Thomas Friedman's pregnant moment

In Sunday's paper, Susan Salter-Reynolds profiled Thomas Friedman and his new book, "Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution and How It Can Renew America." She sets up the issue:

What we need is a Green Revolution. This is our chance to show the rest of the world how to create a sustainable future. And we are blowing it. We have the knowledge, Friedman believes, but we lack the political will.

Friedman said that several threads of understanding -- about the economics of oil, the challenges of global warming and the effects of increased consumption -- came together for him in 2007. "I had this pregnant moment a year ago in May at a conference in Aspen," Friedman recalls. "I realized that the IT revolution would inevitably be replaced by the ET [energy technology] revolution."

Salter-Reynolds writes, "Friedman works by his own idiosyncratic process: speeches, followed by columns and articles, usually written on airplanes, followed by books. 'I am a verbal person,' he admits. 'I talk my ideas out.' "

Which is why it's particularly neat that the Aspen Institute has put this video speech online. It's five minutes of him talking out the ideas that would become his book -- his "pregnant moment."

--Carolyn Kellogg

Photo credit:  Jennifers S. Altman / Los Angeles Times