Hot Flat And Crowd Summary

The Merits of Hot, Flat, and Crowded Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas Friedman is a diatribe that predominantly concerns climate change as a direct result of carbon dioxide emissions. These carbon dioxide emissions are thus a consequence of the world’s dependence on fossil fuels for energy for many years. Thus, Friedman utilizes the beginning of his book to establish the enormous challenge that the world is faced with solving with special attention to how America factors into the problem. Friedman believes that America has the ability to provide the solution to fossil fuel dependence and related problems. Friedman cites America’s complacent, lazy, and entitled attitude as the reason why the potential problems caused by carbon dioxide

Friedman argues that the age we live in should now be called the "Energy-Climate Era" and then explains what he means by calling the world "Hot, Flat, and Crowded".”Hot” refers to the rapid warming trend that is being observed by scientists all over the world as a result of the massive carbon dioxide emission since the industrial revolution in America; “Crowded” refers to the rampant population growth occurring throughout the world; and “Flat” refers to the rapid trend of globalization that has swept over the world because of advancements in technology, which have given us so many more capabilities and more connectedness but have also estranged a large group of people who do not have access to energy and technology. This tricolonic problem that Friedman outlines is entirely correct and by asserting these things about our current world, Friedman is able to establish eloquently that the central problem facing us is global climate change as a direct result of the energy crisis. He elucidates that if global climate change is ignored it will drive “global weirding,” meaning that carbon dioxide emission will not only make the world hotter, melt the polar ice caps, and cause major areas of terrain to be engulfed by the ocean, but it will probably cause unpredictable climate changes in a variety of places on the globe at an unpredictable rate. In fact, global warming may send the earth into another ice age. Many today may choose to overlook the problem of climate change or write it off as unimportant, but climate change will one day catch up to this civilization if the world does not start to fix it now. Friedman preserves this central claim adeptly throughout his book, using arguments and evidence that all contribute back to