I picked up all 500+ pages of this book just over two weeks ago, and have been determined to make it to the end. If nothing else, this book is informative, and Friedman has done his homework, having travelled the globe, and interviewed many people, observing new projects as they emerge.
Friedman doesn't veer too much away from traditional economics, and he doesn't present what I would consider a maverick approach. In fact he has often been criticized for presenting a world view that today's problems can be solved by technology. But arguing mainly from this frame of reference, he does bring in a lot of data that supports the view that innovation, namely that which leads to efficiency, is economically profitable. What he doesn't do is suggest that we need to drastically alter our lifestyles, though he does outline the devastating impact of a burgeoning world population on the environment, suggesting that it is education that can decrease the birth rates in third world countries.
Friedman's 'bumper-sticker' formula for success is REEFIGDCPEERPFPCA<TCOBCOG (a renewable energy ecosystem for innovating, generating, and deploying clean power, energy efficiency, resource productivity, family planning, conservation, and adaptation<the true cost of burning coal, oil, and gas)... Yes, didn't I tell you he was long winded? But he has a point about the benefits of moving away from non-renewable resources, which he explains quite well. And he is not too simplistic about how this is to be accomplished; the path ahead of us, he argues, is neither easy nor convenient.
Does he agree with the view that we must adopt a simpler, close-to-nature existence as many environmentalist suggest? He acknowledges that position, admitting he does not belong to that school of thought, while suggesting that they may yet prove to be correct. But what Friedman proposes is worth hearing. Even those skeptical about global warming may find much to agree with in this book, and the reader would need to be in denial not to be concerned about the impact of a consumer culture on the planet's ecosystem. My own reaction is that Friedman offers some hope. We can be paralyzed by fear or despair, but Friedman, backed up by enormous amounts of research, brings into focus some steps that need to be taken. Nobody has all the answers to the world's problems, but Friedman has some, and they are worth hearing.