205 Easy Ways to Save the Earth

A hilarious excerpt from Thomas L. Friedman’s book "Hot, Flat, and Crowded – Why the World Needs a Green Revolution – and how we can renew our global future.

…picked up Working Mother magazine at the doctor’s office and read the cover story: "205 Easy Ways to Save the Earth (November 2007). It so whetted my appetite for easy ways to save the planet that I Googled for more books and magazines articles on this — and boy, did I find more:

• "20 Easy Ways You Can Help the Earth"
• "Easy Ways to Protect Our Planet"
• "Simple Ways to Save the Earth"
• "10 Ways to Save the Earth"
• "20 Quick and Easy Ways to Save the Planet"
• "Five Ways to Save the Earth"
• "The 10 Easiest Ways to Green Your Home"
• "365 Ways to Save the Earth"
• "100 Ways You Can Save the Earth"
• "1001 Ways to Save the Earth"
• "101 Ways to Heal the Earth"
• "10 Painless Ways to Save the Planet"
• "21 Ways to Save the Earth and Make More Money" (my favourite one!)
• "14 Easy Ways to Be an Everyday Environmentalist"
• "Easy Ways to Go Green"
• "40 Easy Ways to Save the Planet"
• "10 Simple Ways to Save the Earth"
• "Help Save the Planet: Easy Ways to Make a Difference"
• "50 Ways to Save the Earth"
• "50 Simple Ways to Save the Earth and Get Rich Trying" (ROFL!)
• "Top Ten Ways to Green Up Your Sex Life" (vegan condoms, solar vibrators!)
• Innovative Ways to Save the Earth
• Five Weird and Wacky Ways to Save the Earth
• Five Ways to Save the World
• "10 Ways to Save the Earth (& Money) in Under a Minute"

Who knew that saving the earth could be so easy — and in under a minute!

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Why do writers and bloggers always make lists? And why are we, the reader, so drawn to read these "top whatever lists", to the point where we can’t do anything else until we have arrived at "Number 1"?

(sigh… it happened to me when I was watching the "Top 10 bands from the 80’s).

Friedman’s follow up case to his Google adventure is even more compelling as he illustrates the differences between needing a "Green Revolution" rather than what we are seeing today as a "Green Party" (hence the list).

The thing that stuck out for me was Michael Maniates point, a professor of political science and environmental science at Allegheny College, where "The hard facts are these: If we sum up the easy, cost-effective, eco-efficiency measures we should all embrace, the best we get is a slowing of the growth of environmental damage…Obsessing over recycling and installing a few special light bulbs won’t cut it. We need to be looking at fundamental change…."

Hence, a "Green Revolution", not a "Green Party".

I’m halfway through the book now and I find his analysis of what is happening in our world today quite compelling. Along with the "205 Easy Ways to Save the Earth" chapter, the following chapter "The Energy Internet: When IT Meets ET" depicts how smart energy-conscious computers help us manage our energy usage and trade energy credits within the electricity market.

REEFIGDCPEERPC < TTCOBCOG (a renewable energy ecosystem for innovating, generating, and deploying clean power, energy efficiency resource productivity, and conservation < the true cost of burning coal, oil, and gas) – what does this world look like?

Visit his web site: http://www.thomaslfriedman.com/bookshelf/hot-flat-and-crowded to find out more about his book.

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