Ryan Otto's Book Search

Link to my book search project blog: http://modernworldhistorybooksearch.blogspot.com

Thoughts and Reflections on Hot, Flat, and Crowded

     Two of the most contentious and threatening issues of the day are climate change and overpopulation. In his book Hot, Flat, and Crowded, Thomas Friedman outlines how we are entering the Energy Climate Era, and the decisions which must be made over the next few years. Friedman suggests that we have entered an era in which we will need to choose what to do about the growing problem of climate change, and asserts that if we do nothing the effects we be irreversible. He also dwells on the growing population, providing statistics which show that the population has tripled since his birth. This is due to the growing availability and effectiveness of medicine. If this trend of population growth continues as projected, then our natural resources will be all but depleted in the coming decades.

Thoughts and Reflections on Globalization

     Globalization has been one of the hottest buzzwords of the past decade. Almost paradoxically however, the definition of globalization is still frequently contested by experts in the field of Global Studies. The catch 22 that one runs into when trying to define it is that it is such a multifaceted and abstract concept that experts have a tendency to only focus on one aspect of it. However, if one gets too broad in their definition, the word loses specificity and to some degree, meaning. Simply put, Globalization is the growing economic, political, and cultural interdependence being established around the world and the growing consciousness of the world at large. Assuming for the sake of argument that this definition is correct, this paints a picture of a growing homogenization and to some degree westernization of the world as a whole. Skeptics and critics of globalization say that the world has been more or less this connected for centuries. While they are partially correct in that globalization has, up until recently, been a slow and ongoing process, it can be seen that over the past few decades the process has seen a dramatic increase in pace. European colonization around the globe was a perfect example of globalization, as it introduced both parties to new technologies, many of which were adopted. The establishment of international commerce was also an early demonstration of globalization. It is undoubtedly a process which has been going on for centuries, but the relatively recent introduction of the internet has sped up globalization considerably in that it is now possible for a huge amount of the population to access virtually any information at any time. Though globalization started centuries ago, the very nature of it has shifted in the modern world.