The Green Race is on…
This past weekend, Thomas L. Friedman’s op-ed column in the New York Times was titled “The New Sputnik”. While some will remember the actual 1957 launch of Sputnik 1, the first “satellite” to orbit earth, I immediately recall one of my favorite movie scenes of all time. In “So I Married an Axe Murderer”, one of Mike Meyers’ characters, Stuart MacKenzie, describes his son’s enormous head: “I’m not kidding, that boy’s head is like Sputnik – spherical, but quite pointy in parts.” Click the video link below to see why it is so completely irrelevant to Friedman’s column, yet great for a good laugh.
Now back to the serious stuff…
Friedman’s column predicts that current events and developments in China will later be described as the beginning of a Green Revolution. The Russian launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957 stunned the US, and jumpstarted what was later called the Space Race, an informal competition between the US and Russia to explore outer space. Friedman recognizes China’s current push to quickly develop enormous clean energy projects, lead the production of electric cars, and become the largest supplier of low-cost solar and wind power generation technologies as the genesis of a new international competition. This new competition will push other developed (or developing) countries to explore cleaner ways to produce energy, food, and consumer products in order to stay competitive and relevant. Since Friedman is a 3-time Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, and I can barely recall movie quotes, I will let you read the article for yourself….
“The New Sputnik” by Thomas L. Friedman
When the historians look back at this moment in time and deem it the beginning of the “Green Race”, you can be sure that I’ll take credit for the oh-so-inventive title.
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