Book Review: Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas Friedman

January 3, 2009 · Filed Under Book Reviews, Forums 

A review of Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution – And How it Can Renew America

By Rabbi Ana Bonnheim

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Thomas L. Friedman, the foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times, recently published his fifth book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution – and How It Can Renew America. Friedman’s thesis has multiple parts but is still simple: our world is becoming ever more crowded with a population explosion (our global population will soon be an estimated 8 billion people), more flat (meaning more globalized, based on Friedman’s last book, The World Is Flat, published in 2005), and hotter (due to climate change and the exponentially rising levels of human-caused pollution). These factors are all connected, and taken together require our immediate and sustained action in order to save humanity and our home.

The world’s population is quickly growing, particularly in countries that are not in the Western world. China’s population is skyrocketing. One used to be able to say that the statement, “You’re one in a million!” didn’t apply in China, because there, a person is literally “one in a billion.” But now the population is significantly higher than a billion (some estimate 1.3 billion) and growing, despite the laws surrounding family planning. More people equal more people to feed. It means a larger number of people consuming resources. Yet growth and increased consumption are inevitable results of more people living with higher standards like individualized transit (the number of individuals purchasing cars is skyrocketing in India) and communications (like cell phones and computers, which require electricity to power them), and a global food chain.

In short, we are living in an increasingly globalized world. Globalization is enabling countries to develop extremely quickly. Countries like China and India are not only growing with regard to their populations, but their infrastructures are expanding too. As smaller villages are becoming more connected, they need the infrastructure-starting with roads and electricity. China is finishing about one coal plant per week to power this extraordinary growth. The growth is good: it means that more and more people are living with better standards and have a higher quality of life. Yet, it also means that they are consuming more resources. Some of these countries are frustrated by the growing global emphasis on emissions standards: they say that countries like the United States and Japan were able to grow without focusing on developing renewable resources and that they deserve the same. But the problem is that it’s not the right attitude. Now, we know that we need to be more responsible about how we consume resources and how we treat our planet. If we continue living how we’re living, we are destroying our planet, and we may be destroying humanity along with it. So we need to change. It may not be fair, because some individuals are more responsible for our predicament than others, but nonetheless, this is the problem we collectively have.

Unfortunately, Friedman argues, here in the United States, we are not living like responsible global citizens. We are living like we own the world and aren’t thinking about the consequences of our actions. There is a growing green movement in our country, but without sustained, significant commitment from our government, we are not allowing this movement to have a strong enough future.

This is not a book imploring us to recycle-though we certainly should. This is not a book telling us to remember to turn the lights off or to drive more thoughtfully-though those are good things to do, too. This is a book arguing for a sea change in how we think about the world around us and humanity’s future on Earth. Friedman effectively shows how broken the American electricity system is and how intuitive solutions could be, if only we could create the policy structures and financial incentives to encourage enough change. Friedman is not naïve: he realizes that without a global crisis or enough incentives to change, our systems (and our pollutions) will remain the same.

Friedman is skilled at taking many small events and conversations and weaving them together in such a way that it is possible to see trends and a bigger picture. His gift to us is that he enables us to understand our dire need for a revolution in how we live. His gift, though, does not come without strings attached. Once we read this book, we need to act-to advocate for energy independence, renewable resources, and a shift in how our country controls its resources and taxes its citizens. That is our responsibility.

Questions to consider:

  1. How is energy independence related to a hot, flat, and crowded world?
  2. What would your life be like with Friedman’s vision of a new electrical grid? Can you imagine it?
  3. How can you be part of the greening of our world?
  4. Why are you (or aren’t you) compelled by Friedman’s arguments about the state of our world and its future?
  5. How do your convictions relate to your Jewish identity and understanding of Judaism?

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