How America Lost the (Self-Appointed) Title of ‘Greatest Nation On Earth’ to Denmark
The New York Times’ Thomas L. Friedman sent a postcard from Copanhagen recently.
In an Aug. 9 op-ed column titled “Flush with Energy,” Friedman drew a stark contrast between America’s energy policy and that of Denmark.
That the United States – the all-powerful, lone (for now) superpower – can so easily be trumped by little Denmark is shameful.
It only adds salt to the wound that so many foolish, ignorant and willfully oblivious Americans still insist that they live in the “Greatest Nation on Earth” despite so many shortcomings, such as displayed by this stay-the-course mentality that leaves us in the energy policy dust of forward-thinking nation’s like Denmark.
With Friedman’s help, I’m highlighting just one example here, though we could go deep into numbers related to education, science, crime, economics, business, etc., that show we are not, in fact, the greatest.
Muhammad Ali can still claim it, as far as I’m concerned. But America? Let’s make a comparison.
The gist of Friedman’s findings in Denmark was that since the 1973 Arab oil embargo, Denmark has gone from 99 percent reliance on Middle Eastern energy supplies to zero.
Zero.
They are self-reliant, with all of the wealth and health that entails. (Of course, they have a general mindset for health: Friedman points out that 50 percent of Danes use bicycles as their primary form of transportation.)
Denmark’s Energy Independence Pays Off
Citing Connie Hedegaard, Denmark’s minister of climate and energy, Friedman wrote:
“There is little whining here about Denmark having $10-a-gallon gasoline because of high energy taxes. The shaping of the market with high energy standards and taxes on fossil fuels by the Danish government has actually had ‘a positive impact on job creation,’ added Hedegaard. ‘For example, the wind industry — it was nothing in the 1970s. Today, one-third of all terrestrial wind turbines in the world come from Denmark.’ In the last 10 years, Denmark’s exports of energy efficiency products have tripled. Energy technology exports rose 8 percent in 2007 to more than $10.5 billion in 2006, compared with a 2 percent rise in 2007 for Danish exports as a whole.”
And the United States is…?
Sitting on the beach, ramming its head ever-deeper into the sand. It’s whining. It’s oil dependent. (Can we, at the least, get some broad diversity in the energy category, please?)
It’s stuck on the same old energy resources. It’s resistant to change, progress and even getting close to the edge, let alone actually cutting it.
And still, it’s insisting – as if deaf, dumb and blind – that it is the greatest nation ever.
Now I digress for a moment…
My new friend Glenn Beck, who I posted a sort of rebuttal to previously on Sustainablog (CNN’s Glenn Beck and Other Doubters Need More Faith), closed one of his recent broadcasts on CNN with this:
“America may have problems, but it’s the best the world has got.”
Really? What a patriot? A deaf, dumb, blind, arrogant and hollow patriot. As if all others on Earth are inferior simply by their unfateful births in nations not called America.
Now back on track…
Friedman continued to shed light as cast from Denmark’s aware leadership – corporate and governmental:
“Because it was smart taxes and incentives that spurred Danish energy companies to innovate, Ditlev Engel, the president of Vestas — Denmark’s and the world’s biggest wind turbine company — told me that he simply can’t understand how the U.S. Congress could have just failed to extend the production tax credits for wind development in America.
‘We’ve had 35 new competitors coming out of China in the last 18 months,’ said Engel, ‘and not one out of the U.S.’”
What It Means to Be Patriotic
As an American, I’d love to take pride in what our nation accomplishes in the world scene, much like I’ve been endlessly ecstatic for our Olympians’ achievements in Beijing this week. (Have you been watching Michael Phelps?!?)
And it’s because I am patriotic – I enlisted for four years in the Army…enlisted (as in, chose to be a grunt-level soldier)…after college…simply to serve this country nobly as the generations before mine did – that I deem it necessary, a duty, to call into question our misguided, self-absorbed leaders and our recent collective tendencies to rely on old reputation rather than continue to earn it.
If America puts aside its ego, greed, politics and general infighting and opens its eyes, it will find there’s literally a world of people, innovative ideas, techniques, business opportunities and myriad other resources and possibilities for which we can assume a significant, leading role.
Until then, I humbly offer a warm congratulations to Denmark, a truly viable contender for the new “Greatest Nation on Earth.”
Related posts:
Gas Hole the Documentary: History of Oil Prices and Alternative Energy
Petroleum-Based Products Shape Our Lives: Are We Irreversibly Dependent on Oil?
Photo source: Søren Krohn, © 2003 DWIA
Oil companies are lining your president and his family’s pockets with money, why do you think the country is so blindly staying oil dependant? Not to mention Bush OWNED several oil drilling companies, (which failed, along with his presidency). Pat the Saudi’s back and they will pat yours right?
