Was that me, saying all these nasty things about Americans on this BLOG? It must have, because I am the only one writing here (although that will change shortly…) I have a good reason to take some of these remarks back, maybe… hat in hand even, and feeling slightly embarrassed for being such a short-sighted bully, who is properly staying in line with the usual European USA-bashing.
Some events turned me around at least a little bit. Firstly, Obama got elected. Apparently, America can make the right choice for its president. Despite of his “disadvantages”, which were broadly laid out in the press, Obama – this tall, handsome, intelligent and deeply voiced hunk – made it. Compare that to a short, apelike, squeakily voiced idiot who…. ah, never mind. I think we – Europeans – should thank the American electorate on our bare knees for this accomplishment.
Secondly, these Yankees have a strong and maybe even truly independent press, which can count many intelligent people to its ranks. One of them is Thomas L. Friedman. Okay, he sports a moustache, which I can’t stand to look at, but hey, some greater men even have beards… More important is…
… that mister Friedman wrote a book which is currently holding my undivided attention, because it is giving me hope for the future of our world. And also because it contains a remarkable dose of humour. And I am a sucker for humour. This book, Hot, Flat and Crowded, educates me on the most important issues concerning our planet and its survival, and it does so with an appealing flair.
Friedman starts with the identification of some serious problems we have to tackle in order to save the world from… no wait… to save OURSELVES from being killed by the planet. To name some: an ongoing decrease of bio-diversity, the energy poverty in the developing countries and the third world, the global warming and perto-dictatorships, supported by western oil addictions. Are you curious already?
The main argument in the book is a very interesting one: Friedman states that America should pull its head out of its behind and TAKE THE LEAD in solving the problems which are threatening us. Why America? Because America has the stamina, brainpower, innovative marketplace and intellectual resources to spearhead this global rescue mission. And while the USA are at it, they can make a shipload of money in the process. If they don’t, some other (cluster of) nation(s) will, and then they’ll have to buy the goodies from someone else. YIKES!
Consider this, says Friedman: America has put a man on the moon and made nuclear power practical. Those are very complicated things and actually gigantic feats of engineering. If America was able to pull that off so many years ago, then why should it not pull off sustainable energy for the entire planet, a better environment, a genuine accomplishment in toppling petro-dictatorships and the restoration of bio-diversity now?
What it takes, Friedman says, is an adequate stimulation of the market by financial tooling, for instance in a fiscal form by the state or by allocating research funds to the proper place by the (power-)companies themselves. They have not been investing anything substantial, because they have been stimulated in the wrong way to make the wrong choices: to make the current system bigger, bigger and even bigger.
Friedman also forwards a necessary technical revolution. This revolution lies in the way we manage our energy. Friedman proposes intelligent communication between the energy providers and the users by building a Energy-Internet. This is a grid which makes information exchange between any energy generators – utilities and consumers with solar panels on their roofs – and any energy users – appliances, cars, homes and people – as well as the energy market, possible. He describes a future in which my washing machine will haggle on the energy market for the cheapest rates and the cleanest providers, and then it will decide when to do my laundry. I am loving it already!
This book is a real must for anyone who gets the Heebie-Jeebies from people like Al Gore. Maybe a small warning is justified: this book is written for an American audience, which sometimes makes it childish and USA-centred to an insulting level. But I managed to step over this obvious drawback, knowing that otherwise, Friedman would have been without an audience at home.
Global Warming scepticism is out, and confined to a small, marginal group of corrupt actors with a vested interest in the status-quo or otherwise motivated to ignore the obvious. But there is no need to get depressed. Hot, Flat and Crowded brings the discussion on how to save the world back to handle-able proportions. These are of a Los Alamos or Moon Landing magnitude, but soît… Friedman does not paint a bleak, gloomy or devastated future. He is positive in his attitude: we can do this, so let’s get moving!
Or better said: Yes We Can!
