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)

Long repetetive and boring

This book is just too long and too repetetive. It just repeats and repeats and repeats -- one short article could have the same amount of info.

Put off by the reader

I love Tom Friedman's books but I am not sure whether, after having listened to the first 2 CDs, I can finish. I am so put off by the reader, who sounds like a schoolmaster reading with a highlighter in his hand, marking almost every word with special emphasis, because otherwise we might not get it. I prefer to arrive at my own conclusions. I haven't decided yet but may jump forward to a later section just to see whether the reader has settled down into a more conversational tone and if so resume listening.

Hot, Flat and Crowded

Friedman is a gifted observer, but a flawed analyst of energy and environmental policy. This book is without thorough critical analysis in addressing this vital subject. Friedman's research was an exercise in venturing forth to interview interesting people and uncritically report on their claims. The book is simply a rant; internally inconsistent, flawed by wavering objectives (here addressing global warming, there demanding renewables as if they were the same), railing against petroleum fuels with only an afterthought mention of the fact that natural gas is cleaner (natgas vehicles are available in much of the world, cheaper than gasline and about 90% cleaner). Moreoever, Friedman never draws the vital distinction between commercially viable technologies and remote technologies that require significant scientific breakthroughs. Friedman's unrelenting nag to undertake the politically correct is a thoughtless, tiresome waste of good paper.

Boring

Get the abridged version and read the Chapter headings only; get a new reader and get rid of the oratorical barbiturate, Oliver Wyman; check your facts on new technologies; do not write as if Granny does not believe your story; learn to summarize; and...most of all...get back to writing something NEW.

Was this book edited?

While containing many good points, the book is very repetitive. Sometimes I actually thought I mistakenly backed up and was repeating chapters I'd heard already.

Yes, we need policy change. Yes, we need drastic, immediate policy change. Agreed. But repeating the same points over and over don't make a point more salient.

The are some blatant factual errors as well---the hybrid cars do NOT produce energy. They utilize the energy of gasoline better---he mentions that hybrids actually produce energy over and over---it's not true. A car that gets 60 miles per gallon is as efficient as a hybrid and distributes an equal amount of carbon per gallon of gas used. Getting 20 MPG for a while, then running on batteries for a while does not best superior fuel mileage.

Then he rants about there being no easy solutions---and about how sick he is of hearing about CFLs saving us from energy dependence---then, a few boring hours later he suggests switching to CFLs.

The core is great but this book could have been edited down to about half the size and would have had twice the impact. And some physics instruction might have eliminated some "stretches".

So many platitudes.

This was a really rough listen. It was just platitude after platitude and false choices like, would you rather be stuck in traffic or drive an eco-friendly car and so forth for hours and hours. This would be a good listen for someone who is left leaning and not too interested in subjecting arguements to critical thinking.

Amazingly Boring

Amazingly boring. That was 17 brutally long chapters, that just went on and on, without making much in the way of an original contribution. Here are three of the things that drove me nuts about this book:

1. More concerned with coining a new word or phrase than writing an interesting book. eg. "Hot, Flat, and Crowded", "Energy-climate Era", and "Out-greening". That last one he was trying to popularize for a friend...

2. Writing style. It was much more obvious in the audio book I bet, but the writing style was so formulaic. His sentences more often than not were simply lists of words and then an explanation. eg. "If America can't quit being green, purple, and blue, then it's never going to be red."

3. Very few original thoughts. I didn't learn enough reading this book. If I'm going to spend my time reading an environmental work, I want it to make me think about the issues under a new light.

Bottom line, there are other books that are better written and more thought provoking than this one, on environmental issues. Definitely wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Long, Flat, and Boring

The narration of this program is horrible. Listen to the sample!!! I wish I had. I won't ever buy a program narrated by Oliver Wyman. He ... likes ... to pause ... and to ... EMPhaSizzze ... wuh urds ... sooo MahUUCH ... that it ... will DRIVE ... you ... CRAZY, and ... you will ... LOSE ... the whole POInt ... of the bOOk!!!

Terribly Naive

Thomas Friedman did a much better job with The World is Flat. Someone described him as being "okay, in small doses". This book is not one of them. Horrible.

12 years later, this book should be listed in comedy

Though there were actually a few good points made by Mr. Friedman, the sensationalism is lost on me... I love how the context of the modern climate situation shows just how far out a farce like this was... and is still perpetuated by power hungry politicians who play on the heart strings of those easily moved by irrational fear.

Read this if you need a good laugh!