Thomas Friedman Speaks to GW Students

Three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, New York Times columnist and bestselling author Thomas Friedman spoke frankly to GW students last Thursday as a bookend to the class of 2013's summer reading program, a discussion on Friedman's book Hot, Flat, and Crowded.

A mostly-full Lisner Auditorium listened attentively as Friedman expanded upon themes originally introduced in his bestseller, promoting a "green revolution" and using the innovation in green energy to reassert American economic dominance. However, the lecture came with a twist; Friedman noted that the first edition of his book was published a week before the collapse of the investment bank Lehman Brothers, an event that cascaded into the current economic troubles the United States is facing today. He argued that the "Great Recession" is not just an economic event, but a signal that the world was growing in a broadly unsustainable fashion, accusing society of pursuing "situational values, not sustainable values."

In response, Friedman has released a second edition of his book which addresses climate change in the context of the economic crisis. In a similar vein as investment banks being saved by taxpayer money after reaping massive profits, he claims, the US approaches the environment with the same "faulty accounting" that socializes risk and privatizes profit. In order to ensure corporations pay the full cost of their pollution, Friedman called for a price on carbon, through either a carbon tax or the cap-and-trade system currently being considered by Congress.

Despite describing himself as an optimist, Friedman expressed little confidence that the government or global community were near a consensus solution for climate change. As an observer to the climate talks in Denmark that occurred earlier this year, he commented "I was in Copenhagen, I don't know what happened...not a carbon molecule with be harmed by Copenhagen." Friedman also asserted that the election of Republican Scott Brown to the US Senate in the recent Massachusetts special election has also all but ensured the failure of the current cap-and-trade bill in Congress.

During a question and answer session, several students asked how they could help personally to push progress on addressing climate change. Friedman was frank, telling students that because corporate interests had such greater access to politicians than the general public supporters needed to "...get off Facebook and into somebody's face...we need a million people on the mall asking for a carbon tax."

While received warmly inside the auditorium, not all students were supportive of his message. Protesting outside the venue during the lead-up to the event were several members of the Young Americans Foundation, a politically conservative student organization. YAF member Ian Shetron, holding a sign reading "Tax the Sun," commented that he wished to inform students that "global warming is not a fact."