The Full Earth Friedman and the Quadruple Convergence

The “Flat Earth Friedman” was made famous in is 2005 bestseller.  This is the Thomas Friedman noted for his examination of the influences shaping business and competition in a technology-fueled global environment. His book is fundamentally a call to action for governments, businesses, and individuals to stay ahead of globalizing and flattening trends in order to remain competitive.


At the closing of The World is Flat, the “Flat Earth Friedman” discusses several potential barriers to the continued pace of globalization. He wrote the following in 2005:

“But another barrier to the flattening of the world is emerging, one that is not a human constraint but a natural resources constraint. If millions of people from China, Latin America, and the former Soviet Empire who were living largely outside the flat world all start to walk on to the flat world playing field at once - - and all come with their own dream of owning a car, a house, a refrigerator, a microwave, and a toaster - - we are going to experience either a serious energy shortage or, worse, wars over energy that would have a profoundly unflattering effect on the world.”

This might be the first glimpse of Friedman in the context of the intersection between his ideas on globalization and his concerns regarding global sustainability. In 2011, the “Full Earth Friedman becomes more vocal and visible - - writing the following in his June 7, 2011 The New York Times column (“The Earth is Full”):

“You really do have to wonder whether a few years from now we’ll look back at the first decade of the 21st century - - when food prices spiked, energy prices soared, world population surged, tornadoes plowed through cites, floods and droughts set records, populations were threatened by the confluence of it all - - and ask ourselves: What were we thinking? How did we not panic when the evidence was so obvious that we’d crossed some growth/climate/natural resource/population redlines all at once?”

The “Flat Earth Friedman” sees the power and potential of globalization in the context of the Triple Convergence and his list of the ten global flatteners. The “Full Earth Friedman” sees the challenges and constraints of globalization embedded in the “Quadruple Convergence” - - the coming together of our global desires for economic growth; the potential for climate change and extreme weather; the depletion of critical natural resources; and the march toward a global population of almost 10 billion people.

If you are starting out in engineering, ask yourself where you see your goals and career in the context of the "Quadruple Convergence."