Hot, Flat, and Crowded Post 2

The second part of Hot, Flat, and Crowded is about how we got to this point in our world. He starts by talking about how oil is halting the freedom of the people in eastern countries saying, “That is, the higher the average global crude oil price rises, the more that free speech, free press, free and fair elections… are eroded” (Friedman 96). My interpretation is that the higher the price of oil, the lower the freedom. This may be, but can he back this claim up with facts? As always Friedman comes through with compelling evidence from an source who did not want to be named stating, “When oil was $20 a barrel, Putin had 20 percent of the Russian vote; when it was $100 a barrel he had 100 percent of the Russian vote!” (Friedman 95). This is why we need to get the world off oil. If a single politician can control a country strictly by the price of oil; what is going to happen when we begin to run out of it? What if Putin keeps getting reelected because he continues to raise the price until there is none left? Russia will be left dazed and confused. That is why it is so important for America to be a leader in this search for renewable fuels, which leads to his next talking point the environment.
Friedman makes the argument that we are not doing enough to halt global warming stating,
“There are other reasons we may be underestimating global warming. To begin with, scientists-the good ones- are congenitally afraid of overstating anything. They are punished for overstating and not punished for understating, and this produces caution generally” (Friedman 121).
Congenital, by the way, means having a characteristic as if by nature. The scientists have developed a fear of talking the truth about global warming. It is a shame, but after all people like to hear good things not bad things. To think that a scientist could be fired from his job because he wants to help is a sad thought. Such truths are usually shrugged off and converted to skepticism, which has several stages: first the skeptics tell you that you are wrong and can prove it, second said skeptics admit you are right, but it is not going to have any affect, and third they say that admit that it does matter and it will affect us, but it is too late (Friedman 125). Eventually everyone will realize that global warming is a huge problem that needs dealing with immediately, but I don’t know if we can get the skeptics to believe in time. One thing is for sure, we have a big problem on our hands and everyone is going to need to pitch in to solve it.

Hot, Flat, and Crowded Post 1

I am reading Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas L. Friedman. This week I read Part 1, which is his introduction to the problem of hot, flat, and crowded as he puts it. The book has so many compelling arguments to back these up, it would be best if you just read it, but I will do my best. In summary, the world is being drastically affected by global warming, in that, the earth is warming and humans are the main cause for this increase (Friedman 31-36). He points back at the Reagan administration that, instead of continuing the trend of increasing the mpg gallon for cars and helping to further ease our dependency on foreign oil, decreased it by a whole 1.5 mpg (Friedman 14). He cut the funding for many of President Carter’s alternative energy programs and even took the solar panels off of the white house (Friedman 14-15). Some may argue that a small increase in temperature will not affect us, but Friedman thinks differently,
From our ice core samples, Holdren explained, we know that the difference between an ice age and an interglacial period like we are in now - that is, the difference between the earth being and ice ball and being very comfortable. So a small difference in that global temperature can lead to very big changes, which is why this .8 degree Celsius is telling us, as Al Gore likes to say, the planet has “a fever” (Friedman 37).
Many people argue that the environment should not be a big priority, but does it matter how well the economy is doing if the world is a degree from being a popsicle? I think that it is interesting how he points to the Reagan administration: mistakes we made in the past may come back to haunt us now. What if he had continued to increase the mpg necessary in cars or continued to fund the alternative energy programs? Unfortunately, that is history now and our generation is going to be defined by how we pull together and try and fix the growing problem of global warming.
Secondly and thirdly, the earth is flat and crowded. He points to three causes of the flattening of the earth,
The first was the invention of the personal computer, which enabled individuals-individuals- to become authors of their own content in digital form… Another big flattener was the emergence of the Internet… a set of tools that enabled individuals to send their digital content anywhere in the world…The third flattener was a quiet revolution in software… thus enabling work to flow farther and faster through internal company networks, the Internet, and the World Wide Web (Friedman 29-30).
Basically, my interpretation of flat, is that it is becoming increasingly easier to reach anyone around the world. Take this assignment for example; once I post it, anyone around the world can see it at a few clicks of a button. You can decide whether that is good or not. Crowded is simple, the world is filling with people. According to the United Nations Population Division, the population will be over 9 billion by 2050 (Friedman 28). Some of these places are not ready to support the millions of humans that are going to live there. There will be nineteen million people just in Mumbai, a country that also has a lot of pollution, deforestation, over fishing and water shortages (Friedman 28). Can the Earth support another 2 million people? I like how the author brings up the point about Mumbai; some countries don’t have enough, or are losing its natural resources. I’m sorry this is so long, but these are the main points of his book and I think that it is important to understanding the rest of the book. I realize that hot is two times larger than the other two, but the section about hot in the book also has two times the info and I just feel stronger about the global warming.

Friedman, Thomas L. Hot, Flat, and Crowded. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008.