Photo Gallery Scenes from a Flat World
Thomas L. Friedman, 55, is a best- selling author and columnist for The New York Times. He talked to SPIEGEL about why America has lost its groove, why Obama needs to hang out more with Bill Ayers and why the German approach to combatting climate change is insane.
Read the interview: 'America Needs Rebooting' .
"I think we have lost our groove as a country," says Friedman. "One of the reasons was the attack on 9/11. We got knocked off our game. From a country that always exported hope we went into the business of exporting fear."
Solar panels cover the rooftop of the Staples Center sports complex in Los Angeles. Friedman believes energy technology will be the next industrial revolution.
"Wherever I go I meet innovators of wind power equipment, solar energy operators," Friedman told SPIEGEL. "This country is exploding with innovation from the bottom up -- but right now not enough of it is really getting off the ground." Here, a solar power plant in Nevada.
Friedman is a columnist for The New York Times. "The frameworks of traditional news institutions provide important quality controls that I think many readers still value," he says. "Therefore I desperately hope that we survive."
