Hot, Flat & Crowded - Thomas L. Friedman

This was a GREAT piece, though I only read a few chapters the message was painfully clear! This world is only getting hotter, our technology has created a level playing field, also referred to as flat and we are TOO many, referred to as crowded! Thomas L. Friedman has written a book that answers so many social concerns that it honestly made my head spin a bit. He addressed environmental, political, social and cultural issues that together, have created this disaster we call “life.” His travels have given his readers insight into international concepts that we as commoners tend to overlook. I never understood the international changes taking place from such an analytical perspective; he truly uses historically key incidents to symbolically represent his viewpoints and opinion.
His book is riddled with, sometimes an overwhelming amount, of statistics and facts but when he does state pure opinion, the information preceding and preceding that opinion create a “FACT”! I can’t stress to you enough the importance of such a piece of literature; it really should be obligatory reading at the university level.
His idea that the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union allowed for an entire community of international citizens to become a new “middle class” was exactly right, these oppressed individuals were given the opportunity to live, to work, save and BUY, BUY, BUY! Buy cars, homes, clothes and IPODs, the capitalistic practices of the west soon spread and encouraged the growth we see today. He constantly relates the western practices of consumerism, capitalism and free trade with the economic, political, social and cultural changes taking place internationally.
Friedman’s description and statements regarding our global climate change, dependency on oil and other nonrenewable resources are staggering. He reviews the importance of utilizing renewable resources such as wind, solar and tidal based power and explains in detail, the potential consequences of not doing so. The most significant section of these chapters in my opinion is the fact that FINALLY someone correlates our dependency on oil with funding terrorism!!! I have never and am yet to read any literature that addresses such a sensitive yet crucial issue! This is the reality, by not investing funds into searching for alternative resources we will only continue to support and essentially finance terrorism at an international level.
Rather than continue on this futile path, America should pave the way into the future, our attempts to utilize alternative power are quite frankly, pitiful, in comparison to other countries around the world and it is time to grab the bull by the horns and lead the way!