Thomas Friedman

A few nights ago, I attended a great lecture by Thomas Friedman, the best-selling author and New York Times columnist. He spoke on his new book, Hot, Flat and Crowded, which I read last Christmas.

Friedman's lecture, attended by some 2,000 paid guests (who ponied up $30 each, including yours truly), hit on the same five themes that he spent his book exploring. They are:

1. Energy and Natural Resource Supply
2. Petrodictatorship
3. Climate Change
4. Energy Poverty
5. Biodiversity Loss

I won't summarize his 90-minute talk here, other than to say that his underlying message was one of extreme urgency. Friedman does not think we can waste another minute debating the merits of alternative energy. We must begin our energy transformation now. As he describes it, the Next Big Thing is energy technology.

He closed his talk with a quote from E.O. Wilson, who once observed, "that bees, ants, and termites, though not very smart individually, display high intelligence collectively-- and then he added, "People seem just the opposite."

Upon hearing that quote, I noticed a few days later at Barnes and Noble's science section several books by Wilson. I bought one, The Creation, and have just started reading it. I'll comment on it later.