Hot, Flat, and Crowded

Why We Need a Green Revolution - and How It Can Renew America

By: Thomas L. Friedman

Narrated by: Oliver Wyman

Length: 20 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

Thomas L. Friedman's number-one best seller The World Is Flat has helped millions of listeners to see globalization in a new way. Now Friedman brings a fresh outlook to the crises of destabilizing climate change and rising competition for energy - both of which could poison our world if we do not act quickly and collectively. His argument speaks to all of us who are concerned about the state of America in the global future.

Friedman proposes that an ambitious national strategy - which he calls "Geo-Greenism" - is not only what we need to save the planet from overheating; it is what we need to make America healthier, richer, more innovative, more productive, and more secure.

As in The World Is Flat, he explains a new era - the Energy-Climate era - through an illuminating account of recent events. He shows how 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the flattening of the world by the Internet (which brought three billion new consumers onto the world stage) have combined to bring climate and energy issues to Main Street. But they have not gone very far down Main Street; the much-touted "green revolution" has hardly begun.

With all that in mind, Friedman sets out the clean-technology breakthroughs we, and the world, will need; he shows that the ET (Energy Technology) revolution will be both transformative and disruptive, and he explains why America must lead this revolution - with the first Green President and a Green New Deal, spurred by the Greenest Generation.

Hot, Flat, and Crowded is classic Thomas L. Friedman - fearless, incisive, forward-looking, and rich in surprising common sense about the world we live in today.

©2008, 2009 Thomas L. Friedman (P)2008 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"An exhaustive, impressive, and convincing argument about the need for the United States to transition to more sustainable systems of energy soon or else risk any possible chance of maintaining hegemony. [Friedman's] ability to identify and summarize succinctly the issues and controversies over resistance to a green revolution is matched by his clear and definitive solutions to these forthcoming problems. Oliver Wyman provides a congenial and gentle voice that works well with the text." ( Publishers Weekly)

Informative but...

Informative but a bit preachy. I appreciate much of the information provided, but something in the narration makes it seem a bit like the author standing on a soap box. Still, an informative listen if perhaps overly long.

A Much Needed Call to "Arms"

Hot, Flat and Crowded makes a strong case that changing the rules that currently make it difficult to bring green technology to the marketplace is essential to keep America competitive and further, that the United States is the one country most capable of taking this leadership role. To do so, however, will require shifting regulations and tax burdens onto the dirty technologies that are currently favored by the U.S. tax and regulatory system. This book is persuasive and well-researched, though the author occasionally uses more words than needed to make his points. Even so, his points are too important for this to be a meaningful criticism.

We're screwed

Anyone who watches the news or even looks outside once in a while can see how weird our weather is getting. Record hurricane season, Atlanta under water, dust storms covering Australia, record drought in Nigeria, and the stuff no one cares about like glaciers disappearing and polar bears dying and holes in the ozone later. China is polluting themselves out of existence but won't stop unless America does first. But Americans showed their priorities when they voted Bush over Gore. And when their kneejerk reaction to high oil prices was to go drill more.

This brilliant book presents alarming facts and fills them with impeccable arguments. Everyone should read this book. And the best reason to do so: green isn't just good for the planet, it's good for the economy. Our two biggest problems solved in one stroke.

Problem is, the only people who will read this book are those already convinced. Or maybe not. Here's hoping.

Thought provoking

A book that should be read or listened to by everyone. As usual Friedman does a comprehensive and thorough examination of the world's energy and global warming crisis and has profound recommendations to provide us. His book is a bit long and he tends to be very repetitive. The narration was not good, a very slow and ponderous speaker. I kept saying to my IPOD, "SPEED IT UP"!

Thought provoking and sincere

Well thought out and well-expressed ideas, delivered in a non-judgmental and hopeful voice. I think I'll read more of this author.

Denial No More

Whether or not you buy all of the Global Warming controversy, there is no denying the interconnection of dirty fuels and our problems in the Middle East, Russia, and Venezuela. Furthermore, how we solve the clean fuel problem probably provides the greatest opportunity for U.S. capitalism to reassert itself both economically and morally. Thomas Freidman, once again, has the vision to pull many threads together with convincing research and data, and to see the really big picture.

It goes on and on

This book goes on and on and about the same topics for the first 3 hours without giving anything as alternatives.

Go for the abridged instead

Some great ideas are fleshed in this book, but they are spread so thin I found myself skipping forward often. I feel like I 95% of what I will take away from Thomas Friedman came from his book tour interviews.

Great Book About the Need to Change our Act

Despite the recent drop in oil, we had better figure out a way to ween ourselves off of it as soon as possible. Freidman makes a compelling case for why we need to get off of oil and redesign our energy systems from the ground up. A bit long as some of the points start to repeat as the book goes on, but nonetheless, a must read.

Hot, Flat, and Crowded

Freidman brings home the need for the U.S to go to alternate forms of energy. He stresses global warming, but his points on not supporting the oil despots and creating U.S. jobs was more compelling.