How America Lost the (Self-Appointed) Title of ‘Greatest Nation On Earth’ to Denmark
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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
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