Mostly adults occupied the lecture room, yet in that sea of knowledge, our Global Studies Class was treading water. We arrived at our seats only a few seconds before Mr. Friedman’s introduction was completed. He took the stage. Many of my classmates, myself included, were concerned about the ability of Mr. Friedman to hold our attention. He was captivating from the first minute, and by the time he launched into a description of his new book (Hot, Flat, and Crowded), I was completely engrossed.

One of my classmates, David Belyea, offered that Mr. Friedman’s lecture “was a different perspective on an everyday issue.” Mr. Friedman began with a quote from a billboard in Africa that concerned me, and hopefully will later serve to spur me into action. The billboard read, “German engineering, Swiss innovation, American nothing.”

It made me think about my future as a worker in this country. Are we taking the right path? According to Mr. Friedman we are not. He believes that Americans should begin working on green solutions for the future so that when “going green” becomes an economically sound policy, or is incentivized, America would once again be able to provide the technology and skilled labor to bring “green” technology to the world. He calls this Energy Technology (“ET”), and he says that whoever, or whatever nation, controls “ET” will control the world because that nation will, excuse my cliché, have the key to the future.

He also highlighted how purchasing foreign oil helps support dictatorships and slows down the pace of freedom, noting a direct correlation between the pace of freedom and the price of oil. The quicker the pace of freedom, the lower the price of crude oil and vice versa. Mr. Friedman believes, and frankly I am in complete agreement, that the government needs to step in and impose regulations and standards to help the free market “go green.” How this should be done and what standards and regulations should be enacted was apparently not part of his lecture.

However, I will leave you with one last quote to possibly motivate you to act: “We have exactly enough time [to fix the crisis] starting now.”

By Zachary Laskin ’09