Vicki Anderson

Last Friday I attended a speech by Thomas Friedman, author of Hot, Flat, and Crowded. It was very interesting to hear his take on the state of the environment and what he thinks it will take to get us out of our energy dependence on oil. While he was in favor of each individual and company doing what they can to ”go green” he said that to get the economy of scale that will be needed to make real changes, we will need the backing of government. Considering the price of oil and the impact of Hurricane Ike recently, I wonder how high this will be on the agenda for our government in the coming year or two, especially if the pain subsides and we become numb to its ongoing effects.

Friedman also talked about how the weather is just getting weirder each year. It does seem that we hear more often, “This isn’t normal weather. It’s just weird this year.” He said the average global temperature has gone up between one and two degrees, which doesn’t seem like much. However, he compared our body temperature of 98.6 rising to 100 degrees. We feel bad when that occurs. The earth is in a “feel bad” state with the rise in temperature for whatever reason and it will begin to feel sick as it increases, just like we would if our body temperature went above 100.

He also talked about the increasing birthrate that will impact all of us around the globe and the fact that more people around the globe are living like Americans. They have a better standard of living and consume energy at increasing levels, which is impacting the environment.

I purchased the book and am interested to read it. Mr. Friedman spouted many statistics that I can’t recall, but upon first blush, I certainly think it is a topic worth further investigation.