I saw Thomas Friedman speak yesterday at the National League of Cities conference in Orlando. He is a New York Times columnist and his book "The Lexus and the Olive Tree" helped to shape my worldview. I am looking forward to reading his new book "Hot, Flat and Crowded."Friedman's presentation outlined the challenges the US and the world face today. The stories from his world travels and statistics on energy and globalization are stunning and he shares this trip around the globe and into the past and future in a way that is easy to understand.
CLICK THE LINKS BELOW TO SEE THE PRESENTATION, move the bar to fast forward to the middle, Friedman is after the speech by Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, which is also very good.
http://www.tvworldwide.com/showclip.cfm?id=10347&clip=2 to view on your computer directly
or http://www.nlctv.org/events/081111/default.cfm?id=10347&type=wmhigh&test=0 to see in the NLC viewer
In his opening, Friedman describes a billboard promoting a car overseas that read: "German Engineering, Swiss Innovation, American Nothing" as an example of how we need to regain our leadership position in the world, not just politically but also in the competitive, capitalistic markets. And he sees that we will regain this leadership position by dominating the alternative energy revolution.
THE TIP: Friedman sees the American marketplace as the place where the solutions for the global climate and energy crisis will be found and this wil happen via a fixed, durable price signal. So look for incentives, tax breaks and pilot programs to come that will be smart for us to adopt.
2 comments:
I'm a huge Friedman fan too -- did you get to meet him?
I didn't get to meet him, I had to leave mid-presentation to catch my flight home but would have loved to haev him sign a book and give me a tip on how to share this new movement with my friends!
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