Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist and author Thomas Friedman is sounding the clarion call when it comes to the environmental and economic health of the planet. His best-seller "The World Is Flat" explained effects of globalization. His most recent best-seller "Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution -- And How It Can Renew America" takes on the status quo and the need for the United States to take the lead in creating cheap, clean energy. He will be appearing at Heinz Hall at 8 p.m. tomorrow for the Middle East Institute's "An Evening with Thomas Friedman." Call 412-392-4900 for tickets.

Q: Poverty creates indifference to environmental concerns, yet a growing global middle class may actually be doing more damage to the planet.

A: It's simply because as we emerge from poverty into middle classes, whether it's in America or China or Brazil or Russia, more people start consuming like Americans. That means consuming and producing a lot more natural resources. On one level it's a blessing that all these people are coming out of poverty, but the stress on air, water and natural resources is just enormous.

Q: Do either of the candidates have the vision and focus to put the United States in the lead as far as green technology?

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A: I think they both, on paper, have green platforms that are an advance on probably any previous election. But what they are actually ready to tell people now about the sacrifices that will be required to implement those platforms once they are elected is really an unknown. Certainly an unknown to me.

Q: Some computer models now predict the Arctic could be ice free by 2012. Why do you think we are not panicked into action?

A: Well, the Arctic for most people is far away. While it is an incredibly important canary in the coal mine telling us about how the planet is warming, it doesn't really immediately touch their lives. As a result, it's really hard to get people motivated.

Q: What would our going green and clean do to the stability of the Middle East?

A: No one is going to invent an alternative to oil overnight, and even if they did there will still be an enormous demand for petroleum products from fertilizers to plastics. So oil is not going to go from $100 to $0, but an oil price that is more in the $30 to $40 bell range is one that would force governments to put a lot more stress on tapping their people and entrepreneurship and innovation rather than just tapping an oil well.

Q: I just read that China has passed new green laws aimed at creating a recycling economy. It's great, but it's also distressing because it is China.

A: You got it (laughing). Clean technology, green power, energy efficiency. These are going to be the next great global industries. They have to be. Otherwise, we are not going to be able to live on this planet. I think we are prime to lead it. We have all the secret sauce you need to lead this revolution just as we did the I.T. Revolution. You always come home shaking your head saying, "Why aren't we leading this parade?"

Q: Is there any global economic event that might slow consumerism and give Mother Nature a breather?

A: Well, certainly any kind of recession like we are seeing now with high oil prices. It does have that effect, I mean we've seen 100,000 more people riding the Washington subway where I live on a daily basis when gasoline prices went to $140 a barrel. Price works. People will change their behavior. But, conversely, when the price comes down people will, not in every case but in many, change their behavior back.

Q: People have been hearing about the rain forest being chopped down for 20 years. Now they are desensitized. How do you change it?

A: It's true. People have been talking about this for a long time. Not everyone is going to make the connection that 20 percent of carbon emissions and the forces warming the planet come from cutting and clearing the forest. These are very complex systems, but all the dots connect. One day they will connect all the way up to tulips coming up in your front yard in the middle of December.

Q: Baby boomers, who have the majority of the wealth in this country, have a real opportunity to save the planet. Instead, preserving their youth seems to be a priority. Could marketing and vanity be to blame for the next great extinction?

A: What I try to tell young people, and I have a college-age daughter and one that has just graduated, is you have to get out of Facebook and into people's faces. At the end of the day these decisions are not made in the chat room. They are made in the cloakroom. If young people aren't out and not only building awareness online but building pressure where decisions are made, then their future is going to be made for them. We are charging our kids' futures on our Visa cards.

Q: Where do you find your optimism when looking at the state of the world?

A: I do a lot of drugs (laughing). I live by the motto that pessimists are usually right, optimists are usually wrong. But all the great change in history was usually done by optimists.