I had the good fortune of hearing Friedman speak once before, at Eastern Michigan University, when his latest book had just been published. Listening to him is an experience, because it's not like listening to most journalists or even heads of state. It's a lot like listening to a distinguished professor give a semester-ending lecture, but he has such worldly knowledge that one is compelled to hang on every point.
"In 2007 and 2008, mother nature and the market hit a wall," said Friedman bluntly.
One has to understand that the reason Friedman gives this speech everywhere he goes, is because he's trying to help reverse the vanished legacy of the greatest generation, a legacy left for us, but we in turn "ate through the greatest generation like hungry locusts," said Friedman.
Much of his material can be found right in the pages of his book, but there are some worth being pulled onto this page.
The overall metaphor for what Friedman envisions is twofold. (1) picture of a billboard he showed onscreen. It was a car advertisement in South Africa, claiming "German engineering. Swiss Parts. American Nothing." (2) The Doha & Dalian condition -- meaning there are little Manhattans sprouting up all over the globe, and two of those are in Doha, Qatar, and Dalian, China.
All these forces and variables are clashing together, toward a situation where energy consumption, population growth, and climate, converge and produce a world that is far different than our current world.
Friedman is opportunistic. That is, if America seizes all these "megaproblems" as said opportunity, to find a way to produce clean electrons, at scale, and transfer from the Information Technology Revolution to the Energy Technology Era. Simple, right?
The large problem thus far of American efforts to get in on this trend, is this. "If it's a revolution, why is no one hurt?" Friedman asked rhetorically. I take that to mean our leaders have not been aggressive enough, and if we as a country truly wanted to end addiction to oil and bad energy habits, why are those bad habits allowed to still operate?
Friedman wants palpable change, not just 192 signatories on some vague legislation that puts loose regulations on carbon emissions. The secret lies within costs and scale. Figuring a durable price on carbon in turn leads to scale, and once scale is achieved, the revolution begins. By that he means the market begins to respond to the scale, and things can be produced for the masses. Its what Friedman calls being "Democratically Chinese."
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