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.
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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
no, you missed it entirely.
“greatest” is defined by capacity for violence. press any US patriot on why exactly “we’re number one”, and i’ll bet you money the world wars come up. it’s kind of embarrassing really.
If the U.S. had chosen to be a moral people, and leaving Iraqi oil alone, and following Al Gore, decided to develop the South Western deserts, with the technology of the times - solar/thermal-molten sodium - electricity installations, for the same amount of money as that war cost, ($650 Billion), today, we would be tapping into the largest, renewable, sustainable, energy source the world has ever known. It would have paid every energy bill in the U.S.A. for maintenance fees only - FOREVER! It would be equivalent to an oil field that can NEVER run dry! Low cost electric power, and storeable hydrogen gasoline replacement from the electricity, for all!
After the millions of murders, and $650 billions of dollars, borrowed from our children’s futures and pissed away, with thousands of our own and others maimed and disfigured for life, millions of families utterly destroyed, ours and theirs, we are no closer to Iraqi oil production than the Iraqis are!
The next time you hear a blithering idiot spoiled brat, drunken, drug addicted, sociopath, rich Arabic saber dancing daddie’s boy oilman, stand at a microphone and threaten YOUR safety with someone ELSE’S weapons, remember what you lost America, remember, and weep! (also see http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=a-solar-grand-plan)
a few reasons why we (america) are THE greatest nation on this space ship: yes we have problems, so do all other nations, BUT we are tRuly FREE, we above all nations rush to the aid of ALL OTHER NATIONS IN NEED RIGHT DOWN TO A SINGLE PERSON. I NEVER SEE ANYONE COME TO OUR AID WHEN WE HAVE GREAT DISASTERS OF NATURE OR BY THE HAND OF MAN. WE GIVE BILLIONS OF $$$$$$$ TO ALL IN NEED(& NEVER GET REPAID),SO MY AMERICA IS THE GREATEST NATION ON EARTH,& HAVE SHED MORE OF OUR BLOOD FOR THE NEED OF EVERYONE& I AN OF BRITISH ORIGIN.WOULD LOVE TO GET VULGAR TO WAKE UP “THE SLEEPING DEAD” MOST OF THE WORLD DONT REALLY KNOW MUCH AF WHAT AMERICA IS. I SERVED IN A ‘SUB’ SQUADRON IN WAR TIME & HAVE AN HONORABLE DD214(HONORABLE DISCHARGE)WE CITIZENS GIVE MUCH OF EARNED INCOMETO NEEDY ALL OVER WORLD.
I agree with an earlier commenter that it’s hard to make a point after slapping someone in the face. However, it’s also valuable to recognize when someone’s achieving more than you so you can emulate their success.
On the idea that the USA’s the most free country, I believe this is a sentiment felt by the citizens of many countries about their own country. It’s a reflection of pride in the country, and there’s nothing per se wrong with that. However, it’s hard to substantiate that the USA, say, is more free than Canada, India, England, Italy, or any other number of countries.
All those countries are very small and therefore easy to implement green technology to account for the whole nations energy supply. America on the other hand is huge and difficult to overcome this, but is taking steps towards energy independence for all you who aren’t paying attention.
And for all those who say America isn’t the greatest country on earth. Who save your European asses in World War 2. What language would you be speaking without us? German. Would you have internet, phones, tv’s, computers? Would you have been protected from the USSR? Would we have gone to space, or be too busy hugging trees?
I have been to several European countries: France, Germany, Britain, Denmark, Finland, and Austria. I agree that some people enjoy higher levels of life and satisfaction then most Americans. But again, while you were all worrying about yourselfs, America was busy defending you. America was busy supplying you. America was busy rebuilding you after World War 2. How great would America be if it never helped anyone? If it didn’t rebuild, Europe, Japan, save the Iraqi people, save Africans, fight aids in Africa? What if we just used all of our money to improve America? What if we just let the small military of Denmark just be overrun by Germans in the 20th century?
I think you have Americans to thank for the state of socieoeconomic status your country is in today.
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