President Obama is spending part of his day in Iowa visiting Trinity Structural Towers, a company that builds towers that support wind turbines.  We can all recall the President's visit to Cardinal Fastener earlier in the year.  That was a visit that we, as fastener people, could relate to.  Just last week I finished reading the book "Hot, Flat and Crowded" written by Thomas Friedman who also wrote "The World is Flat".  It was a really good book and very interesting.  In a nutshell, Friedman explains that heavily populated, rapidly growing countries like China and India want to enjoy many of the modern conveniences and developments already enjoyed in the United States and Europe.  He also points out that it China and India try to accomplish this using "dirty" fossil fuels, the outlook will be very, very grim.  Very, very, very grim.  The amount of energy that would need to be generated for something as simple as air conditioning, when multiplied by the number of people in those countries, is astounding.  Friedman concludes that these countries need to take a different route to accomplish these develoments because using coal and oil will not work.  Too many people and it's too dirty.

Friedman makes another very interesting point.  Most of the states that are "swing states' in any election have a great stake in the coal industry.  So, if you want to get elected, you'd better not talk bad about coal.  You'd better talk about "clean coal".

The part of the book that I found really interesting was when he discussed the huge economic opportunities that exist for the companies that get involved in new energy development.  Can you imagine how much alternative energy we would need to produce if , in fact, we really did find out that we were on a 50 year collision course with destiny.  If we did find out that we were rapidly destroying the polar caps and we were causing our earth to be uninhabitable --if that were the case-- think of how much energy we would need -- and we'd need it quick.  Don't even try to get me in a discussion as to whether or not global warming is real or any of those discussions.  I watch the same Nature Channel specials and hear the same arguments you do - from both sides.  But, you cannot deny this -- as China and India develop and more and more people use more and more electricty - there are going to be issues.

China is already trying to develop new energy sources.  It talks a lot about it in the book.  Friedman thinks that the United States needs to take a leadership role in new energy development - not because he is some tree hugger but, more importantly because the economic payoff for being the leader will be huge.  HUGE.  And, that is where fasteners fit in.

A couple weeks ago I questioned which industries use the most fasteners.   Is it still automotive?  One day, altenative energy development might be a huge fastener market.  Much bigger than what we see today. 

Read the book if this subject interests you at all.  It is very good.  Interesing, but this year I also read books by Ted Turner and by T. Boone Pickens.  Both of these guys were pretty good businessmen and both have a wealth of knowledge and expereience.  These books were both recently written and each one included many chapters on our need for alternate energy development.  Knowing these guys, I'd bet they are going to make some money on alternative energy development - and more power to them if they do.  It's not just an Earth Day discussion anymore and it is not just some "Green" discussion.  It is economics.  And where there is economics, there are fasteners.