Thomas Friedman Gets It.

March 8, 2009 by mike.

March 7 2009 op ed in the NYT.

Mr. Friedman sees the first part of the equation pretty clearly in this article. I recommend you read it in whole.

Friedman does not address part two of our economic, climate reality equation which is the way out. Maybe he will address part two in another op-ed.

I think we have several ways out of the crisis. And I do not think this is simply another recession, this is a financial and climate audit being performed by entities that cannot be bought or silenced. As is noted and quoted in the article, Glenn Prickett of Conservation International, “Mother Nature doesn’t do bailout.”

The way we need to proceed is to recognize the opportunity and necessity of re-tooling our economies and our societies by the truly critical elements, like justice and sustainability.

This is going to be a painful transition no matter how we proceed. I see encouraging signs that we may make the right decisions and move human society toward sustainable solutions.

clipped from www.nytimes.com The Inflection Is Near? Published: March 7, 2009 The Inflection Is Near? Published: March 7, 2009 Let’s today step out of the normal boundaries of analysis of our economic crisis and ask a radical question: What if the crisis of 2008 represents something much more fundamental than a deep recession? What if it’s telling us that the whole growth model we created over the last 50 years is simply unsustainable economically and ecologically and that 2008 was when we hit the wall — when Mother Nature and the market both said: “No more.” We have created a system for growth that depended on our building more and more stores to sell more and more stuff made in more and more factories in China, powered by more and more coal that would cause more and more climate change but earn China more and more dollars to buy more and more U.S. T-bills so America would have more and more money to build more and more stores and sell more and more stuff that would employ more and more Chinese …

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