Most Helpful Customer Reviews
39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A must-read, December 13, 2009
This review is from: Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution - and How It Can Renew America, Release 2.0 (Paperback)
Tom Friedman's book is a journalistic tour de force. He has been everywhere, it seems, and interviewed everyone who matters in doing his research. With that engaging style we are used to from his columns, he confronts here the biggest issues facing our nation and the planet. The book is essentially in two parts; a diagnosis, and a proposed cure. The first section is one of the most succint summaries that I am aware of what has gone wrong in our civilization over the past fifty years. His equations of financial meltdown with global warming are clever...The second half of the book, however, is very different, though no less impressive in its way; a kind of well-informed optimistic wish list of steps to turn the crisis around. It does, however, as Friedman states himself several times, often sound a bit like science fiction. Everything he suggests, from a 'smart' utility grid, to universal green fiscal incentives, is possible, but you come away from the book feeling that their achievement, on the grand or global scale, is rather like trying to scale Mount Everest with a Segway. Friedman points out plenty of examples of individual pioneers, but that's an entirely different thing to remolding the national consciousness from the inside, which is what he proposes. The book is actually replete with example of the vast entrenched obstacles in the way of getting to where he wants to go. It seems a pity, but after reading this book I actually feel more pessimistic about the possibility of America regenerating itself in the twenty first century.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Friedman takes a long walk to make a short but critical point, May 28, 2010
This review is from: Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution - and How It Can Renew America, Release 2.0 (Paperback)
NY Times columnist Tom Friedman has written some of the more important current events books of the last twenty years. This effort is a spin-off of his (so far) magnum opus, "The World is Flat." In that book, Friedman chronicled the dizzying array of changes that technology, demographics, and the fall of communism have unleashed upon the world. The message - the world has entered a new epoch fueled by instant communication and the mammoth human resources that have been unleashed in India, Latin America, and even Africa. A clear must-read, "TWIF" is an Important Book.
So it was no surprise that Friedman has cranked out a follow-up. In "Hot, Flat and Crowded," Friedman takes the same dynamics that he described in "TWIF" and examines their consequences on our polluted, energy-starved world. What will we do when literally hundreds of millions of people who previously consumed little or no energy (because they were so poor and had no infrastructure) enter the middle class work force thanks to the benefits of technology?
One of the problems Friedman posed in "TWIF" is that Americans who do not fight to stay ahead will be surpassed by ambitious folks from India, China, Latin America, etc. In "HFC," Friedman posits that a Green Energy revolution is the answer - the world is going to be crying out for alternative energy resources and products that encourage smart consumption of energy. If America can take the lead in these areas, our leadership role in the world is assured.
But Friedman sees problems everywhere - rightly so. Our government and economy are addicted to fossil fuels, and nobody is stepping up to take the leadership mantle.
So why only three stars? Well, first thing - Friedman has never been much of a stylist. The prose is workmanlike, which is fine for a column but gets tedious after a few hundred pages. And the book starts to resemble a piano player playing one note over and over again. This is not a bloated Tom Clancy novel by any means, but one wishes that Friedman could have tightened things up a bit.
But the book is still an important read - because as Friedman points out, our green revolution is most likely to come from the American people (and its entrepreneurs) rather than the political leadership. In that, he is surely right.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Somewhat long-winded, but worth the read., January 9, 2010
This review is from: Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution - and How It Can Renew America, Release 2.0 (Paperback)
I picked up all 500+ pages of this book just over two weeks ago, and have been determined to make it to the end. If nothing else, this book is informative, and Friedman has done his homework, having travelled the globe, and interviewed many people, observing new projects as they emerge.
Friedman doesn't veer too much away from traditional economics, and he doesn't present what I would consider a maverick approach. In fact he has often been criticized for presenting a world view that today's problems can be solved by technology. But arguing mainly from this frame of reference, he does bring in a lot of data that supports the view that innovation, namely that which leads to efficiency, is economically profitable. What he doesn't do is suggest that we need to drastically alter our lifestyles, though he does outline the devastating impact of a burgeoning world population on the environment, suggesting that it is education that can decrease the birth rates in third world countries.
Friedman's 'bumper-sticker' formula for success is REEFIGDCPEERPFPCA<TCOBCOG (a renewable energy ecosystem for innovating, generating, and deploying clean power, energy efficiency, resource productivity, family planning, conservation, and adaptation<the true cost of burning coal, oil, and gas)... Yes, didn't I tell you he was long winded? But he has a point about the benefits of moving away from non-renewable resources, which he explains quite well. And he is not too simplistic about how this is to be accomplished; the path ahead of us, he argues, is neither easy nor convenient.
Does he agree with the view that we must adopt a simpler, close-to-nature existence as many environmentalist suggest? He acknowledges that position, admitting he does not belong to that school of thought, while suggesting that they may yet prove to be correct. But what Friedman proposes is worth hearing. Even those skeptical about global warming may find much to agree with in this book, and the reader would need to be in denial not to be concerned about the impact of a consumer culture on the planet's ecosystem. My own reaction is that Friedman offers some hope. We can be paralyzed by fear or despair, but Friedman, backed up by enormous amounts of research, brings into focus some steps that need to be taken. Nobody has all the answers to the world's problems, but Friedman has some, and they are worth hearing.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
