On the day Thomas Friedman came to give his lecture at the IU Auditorium, titled after his book "Hot, FLat, and Crowded" he gave a question and answer session at Woodburn Hall. Although questions were only open to the undergrad t-200 class there were a few notable questions and responses.
One of the questions was regarding some of the issues which arise due to the problem that, global warming and other current issues will not likely effect us but future generations. Friedman addressed this as a question of environmental stewardship, and noted that this problem is difficult because CO2, the main climate change factor is a gas you can neither "see, touch, or smell", which makes it difficult for people to deal with. These people don't want to take action and this creates a problem with demobilizing people. This is an issue that we should notice from our Roseland readings of social and community capital. If we can increase social capital it will cause people to care more about what happens to those around them, even generationally. An increased social capital will increase not only awareness, but the desire to make a difference.
Another question dealt with Friedman's concept of "crowded", and how we can deal with crowding. The solution he put forth was to make education and technology available to everyone on the planet. This would serve to lower birthrates. Additionally, economic development also reduces crowding, but also increases environmental harm, so there must be a balance, which can arise from technologies which reduce environmental degradation from development. Unmentioned in Friedman's response was the possibility that development does not necessarily have to incorporate growth, and we could develop and retrofit existing areas to provide more use and support to individuals and communities.
Another question was what can developed countries do to aid developing countries. Friedman's response was akin to my own thoughts on this subject, in that the developed countries must further and purvey technologies scaled for nations which will allowing developing nations to grow in an environmentally sound manner. This is an example of stewardship but on a much larger scale.
I think the argument that some people use that third world countries should be given the same opportunities to produce (and pollute) like we did to get to where we are is flawed. I agree with TF that they can have the same opportunities to develop with the advantage of having modern cleaner more efficient technologies to do it, and skip the whole polluting part of development...
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