Hot, Flat, and Crowded

I have been reading a new book by Thomas Friedman titled "Hot, Flat and Crowded, Why we need a green revolution and how it can renew America." He had also written "The World is Flat." This book focuses on the concerns of global warming, rapid expansion of the middle class world wide, and over population and the demands that has on resources of food, oil, and the carbon footprint of all of that. Whether or not one would agree with his ideas, he does present information that is needed to reflect on our rampant use and abuse of the world's resources. One such concern is in his chapter titled "Fill 'er up with dictators." He proposed that our dependence on oil from foreign countries actually decreases the move to freedom. He plotted the price of oil from 1979 to the lowest ebb of $16 a barrel to the increases of 2007 of $90 a barrel. He then plotted the major movements of freedom in the world. 1989 the Berlin Wall is torn down. Nigeria privatizes the first oil field in 1993, when oil was cheap Iran calls for dialogue of civilizations, and when oil was rising Iran calls for Israel's destruction. He also stated that the number one country who supports most terrorists activities is Saudi Arabia. Our dependence on oil fosters terrorists activities both in Saudi and Iran.
He also feels that we as a nation have the ability and knowledge to be a leader in addressing these problems. The premise of this would be that if we could export our knowledge we could do more to prevent further global warming, finding alternative fuels, and deal with the issues of the rapid rising of the middle class world-wide.
I am still reading this and will later write more on his proposals to deal with the problem. I find it ironic in a time when Wall Street is in crisis and our government is proposing bailing out the financial mis-management of many companies, that I am reading this book. I am also concerned that until this happened neither candidate would talk a lot about economic concerns, in fact 6 weeks ago one candidate stated that our economy was in great shape. Now we as taxpayers are supposed to pay this bill for the next several generations. It does remind me of the Enron and World communications in 2001. I also find it ironic that this is proposed by a republican administration which is supposed to support less governmental interference in business and now we have governmental control of major financial institutions. All I can say is interesting.