Includes index. Includes index.

Preface to the release 2.0 edition -- PART I: WHEN THE MARKET AND MOTHER NATURE HIT THE WALL: Why Citibank, Iceland's banks, and the Ice Banks of Antarctica all melted down at the same time -- Dumb as we wanna be -- The re-generation -- PART II: WHERE WE GO: Today's date 1 E.C.E. Today's weather: hot, flat, and crowded -- Our carbon copies (or, Too many Americans) -- Fill 'er up with dictators -- Global weirding -- The age of Noah -- Energy poverty -- Green is the new red, white, and blue -- PART III: HOW WE MOVE FORWARD: 205 easy ways to save the Earth -- The energy Internet: when IT meets ET -- The Stone Age didn't end because we ran out of stones -- If it isn't boring, it isn't green -- A million Noahs, a million arks -- Outgreening al-Qaeda (or Buy one, get four free) -- PART IV: CHINA: Can Red China become Green China? -- PART V: AMERICA: China for a day (but not for two) -- A democratic China, or a banana republic? In this brilliant, essential book, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Thomas L. Friedman speaks to America's urgent need for national renewal and explains how a green revolution can bring about both a sustainable environment and a sustainable America. Friedman explains how global warming, rapidly growing populations, and the expansion of the world's middle class through globalization have produced a dangerously unstable planet--one that is "hot, flat, and crowded." In this "Release 2.0 "edition, he also shows how the very habits that led us to ravage the natural world led to the meltdown of the financial markets and the Great Recession. The challenge of a sustainable way of life presents the United States with an opportunity not only to rebuild its economy, but to lead the world in radically innovating toward cleaner energy. And it could inspire Americans to something we haven't seen in a long time--nation-building in America--by summoning the intelligence, creativity, and concern for the common good that are our greatest national resources. "Hot, Flat, and Crowded" is classic Thomas L. Friedman: fearless, incisive, forward-looking, and rich in surprising common sense about the challenge--and the promise--of the future. -- Back cover. Examines America's loss of focus and national purpose since 9/11, and the global environmental crisis, and shows how the solutions to these two problems are linked.