Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Thoughts and Reflections

Ben Howson, Modern World History 2
Mr. Angus
8/29/14


E.C.E stands for "Energy Climate Era", and the E.C.E is the era that we are heading into today. Tomas L. Friedman, who is the writer of "Hot, Flat, and Crowded" believes that the world's biggest problems are global warming and the population growth of the world. Friedman thinks that the world today is hot, flat and crowded. What Friedman is meaning when he says this is, that the world today is experiencing a huge climate change due to global warming, in which we are producing all over the world in huge factories, making what Friedman calls "fuels from hell." When Friedman called the world flat, he wasn't meaning the geography of the world was becoming more flat, he was talking about the global economy. Friedman believes that the flattening happened due to a couple of factors; "The invention of the personal computer", "the software and transmission protocols", and "the collapse of Communism and the fall of the Berlin wall." All of these things together created a "Unobstructed global marketplace" which means, tons of producers and consumers could buy or sell goods, and were able to come together with more people in more places to have a greater ease for less money. When Friedman says that the world is to crowded, he is talking about the population of the world, and that there are just to many people. The population of the world is increasing drastically every year, and because of this, is is making the world hotter, flatter, and a lot more crowded.