We are entering the Energy-Climate-Era, “Green” is no longer a fad, green is no longer a boutique statement, green is no longer something you do to be good and hope that it pays off in ten years. Green is the way you grow, build, design, manufacture, work, and live.
Green becomes the smartest, most efficient, lowest-cost way to do things. Green is going from boutique to better, from a choice to a necessity, from a fad to a strategy to win, from an insoluble problem to a great opportunity.
-Thomas L. Friedman
Planet Impact is meeting the global call for energy-efficient carbon emissions and water purification solutions by providing innovative, high-performance, low-cost and low maintenance pollution-control devices to industry and government.
A wonderful book in its content, I’m just troubled by all the things I hear about the man himself, he’s not the most credible messagebearer. But his message is compelling even though some find his writing a bit perambulating.
I read this guy’s book and with the exception of the common sense around petro- dictatorships, the book is nonsense. Friedman suggest that the Govt. should invest Trillions with “T” to solve something that might, maybe, perhaps could affect us in 100 years or more. I understand windmills and electric cars are much sexier than rice for the starving kids or medicine for the terminally ill, but let’s get real about what is real.
Hot? – average temperature on the planet is 45% F.!
Flat? – Magellan proved the earthe was round(ish) on his voyage 1519!
Crowded? – 45 million sq.miles of exposed land on the planet.
6 billion population = 133 people per sq. mile = 5 acres of land per person!
I have read most of the book and I found myself searching for a highlighter by page 40 or so. Given that virtually everything you read, every statistic, every “fact”, every “obvious conclusion” is colored and biased, I have decided to rely mostly on a common sense smell test. And this book passes mine.
I found particularly interesting the parallels between what Friedman says about the historic goals of the utility companies and the goals of the food industry as explained in The Omnivore’s Dilemma (can’t remember the author’s name). Basically give it to us cheaply and uniformly, don’t worry about the nutritional value or the impact on the environment.
I am also struck, once again, by the fact that the value of our natural resources used/expended in the pursuit of any endeavor is rarely included in determining the true cost of that endeavor.