An evening with Tom Friedman: A Themester event

The use of Bosch seems particularly appropriate.

This past Thursday was the Themester event "Friedman-palooza", which featured Tom Friedman (foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times and author of Hot Flat and Crowded) in a q&a session hosted in Woodburn, dinner with Caitlin in which we chatted about Friedman though he did not join us (despite the number of voicemails we left with his agent), his lecture which drew quite a crowd, and the reception that followed.

Given that I have only read Friedman's work in the New York Times and have yet to crack open any of his books, I hadn't realized he was an "energy guy" -but not just that, he's also an "energy policy guy". And when anyone brings up sustainability policy with the straight-forward, no bullshit rhetoric the way Friedman does, I'm tempted to immediately switch my major into policy. Thankfully, the program office was closed by this time of night.

So for those unable to make it, here are the major points of discussion he covered:

• Why green energy and sustainability initiatives have been slow to get off the ground.
• No one protests to have burdens placed on themselves but instead protest to have burdens lifted, like in rights movements. Also those affected have yet to be born (debatable) and so the effects are not as visible as they will be for generations to come. 
• The results of politics and science clashing. 
• Politics pollutes the science when it would otherwise not be an issue. 
• He gave the example that no one questions if the apple fell on Newton's head, because no one had anything to lose in that observation.  
• Population control. 
• Is there a morning after pill for shopping too much? A prophylactic for Macy's? Those with higher birthrates, as we've read, consume nothing compared to those in Western countries. Until this changes, we have no argument. Rather, we need to provide family planning education for every community so that there are options available but the rest is their own business.
• China and India are going to own us if we don't get on the ball. 
• The US is teeming with new developments and initiatives, but there's no real direction or backing, just political posturing, so we can't get off the ground. These countries and their economies are growing rapidly and are beginning to seize the opportunity to be leaders in the next technology wave.
• How these issues can be discussed with skeptics. 
• It's important to make connections between the war in Afghanistan and people driving their cars. If people really want to support their troops they need to be for clean energy that doesn't help to prop up "petrodictatorships". A byproduct of addressing climate change is increased national security. 
• It should be noted, however, that while we are supporting these groups, we do get the majority of our oil domestically and from Canada.
• Have you ever been to a revolution where no one got hurt? 

• The "green movement" is being advertised as if everyone wins. And while humanity and the environment as a whole benefit, individuals benefiting from the status quo may get hurt along the way. This applies to those profiting from oil to those who have to suffer the inconvenience of walking to work rather than driving. Rather than making sweeping changes, we are opting to find the low hanging fruit and patting ourselves on the backs. Friedman took a minute to mention titles of inane books touting how easy it is to "go green". Sustainability is is an issue of enormous scale, and therefore our responses must be enormously scaled. It should be mentioned, however, is that the impetus for change comes from individuals taking small steps and making demands on those capable of making those sweeping changes (like in research and development).

During the last q&a session at the end of his lecture, Friedman was asked what we can do to become more involved and stir things up. His reply was Rosa Parks didn't blog about taking the bus. Advocates of these issues have been lulled into thinking that hiding behind their computers while making criticisms and arguments is an effective method of public discourse (meanwhile, the crazies still show up). But Friedman mentions that while we have all gone digital, politics are still analog and getting face time with our representatives and becoming visible in the community is more important than ever. He also mentioned that initiatives like the Green Energy challenge are important in gaining visibility and being active as a campus. It's important to note that the winners of the challenge were announced and SPEA was one of them! Woo!

The winners of the Green Energy Challenge: If you squint, you can see Professor Brown fourth from the left.