Thomas Friedman 8: Why Green is the new Red, White & Blue? And Not Just a Trend? Video

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Is the green revolution about living a trendy lifestyle? Or is it the path to true power - electric power, national power, economic power? These are excerpts from Thomas Friedman, the multi-Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times columnist and author (Hot, Flat & Crowded), while speaking at Governor Schwarzeneggers Global Climate Summit 2 in Los Angeles, October 2, 2009. See book review & verbatim of excerpt below.

Book Review From Barnes & Noble
In his latest best-seller Hot, Flat & Crowded - Thomas Friedman, the influential New York Times Op-Ed columnist, presses his case that Green is the new Red, White, and Blue. Friedman argues that environmentalism isn't just a survival imperative; it's the best way to make America richer, more productive, and, not least, more secure. Spanning the globe, he presents case study after case study that shows that Green-oriented practices and technologies are the key to revitalizing our country and stabilizing an increasingly energy-starved world.

Publishers Weekly
Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman (The World Is Flat) covers familiar territory (the need for alternate energy, conservation measures, recycling, energy efficiency, etc.) as a build-up to his main thesis: the U.S. market is the "most effective and prolific system for transformational innovation.... There is only one thing bigger than Mother Nature and that is Father Profit." While he remains ostensibly a proponent of the free market, he does not flinch from using the government to create conditions favorable to investment, such as setting a "floor price for crude oil or gasoline," and imposing a new gasoline tax ($5-$10 per gallon) in order to make investment in green technologies attractive to venture capitalists: "America needs an energy technology bubble just like the information technology bubble." To make such draconian measures palatable, Friedman poses a national competition to "outgreen" China, modeled on Kennedy's proposal to beat the Soviets to the moon, a race that required a country-wide mobilization comparable to the WWII war effort. Recognizing the looming threat of "petrodicatorship" and U.S. dependence on imported oil, this warning salvo presents a stirring and far-darker vision than Friedman's earlier books.

VERBATIM: Really, the goal of my columns, my books, has been to redefine green. And what I am trying to say is when you look at the list like that, you have to understand that green is not just about electric power. It is about national power. Its about economic power. That is what ET is about. And that is why it is so important that we get out of our heads this notion that green is a lifestyle issue, it's a about living in a teepee, eating tofu and wearing sandals. It is not. It is about economic power, it is about innovation power, it is ultimately about national power. I am a big believer that to name something is to own it. If you can name an issue, you can own an issue. And the problem with green for so long in this country, it is just starting to change, is that the people who named it actually hated it. The people who owned the definition hated it exciting and liberal, tree hugging, sissy, girly man, unpatriotic, unpaid tree on it, vaguely, vaguely European, vaguely European. Sorry tony. Vaguely European. Well friends, I am here to tell you in the face of that list and those opportunities, green is geopolitical, geostrategic, geoeconomic, capitalistic, patriotic, Green is the new red white and blue. That is what it is. So get all that old stuff out of your head. Now that is why, that is why we need a green revolution in this country. That is why we need a green revolution.