In his new book,
Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution—and How It Can Renew America,
New York Times columnist and economist
Thomas Friedman talks about what happens when an overcrowded, environmentally unstable, global economy that’s tallied a huge line of credit, has to pay its bill.
It’s not pretty and it’s far from sustainable.
“In particular, the convergence of hot, flat, and crowded is tightening energy supplies, intensifying the extinction of plants and animals, deepening energy poverty, strengthening petrodictatorship, and accelerating climate change,” he writes. “How we address these interwoven global trends will determine a lot about the quality of life on earth in the 21st Century.”
Friedman recently spoke to a crowd at
Eastern Michigan University (EMU), offering some insights into how Michigan innovation could help address of these challenges.
“We’ve lost our groove as a country,” he says, arguing that during the Cold War, the U.S. raced to be at the forefront of innovation. But once we lost our largest competitor, we slacked off: advances in alternative energy and fuels fell behind.
“We fell into the mood of, ‘We can be as dumb as we want to be,’” he says.
On a lighter note, we are the country that won the space race and spearheaded the IT explosion—we’re not complete slackers or anything, Friedman reminds us. But we’re coasting toward a dangerously high cliff.
“The innovative capacity in this country that’s exploding from below is enormous,” he says. We just need to get ideas from head to pen to lab to market.
Friedman’s not talking about “easy green” methods: recycling, installing energy efficient light bulbs, buying hybrid vehicles.
He’s talking about changing the way we live on a massive scale—completely refueling how we power cars, houses and businesses.
He’s talking about more painful choices, and the scale is massive: “doubling the fuel efficiency of two billon cars . . . replacing 1,400 large coal-fired electric plants with natural gas-powered facilities . . . increasing wind power eightfold . . . and driving two billion cars on ethanol, using one-sixth of the world’s cropland to grow the needed corn.”
There is hope. We just need to innovate.
And from the looks of things, the Capital region of Michigan is arguably positioning itself to be a leader amongst innovators.
Invent, Baby, Invent!At the end of Friedman’s speech,
University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman asked Friedman what he would do if he were the governor of Michigan.
“Let me focus on two things,” he says. “One would be my message and one would be method. My message sure as heck wouldn’t be, “Drill, baby, drill!” My motto—I would put this on the license plate of every Michigander—would be, “Invent, baby, invent!”
In some areas, Michigan already seems to be heeding that advice.
The same week Friedman popped up in Michigan, the state’s
University Research Corridor (URC), which includes
Michigan State University (MSU), the
University of Michigan and
Wayne State University, issued an
annual report about their economic impact on the region and alternative energy.
According to the report, the URC produced $13.3 billion in economic impact to the state and created 69,285 jobs in 2007. Overall research investment increased by $10 million from 2005 to 2006, for a total of $1.38 billion.
“Michigan's three internationally recognized research institutions are essential to creating the intellectual capital and the technology breakthroughs that will make our state competitive,” says MSU President Lou Ann Simon.
“The URC generates innovations, new technologies, and new businesses that not only provide jobs, but also improve life for all citizens of Michigan.”
Last year, the federal
Department of Energy (DOE) gave MSU a five-year, $50 million grant to work with the
University of Wisconsin-Madison to accelerate research on the development of cellulosic ethanol production.
MSU also received a three-year, $15 million grant from the
U.S. Department of Labor’s
Workforce Innovations for Regional Economic Development (WIRED) program to retrain manufacturing workers to build and operate biofuel plants.
“As a land grant university, MSU has a unique role in getting the benefits of research
from the laboratory to Michigan’s communities,” according to the report, which was compiled by the East Lansing-based
Anderson Economic Group.
MSU’s
Michigan Biotechnology Institute (MBI), which is charged with developing these technologies for commercial use, is also working to promote sustainable biobased technologies, as is MSU’s
Office of Biobased Technologies.
The Office of Biobased Technologies has already created packing material from biomass; turned manure into building materials; and captured methane gas from manure solids to produce electricity.
MSU researchers also got a boost from the
U.S. Department of Energy in the form of $4.7 million in grants to create new fuels from renewable resources that are more sophisticated than existing biofuels.
MSU and the URC researchers are doing their part, but until they move their innovations outside of the lab, the ability to correct our hot, flat and crowded lifestyle is stifled.
The Money MakersAs Friedman points out, innovations are great, but they need to be commercialized on a large scale before they can have any profound significance on the world.
“If you don’t have scale in this revolution, you have a hobby,” Friedman says about what he hopes will be a green revolution.
Many smaller Capital region companies have been working on bringing biotech innovations to scale for years.
Working Bugs, an East Lansing-based biotech contract fermentation company that produces food, bio-fuels and bio-chemicals, is working with
Michigan Brewing Company and other businesses to
produce renewable resources and biobased products. In addition to making some fine local beer, Michigan Brewing Company uses vegetable oil from MSU’s kitchens, converts it to biofuel and uses it to fuel a steam generator.
Another capital region company, Lansing-based
KTM Industries, produces biodegradable foam that’s used for insulation and cushioning. The company’s also created cornstarch-based building blocks. These Magic Nuudles look like Styrofoam, but they’re biodegradable so they’re not as harmful as the artificial substance.
Grand Rapids-based Crutchall Resource Recycling (CPR) recently
opened a Lansing location. CPR recycles roof shingles by grinding them up and turning them into asphalt in a "roofs to roads" cycle. CPR is slowly working its way into other Michigan markets and hopes to have facilities in Kalamazoo as well.
“All of the innovators I’ve met today will have a market,” Friedman told his EMU audience.
They just need citizens—and government, particularly—to back them up.
You can hear more about Friedman's visit to Michigan at Michigan Now.To receive Capital Gains free every week, click here.
Ivy Hughes is the managing editor of Capital Gains. She tried to grow corn this year, but failed miserably.
Dave Trumpie is the managing photographer for Capital Gains. He is a freelance photographer and owner of Trumpie Photography.
Photos:
Ethanol plant in Albion MI
Thomas Friedman (courtesy photo)
University Research Corridor
Crutchall Resource Recycling
KTM Industries packaging materials
All Photographs © Dave Trumpie (unless noted)