Sometime ago, I wrote about the President’s Climate Commitment initiative.  I stated that I thought it was the right thing to do even though I wasn’t sure that carbon neutrality was achievable in the near term.  Friedman’s premise is that reducing our carbon footprint is the right thing to do for our children and that waiting twenty or thirty more years to start conservation efforts will be too late.

Friedman’s travels take the reader around the world looking at the consequences of global warming, the perverse incentives of commerce in developing countries, and the “head in the sand” attitudes of our politicians.  He makes a case that we (the United States) are in a position to drive behavior by our actions related to energy conservation and just as importantly, would be in a position to financially benefit through developing standards and technologies that could be sold world-wide.

Friedman does not believe that consumers and businesses can drive this movement without the assistance of the government and policies that would incentivize reducing energy consumption.  His comments regarding the political influence of “Big Oil” and “Coal Interests” are interesting.  His insights regarding instances where governments have influenced the development of greener technologies or reduced energy consumption are positive examples of what can be accomplished from a policy perspective.  California has been the most progressive example of this in the U.S. and Germany and Japan have been aggressive leaders of green policies outside the U.S.  Surprisingly, Friedman cites some of the accomplishments in China which is often cited for its massively polluted air and environment, symptoms of China’s unrelenting quest to industrialize.

A sobering chapter is entitled “Global Weirding.”  It’s about climate change and some of it is factual and some of it is speculative.  Friedman interviews more than a few scientists with impressive credentials whose perspectives on our climate are not optimistic.  While there are other scientists who may classify Friedman’s sources as overly pessimistic, it is difficult to read this chapter and not want to have a more serious national dialogue on the environment and our efforts to “green up”.

Friedman concludes by stating that “the Energy-Climate Era has the obligation to make sure there is a stable planet for all species – and an opportunity for America to renew and regenerate itself.”  He calls for our generation to be known as the “Re-generation” and states that leadership needs to be created and pushed forward on this issue.

I am not an expert on the environment or even someone who dabbles in it as a hobby.  I am, however, concerned about the environmental legacy that we will leave to our children.  Friedman’s book is an excellent place to start for an overview of the issues, their global and domestic complexity, examples of successful initiatives, and an idea for how to push for future initiatives and successes.

Illegal substances or “doping” may appear to be a recent issue, but have actually been around since the 1960 Olympics in Rome when Danish cyclist Knud Enemark Jensen died during his event after injecting a doping agent.  At the same Olympics, American and Soviet weightlifters acknowledged taking anabolic steroids.

Politics dominated the agenda before 1960 when China and Taiwan competed in the international arena over who had the right to represent China in the Olympics.  German officials at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, often remembered as “Hitler’s Olympics,” snubbed Jesse Owens and other black athletes.  I imagine that there are very few who can forget the Israeli team hostage situation in Munich in 1972.  In 1980, the U.S. and sixty other countries boycotted the Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.  In 1984, the Soviets and several other Eastern-bloc countries boycotted the Los Angeles Olympics as retribution.  This year, we have the concerns regarding Tibet as well as the revocation of speedskater Joey Cheek’s visa presumably (though the Chinese have not yet and are not required to give any reason for this action) for his involvement in Team Darfur, a group of seventy athletes whose goal it is to raise awareness of human rights violations in the Darfur region of Sudan. 

With the diversity of world politics and the seeming desire of the media to cover any potential controversy, it’s difficult to think of a time when no political agendas would be on the table.  That said, the pageantry of the opening ceremonies is splendid and there seems to be an event for just about everyone’s liking (although the more popular ones are broadcast in primetime).  When the games kick off, the politics usually go away.  Let’s hope for world-class performances by all the athletes.  Good luck to every athlete.