One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure Island

A Review of Flat, Hot and Crowded

I just finished reading Flat, Hot and Crowded by Thomas Friedman. It is an excellent book and is an eye opener when it comes to environmental and conservation issues. Friedman's concept of a flat world comes from his last book The World is Flat which explores how the technological age has leveled the playing field for industry and competition across international borders. This book explores how the world is moving towards more of a monoculture when it comes to consumption of energy. One of his main points is that if everyone in the world aspires to a western standard of living and consumption (which most do) and uses the same energy platforms that we currently employ (which most do) then we will very quickly destroy the world around us especially as the world population continues to grow.

Not only that, but the political and economic consequences of our actions are staggering. Friedman makes a case that in order to be patriotic Americans we need to seek cleaner renewable energies and sustainable lifestyles that will not export large sums of cash to dictators and tyrannical regimes around the world (often the same places whose worldviews entirely contradict democratic governments and human rights). Here are two brief excerpts explaining his theory.

"Unlike its oil-rich neighbors, Bahrain in the 1990s could practically mark the day on the calendar when it would have no more oil revenue to rely upon, so it had no choice but to nurture and exploit the talents of its people instead. I couldn't help asking myself: "Could that just be a coincidence? The first Gulf state that runs out of oil is also the first to explore all these political and economic reforms?" I don't think it was coincidence at all. Also, when I looked across the Arab world, and saw a popular democracy movement in Lebanon evicting Syria's occupying army, I couldn't help saying to myself: "Is it an accident that the Arab world's first and only real democracy- Lebanon- also happens to be one of the few Arab states that never had a drop of oil?" (Page 95)

"...the lower the price of oil goes, the swifter the pace of freedom: Petrolist countries are forced to move toward a politics and a society that is more transparent, more sensitive to opposition voices, more open to a broad set of interactions with the outside world, and more focused on building legal and educational structures that will maximize the ability of their citizens (men and women) to compete, start new companies, and attract investments from abroad. And, naturally, the lower the price of crude oil falls, the more petrolist leaders are sensitive to what outsiders think of them." (Page 96)

Regardless of how you feel about climate change and the idea of over-population, I believe that Friedman makes an excellent point when he talks about the kinds of energy that we consume and who we pay for that energy. It seems like there has never been a more important time than now to invest in alternative forms of energy in our own home states and home countries. The more we invest in infrastructures at home that provide us with clean and renewable energy the less money we will see pour out of our own economies into the pockets of the oil producing countries around the world.

One of the other main things Friedman highlights in his book is China and their race to beat the rest of the world to green energy. This is not a trivial matter. As we look at companies that invest in green technology like Texas Instruments and Sun Microsystems they are not always pursuing green technology purely out of environmental motives, but they often have huge payoffs in cutting costs as the become more energy efficient. China is racing towards this full steam and the question is, "Are we?". It appears that whatever country is the first to come up with the best sustainable and renewable energy platform will be the worlds next super power. Maybe it is time for someone else to pick up that mantle, or maybe it is time for us to invest wisely in our future.

A look at Indonesia

I have some friends who are working cross-culturally in Indonesia. When I saw these photos at The Big Picture it made me think of them.

Consumerism

“From 1900 until 1989, U.S. population tripled while the use of raw materials multiplied 17 times. With less than 5 percent of world population, the U.S. uses one-third of the world’s oil, 23 percent of the coal, 27 percent of the aluminum, and 19 percent of the copper. Our per capita use of energy, metals, minerals, forest products, fish, grains, meat and even fresh water dwarfs that of people living in the developing world. “

Sustainable Consumption: Why Consumption matters, Dave Tilford

Illuminating!

Solar Balloon Technology

I love to see innovation. Check out this new solar balloon, which has the potential to create 400 times the energy of a normal solar cell.

Corn, the other White Meat!

Believe it or not the food item we eat the most of in the USA is corn. You can try not to, but you would be severely limited in your choices. Read more in this Wired article.

Tom Friedman, "Invent, invent, invent!"

The Story of Stuff

"Our enormously productive economy...demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption...we need things consumed up, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate."

-Retailing analyst Victor Lebow, shortly after WWII

I just watched The Story of Stuff (Thanks to Franco who pointed to it on his blog). After you watch it I would be interested to hear some of your first impressions.

Daylight Savings (waste of) Time

According to National Geographic daylight savings does not make any negligible difference in energy savings. Seems only to make a different in the amount of accidents we have. Be watchful next week for the sleep deprived.

One Man's Trash...

...is another man's fuel. Do you remember that scene in "Back to the Future" where doc takes the modified Delorean and begins throwing trash into it for fuel? Well, based on this Wired article about an Illinois Biofuel startup, this is now leaving the realm of Science fiction and entering into reality.

God is not wasteful!

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams from the Church of England speaks about how we view things in our everyday life can effect how we treat God and others. Very insightful!

Manufactured Landscapes

Walking Around Town

One of the things that we have grown to love during our time in Spain is walking. Returning to the states we realize that it is not a walking culture, but that sometimes things are more walkable than we realize and we are so accustomed to driving that we don't think about our option to walk. I just found a cool site that not only rates how walkable your neighborhod is but also gives you a list of stores and services within walking distance. Here is the Walk Score for the neighborhood of Harvest Community Church.

Electric Cars... Just around the Corner

Good Video

This Video is called the Power of Green.

Thanks Jacob, for pointing this out to me.

Clean Electricity

One thing that you notice if you spend any time in Spain are the windmills that lace the country-side. From the south side of Santiago de Compostela you can see the windmills on the hillsides quietly at work. On our recent trip through Spain it was hard not to notice these very modern looking machines all over the country and we even saw a few of the huge blades being shipped on extra long semi-trucks. Spain has been working hard for some time to use more alternative energies and it looks like it is paying off. This week was a particularly blustery week (we were almost blown off the road as we were driving through the mountains in Galicia) and because of that on Monday:

"wind power generation rose to contribute 27 per cent of the country's total power requirement" (The Age: Full Article)

I was impressed.