{"id":979,"date":"2011-11-15T22:46:05","date_gmt":"2011-11-15T16:46:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/?p=979"},"modified":"2011-11-15T22:46:05","modified_gmt":"2011-11-15T16:46:05","slug":"on-thomas-friedmans-hot-flat-and-crowded-a-disturbing-vision-of-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/2011\/11\/15\/on-thomas-friedmans-hot-flat-and-crowded-a-disturbing-vision-of-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"On Thomas Friedman&#039;s &quot;Hot, Flat, and Crowded 2.0&quot;: A Disturbing Vision of the Future"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>So I must first confess that I am NOT a Thomas Friedman fan, which I think makes my enthusiasm more authentic for his nonfiction book <em>Hot, Flat, and Crowded 2.0: Why We Need a Green Revolution<\/em><em>\u2014And How It Can Renew America<\/em>. Why am I not a fan? As a columnist for the NY Times, and author of <em>The World Is Flat<\/em> (2005), among others, Friedman sometimes seems a bit of a Globalization huckster, arguing how the U.S. should be more like India and China (which I think is becoming true, that Globalization is having that effect, of all countries becoming more like each other, sharing the problems of disproportionate wealth, for one thing). But, begrudgingly, I agree with much of what he says, and at times I think I simply find him rather unctuous, perhaps too self-promoting\u2014smug, even. So big deal.<br \/>\n<em>Hot, Flat, and Crowded<\/em> (the updated version, published in 2009, which has been retitled <em>Hot, Flat, and Crowded 2.0: Why We Need a Green Revolution<\/em>) is simply quite good\u2014clear thinking, wise, and cautious. I don&#8217;t agree with everything he says, but his overall point is right on target. Our politicians should be reading it. He dissects the current financial turmoil, our oddly symbiotic\/parasitic relationship with China, and the dangerous path we&#8217;re on to devastating climate change.<br \/>\nOn that subject, check this out, a rather disquieting fact: Greenhouse gas emissions rose (we should be making them drop, obviously) by a record amount last year. (How do they calculate such a thing?) See here:<br \/>\nhttp:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/environment\/2011\/nov\/04\/greenhouse-gases-rise-record-levels<br \/>\nhttp:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/romm\/2011\/11\/09\/364895\/iea-global-warming-delaying-action-is-a-false-economy\/<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Hotflatandcrowded.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-980\" title=\"Hotflatandcrowded\" src=\"http:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Hotflatandcrowded.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"185\" height=\"278\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So I must first confess that I am NOT a Thomas Friedman fan, which I think makes my enthusiasm more authentic for his nonfiction book Hot, Flat, and Crowded 2.0: Why We Need a Green Revolution\u2014And How It Can Renew &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/2011\/11\/15\/on-thomas-friedmans-hot-flat-and-crowded-a-disturbing-vision-of-the-future\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,9,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-climate-change","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}