Last night Thomas Friedman gave a lecture at Duke. It was so popular that they held a simulcast in another theater which we attended. For those of you who don't know Friedman, he is an op-ed columnist of the NYTimes, a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner and author of several best-sellers. He was at Duke to lecture about his newest book "Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America." Parker purchased the book this weekend and we are both looking forward to reading it soon.
The thesis of the book is that the planet is undergoing rapid changes such as global warming (hot), increased connectivity due to the internet (flat) and population growth of the middle class (crowded.) These changes are affecting the planet and leading/will lead to disastrous destabilization. Meanwhile, the US has lost "its grove" and needs to reclaim its position in an increasingly "flat" world. His central argument is that if the US leads a "green revolution" we can solve both of these problems with one (solar-powered) stone. The United States' greatest assets are ingenuity, boldness and creativity that can drive the green revolution, but government needs to play a role in the revolution by enacting regulations to inventivize major US companies to invest in clean technologies. We NEED a leader who can preach to the bully pulpit.
During the lecture I felt a sense of patriotism--I hope that our next president starts a green revolution not just to help global warming, but to restore our place in the world. This should is a proposal that should appeal to conservatives and liberals alike.
Here are a couple memorable (paraphrased) lines from the lecture:
Change leaders, not lightbulbs
Drill, baby, drill!? It should be invent, baby, invent. Saying drill, baby, drill would be like encouraging people to buy word processors before the IT revolution!
365 days of earth day won't do anything without policy change
The US has energy politics not energy policy
Because I work for the NYTimes I cannot openly support a candidate; however, I love my wife and my wife loves Obama
We need to go from code red to code green
America needs to be about July 4th not September 11th
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