Thomas L. Friedman’s Hot, Flat and Crowded brings light to key problems that a hot, flat, and crowded world is dramatically intensifying. It discusses five main concerns: the growing demand for scarcer energy supplies and natural resources; disruptive climate change; energy poverty, which is dividing the world electricity-haves and electricity-have-nots; rapid accelerating biodiversity loss, as plants and animals go extinct at rising rates; and a massive transfer of wealth to oil-rich countries and their petro dictators. Friedman thinks that these concerns and how we manage them will define the energy-climate era. The book informs the reader of the three main aspects that worsen the problems and how it could lead to sweeping, nonlinear, and
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He writes about the increasing demand for energy; especially when the world gets hot, flat, and crowded, making energy even more important. Friedman writes, “... today, in an increasingly flat world, if you don’t have electricity you cannot get online and you cannot compete, connect, and collaborate globally… And in a hotter world, where the computer models forecast that climate change will exacerbate weather extremes… those with the least shelter and fewest tools to adapt will suffer the most… And in a crowded world, more and more people are falling into… the category out of grid and out of luck” (81). I agree with what Friedman is saying. Without energy, people would not be able to compete with others to rise in the economy and society. A domino effect will take place. If there is no energy to run daily life, we would not be able to heat, light, and power our lives and buildings. There would be no internet, which can be used for weather forecasts and connecting with others online. As for the biodiversity loss, Friedman writes, “The flattening and crowding of the world is driving economic development…, natural resource extraction, overfishing, and urban sprawl at a pace that is devouring open lands, coral reefs, and tropical forests, disrupting ecosystems, despoiling rivers, and driving species extinctions across the planet at an unprecedented pace” (82). I agree with this. As natural resources are consumed, yet another domino effect occurs: habitats are lost, wildlife is lost, environments topple, and so on. The rate of deforestation in the tropics continues at about an acre a second. An estimated ninety percent of the large predator fish are gone. Twenty percent of the corals are gone and another twenty percent are severely threatened. Species are disappearing at rates about a thousand times faster than normal. We need to take action and find solutions to these
He writes about the increasing demand for energy; especially when the world gets hot, flat, and crowded, making energy even more important. Friedman writes, “... today, in an increasingly flat world, if you don’t have electricity you cannot get online and you cannot compete, connect, and collaborate globally… And in a hotter world, where the computer models forecast that climate change will exacerbate weather extremes… those with the least shelter and fewest tools to adapt will suffer the most… And in a crowded world, more and more people are falling into… the category out of grid and out of luck” (81). I agree with what Friedman is saying. Without energy, people would not be able to compete with others to rise in the economy and society. A domino effect will take place. If there is no energy to run daily life, we would not be able to heat, light, and power our lives and buildings. There would be no internet, which can be used for weather forecasts and connecting with others online. As for the biodiversity loss, Friedman writes, “The flattening and crowding of the world is driving economic development…, natural resource extraction, overfishing, and urban sprawl at a pace that is devouring open lands, coral reefs, and tropical forests, disrupting ecosystems, despoiling rivers, and driving species extinctions across the planet at an unprecedented pace” (82). I agree with this. As natural resources are consumed, yet another domino effect occurs: habitats are lost, wildlife is lost, environments topple, and so on. The rate of deforestation in the tropics continues at about an acre a second. An estimated ninety percent of the large predator fish are gone. Twenty percent of the corals are gone and another twenty percent are severely threatened. Species are disappearing at rates about a thousand times faster than normal. We need to take action and find solutions to these