Adam– love this article, love your writing. Looking forward to reading more stuff from you at EcoWorldly, as well as on other Green Options sites. I’ll tell Glenn you’ve got a few words for him as well. I read Friedman’s article and thought the same thing. Way to dish up a piece of humble pie for the United States.
Seriously? Denmark is more eco-friendly in its power production so they automatically become the greatest nation on earth, but America suddenly sucks?
Tell ya what, find a way to provide cost-effective green power to America’s highly industrialized economy, and I guarantee the entire country will jump on that like a starving man on a friggin salsbury.
Quality of life and freedom are still the highest in…guess where? America. Maybe you have visions of Utopia (delusions of grandeur of sorts?) planted in your head, but to the more realistic among us, I’ll take my freedom over anything else, thank you.
But wait a moment, isn’t Denmark a lot smaller than the US?
And if they really aren’t dependent on oil, what do their cars run on?
I also think a lot of Americans would change, and want to, but it’s quite an expensive thing to set up a “green” home. I’m inAustralia, I don’t have a lot of cash on me… I’d really like to have solar panels and so on, but it’s very expensive.
If the Danes are 100% energy self-sufficient, where do they get their petrol?
I am not sure if we will ever need a “Greatest Nation on Earth”, but that is humans for you. But I will try to stick to the energy issue. I would love to talk about America (USA that is) until the cows come home, because like so many non-northern Americans, I hate the tyrannical approach their government has adopted. But it’s not unique or new, just currently the world’s pimp.
Like comments said here, Denmark is small and it has less problems facing it due to growth in population - in my mind, they can be quite xenophobic. i.e they don’t have much on immigration. But, I have also been there and was struck by there beauty and Eco-economy traits. And it can be done in bigger places, because there are states in north America that could adopt it, and then it could spread nationally. I am from Australia, and we could do the same thing. As we say, you have to start in your own backyard. If we continue looking at bigger pictures, we’ll get nothing done. Big pictures are good to have focus on sometimes, but generally they are pie’s in skies.
Willy…. once again an American commenting on a blog about the rest of the world trots out that old chestnut about freedom and quality of life in the US being the highest in the world.
Well ya know, it’s not. Many of us Europeans have actually been to your country. We’ve seen for ourselves the depravation, misery and self-delusion that is rife over there. I invite you to spend a little time in countries such as Denmark or Germany or Norway or the Netherlands to experience what true freedom and quality of life is. Stop bashing what you don’t know.
And oh yeah, about “highly industrialized”. D’ya think maybe countries over in Yourop also got industry?
Emkooda: 2 things, for a start the petrol that goes into cars is a small proportion of the fuel dependancy issue, and secondly…. Nort Sea Oil…
@Willy
“Quality of life and freedom are still the highest in…guess where? America. Maybe you have visions of Utopia (delusions of grandeur of sorts?) planted in your head, but to the more realistic among us, I’ll take my freedom over anything else, thank you.”
You are fulfilling the exact same stereotype that Adam is talking about with your head in the sand. Have you ever even been to Denmark?
Tell me why it is that the US usually scores very low on many quality of life scores, and why nordic countrys usually score higher?
Nicely written article, it proves that not all Americans are arrogant and/or stupid. I live in Australia, and we’re by no means perfect when it comes to being environmentally friendly and we’re still got a long way to go on being non-reliant on oil, but in Queensland we have a decent recycling system but we’re no where near as good as Germany. My friend recently went to Germany and then to America on holidays and she said when it comes to being environmentally conscious they are polar opposites. I honestly can’t believe things are still double bagged, what a waste, and according to her nothing gets recycled. She was also shocked at the amount of food people eat, she went to go buy some butter at Walmart and in Australia our ‘Large’ (the biggest size you can get) is equivalent to America’s ’small’ (the smallest size)… Nothing wrong with Americans but the way the society is structured is going to be its downfall unless there is some drastic PROACTIVE (not reactive) change.
I appreciate the dialogue here, and want to leave it to you to keep discussing. But…
@ Michael: I absolutely agree with your suggestion that there is no need for a ‘Greatest Nation on Earth.’ While I did write in this article that the U.S. has the potential to be a leading nation, I also feel like it’s time we all learn to cooperate as a world citizenry and stop with the childish We’re-better-than-you mentality.
What’s it matter to be the ‘greatest’? Hopefully one day it won’t matter to anybody. Hopefully we’ll get our priorities straight, recognize we call contribute something, and that people are more significant than money and power.
But, as has been pointed out in a couple of the comments above, as long as so many Americans refuse to travel and experience other people and places, they won’t likely tear down their walls of ignorance and figure out that the U.S. is actually behind as a “highly industrialized superpower.”