Hot, Flat, & Crowded

Author: Thomas Friedman
Category: Christmas

I finished this book over a week ago but I guess I've been trying to collect my thoughts about it.

I started out my undergrad career focusing on a degree in Environmental Science (during a college interview, the wise dean at Florida Institute of Tech convinced me that there are only so many jobs at Sea World and that I should pass on marine biology as a major, thus landing me at Albright College instead). Because at the time I loved learning about science and didn't want to waste my time on religion (that hasn't changed) or history (that has changed) all my electives were science courses whether they related to my degree or not. In the end, I came home with two degrees: one in Environmental Science and one in Biology.

Most of my working career has revolved around straight biology and it's only been recently that I've recognized my passion probably lies elsewhere within science. The environment is important to me. The concept of social responsibility is important to me. People who take the environment for granted and don't do what they can to cut their consumption are like people who don't vaccinate their kids - they illustrate no concept of the greater good. Sure, it's hard work, but isn't almost everything worthwhile hard work? More on this at a later date...

There are lots of good points to this book. It was a little too long, though, and for a lot of it I felt like I was being reprimanded, that he was standing there shaking his finger at me. But maybe that's the point. I'm convinced that we need to cut our consumption of oil and that ethanol is not the answer, mostly because it takes up the space we should be using to grow better food for our country. That's a whole other topic that has been at the forefront of my mind lately. We eat so much processed shit in this country and high fructose corn syrup is in everything. It should be no secret why Americans are fat and why they're getting fatter and dying of preventable diseases. But I digress.

If nothing else, maybe Friedman's scare tactics will work on some people. His bit about the auto industry is great, how he emphasizes that we have so many smart and talented people in our midst - we just need to let them into the game. Let the innovators play!

Definitely recommended if you can get over reading his tag line in every other paragraph.