcs, rather than rely on federal measures. It also shows that not taking opportunities now will prove to be both environmentally and economically disastrous: the nation that embraces green technology innovation will be the world superpower for generations to come. 

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To learn more, read `Hot, Flat and Crowded` and understand how we got to the current situation.

Summary of Hot, Flat And Crowded (Thomas Friedman)

1. Where are we today?

The world is facing a problem of its own making as several trends are now converging to create unstable conditions. At the same time, America itself has a different problem. It has lost its way in recent years. The best way for America to solve its problem is for the country to take the lead in solving the world’s big problem. If America can create the tools, systems, energy sources and ethics that will allow the planet to grow in a sustainable way, it will retool itself to excel in the future.

The defining three global trends of today are:

1. Hot – there is broad scientific understanding our planet is experiencing a warming trend over and above natural variations which is almost certainly generated by human activities associated with large-scale manufacturing. This is the cumulative result of burning fossil fuels to generate electricity, deforestation, large-scale agriculture changes and industrialization to generate expanded greenhouse gas emission levels higher than ever before.
2. Flat – there has been something of a leveling of the economic playing field which has enabled more people than ever, almost from anywhere on the planet in fact, to take part in the global economy. The result of this is millions more people can now be classified as being middle class consumers. The drivers of this trend have been the personal computer, digitization, the Internet and a revolution in how collaborative work is done.
3. Crowded – the population of the planet will triple between 1950 and 2050, by which time there will be more than 9 billion people on earth. Most of that growth will occur in the countries least equipped to sustain it, creating a large pool of young people who will be susceptible to instability and extremism. This is largely thanks to improvements in health care, the eradication of disease and economic aid programs.

The convergence of these three trends have created a new era for the world economy. One shorthand way to note this is to designate 2000 as year 1 E.C.E. – the first year in the “Energy-Climate Era”. How these three global trends or challenges get handled will be vital. If nothing is done, sweeping irreversible changes will occur, all of which have the potential to impact on multiple generations to come. New tools, new infrastructure and new ways of thinking will be required to address these problems.

“We’re running an uncontrolled experiment on the only home we have”.

– Bill Collins, climate modeler, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

“The green issue, particularly climate change, doesn’t pit haves versus have-nots. It pits the present versus the future – today’s generation versus its kids and unborn grandchildren. The problem is, the future can’t organize. Workers organize to get worker rights. Old people organize to get health care. But how can the future get organized? It can’t lobby. It can’t protest.”

– Michael Mandelbaum, professor

“We are either going to be losers or heroes – there’s no room anymore for anything in between”.

– Rob Watson, CEO, EcoTech International

“The hallmark of those companies and countries that continually thrive is that they continually reinvent themselves. We reinvented ourselves as a continental industrial power in the nineteenth century, and we reinvented ourselves as a global industrial power in the twentieth century and then as a global information society in the twenty-first century. Green is not simply a new form of generating electric power. It is a new form of generating national power – period”.

– David Rothkopf, visiting scholar, Carnegie Endowment

“In the final analysis, the decisions Americans make about sustainable development are not technical decisions about peripheral matters, and they are not simply decisions about the environment. They are decisions about who we are, what we value, what kind of world we want to live in, and how we want to be remembered.”

– John Dernbach, environmental law expert

“We are the first generation of Americans in the Energy-Climate Era. This is not about the whales anymore. It’s about us. And what we do about the challenges of energy and climate, conservation and preservation, will tell our kids who we really are. Our good fortune is that we were born at a time of enormous prosperity and technological innovation. Our misfortune is that to spread that prosperity and reach new heights of technological development, we can’t do it the old way – by just mining the global commons and by thinking that nature and the universe revolve around us, and not the other way around. We need to redefine green and rediscover America and in so doing rediscover ourselves and what it means to be Americans.”

– Thomas Friedman

“Can democracy survive complexity? That is what this energy-environmental problem represents. It is so difficult. It is multiscale, multidisciplinary, ...

Table of contents

• Title page
• Book Presentation
• Summary of Hot, Flat And Crowded (Thomas Friedman)
• About the Summary Publisher
• Copyright