Environmentalism is such a downer , with all the doomsaying and fingerbreadth - wagging . So perchance it ’s a sound matter that globalization ’s cheerleader , New York Times editorialist Thomas Friedman , has turned his upbeat , can - do goshdarnit style to green subject with his latest rule book , Hot , Flat and crowd : Why We Need A Green Revolution — And How It Can Renew America . Friedman faces up to the downside of a global surge in the vigor - guzzling middle form , and offer a potpourri of solutions , including using the U.S. Army ’s experience in “ out - greening Al Qaeda . ” But my preferent Friedman gee - whiz idea : the “ Energy Internet . ” Hey , the cyberspace is amazing , correct ? It ’s like a sorcerous fruit auto , except instead of fruit , it dispenses information . And blogs , which are like the nasty seeded player inside the fruit . But anyway — what if we could have an Internet , but for electrical energy ? snitch up all of your appliances to the entropy information superhighway and ensure that they talk to the storage-battery grid and figure out how to use the least amount of electricity possible ? Or only guzzle electrical energy during non - peak hours ? This will moderate to “ clean electrons ” because they ’ll be SMART electrons . They ’ll be electrons with their own MySpace Sir Frederick Handley Page . Our cars , our dishwashers , our xBoxes , will all be talking to each other about way to reduce their carbon paper footmark . ( “ Hey xBox , ” I can just hear the refrigerator locution , “ I ’m about to make some sparkler . Can you engender few pixels for a arcminute ? ” ) To be fair , Friedman ’s book also does call for grueling steps amongst all the gee - whiz awesomeness . He wants the government to visit a whole unexampled regime of taxis and incentives , include roof - and - business deal schemes , to give everybody the incentives to make those electrons as impudent as they can be . Electrons do n’t educate themselves , you lie with . [ IHTandFree PressandBusiness Lexington ]
Daily Newsletter
Get the in force tech , science , and culture news in your inbox day by day .
news program from the future , delivered to your present .
