It is widely known that our planet is currently suffering from global warming and other conditions that are occurring from what the human population is doing to expand and prosper on Earth. However, "Hot, Flat, and Crowded" by Thomas L. Friedman explores deeper into the rising concerns of the current state of the Earth. In his book, Mr. Friedman thoroughly explains the reasons behind why people need a green revolution. When looking through the reasons for the current decay of the planet's health, Friedman came up with five of the biggest problems that our race is facing today. Energy supply and demand, climate change, energy poverty, biodiversity loss, and the transferring of wealth to oil rich countries have all had a relatively negative effect on the balance of society and health of the planet.
Within his book, Friedman also described the current state of the world as being hot, flat, and crowded. He then broke down those three terms into what is actually occurring on the planet today to make there be global warming, global flattening, and global crowding.
The planet is definitely getting more crowded. With the rise in ability to cure the sick, prolong life, and raise economic development the world's population has been safeguarded and allowed to expand without many limitations. It is because of this that it is estimated that the population of Earth at 2007 of 6.7 billion would rise by 2.5 billion over the next 43 years to 9.2 billion. It was also estimated that the populations of more developed regions of the world would remain largely stagnant while the less developed regions would rise from 5.4 billion to 7.9 billion in number. This assumed increase in populous is why the world is considered to be crowded.
Friedman described the world as flat because of the flattening of the economic playing field that has allowed for more people to become part of the global economy. This flattening was mainly caused by three factors. One, was the invention of the personally affordable computer which allowed for its owner to create their own digital content without having to rely on anyone else. Two, was the invention of the internet, which allowed people to share information and access it for free and in an easy manner. Three was the "work flow revolution" which enabled faster and farther workflow on the internet and within company networks. These three events helped to flatten the world, making it easier for lower class citizens to move up into the middle class. This was a good effect on society except for the fact that with more people wanting to buy more goods leads to the depletion of material sources for the new products being created for the newly arrived populous of middle class people.
As for what most people might think when they hear the word hot describing the Earth, Friedman meant that currently the planet is experiencing the effects of global warming. Humans being one of the main causes for global warming with the production of green house gasses, and cattle being the other with their large production of methane.
With the human race entering the ECE, the Energy-Climate Era, people need to think about how they can help to decrease pollution and improve the health of the planet. People have made a start, with the creation of green energy sources like solar and wind power generation. However, like Thomas L. Friedman described, this world is hot, flat, and crowded, and there should be something more to do about it.
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