Have just finished reading Thomas Friedman's new book Hot, Flat and Crowded and i must say, I am in two minds about it.

Friedman says the only way to fight global warming, or as he correctly calls it, the "global climatic disruption" is through innovation and moving to what he calls "Code Green" with Government policies, regulations, research funding and tax incentives to build an economy powered by renewable energy with the kind of innovation that would see the development of a smart energy grid that would use power more efficiently, which turns the home into a Smart Black Box (SBB) which controls and ensures the seamless operations of your lighting, home alarm system, telephones, computers, Internet connections and all your other devices, while telling you how much energy they use, where your heating, airconditioning units. dishwasher, dryer, refrigerator and car battery can be instructed to run at lower power during the day when you are out, where your electric car can charge and store energy at night, where your car or rolling energy storage unit (RESU) is now a plug in hybrid electric vehicle, where fossil fuels are replaced with renewable sources of energy.

"Green becomes the smartest, most efficient, lowest cost way - when all the true costs are included - to do things. That is the huge transition we are just beginning to see. Green is going from boutique to better, from a choice to a necessity, from a fad to a strategy to win, from an insoluble problem to a great opportunity."

It's an excellent point. But what gets me about this book is Friedman's Americo-centricity. Green, he says, is the "new red white and blue because it is a strategy that can help to ease global warming, biodiversity loss, energy poverty, petrodictatorship and energy supply shortages - and make America stronger at the same time. We solve our own problems by helping the world solve its problems. We help the world solve its problems by solving our own problems...Precisely because America's capitalist system and research universities are, in combination, still the most powerful innovation engine ever created, the world cannot address the big problems of the Energy-Climate era - quickly and at scale - without America, its president, its government, its industry, its markets and its people either leading the revolution or aspiring to do so."

In other words, America does it and the world just follows. But somehow, it is hard to imagine places like China, the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, simply falling into line. The reality, however, is that America is now in deep trouble, its days as a superpower seem to be numbered.

Furthermore, Friedman seems to ignore one crucial point: by December 2009, countries around the world will have to sign a new treaty in Copenhagen. And if they fail to do that, we will be in serious trouble.

But then, Friedman in his naivete says global climate treaties are tough because it's hard getting everyone to comply. Under his model, America just becomes green and the rest of the world will follow. "I am convinced that if America becomes the example of a country that takes the lead in developing clean power, energy efficiency, and conservation systems, and grows more productive, healthy, respected, prosperous, competitive, innovative and secure as a result, many more countries and many more people around the world will emulate us voluntarily than will ever go green through the compulsion of some global treaty. A truly green America will be more valuable than fifty Kyoto Protocols. Emulation is always more effective than compulsion."

This is a global problem and needs a global solution. In any case, since the book was published it would appear that Americans now have a few other concerns.