From Red China to Green? A Times columnist says that China's decision to 'go green' should spur the U.S. to do the same.

• Author: Friedman, Thomas L.
• Position: ENVIRONMENT

Most people today would guess that when historians look back at 2008 and 2009 decades from now, they'll say that the most important thing to happen in this period was the Great Recession.

But I'm not so sure. If we manage to continue stumbling out of the current economic crisis, I think future historians may look back and decide that the most important thing to happen in the last 18 months was that Red China decided to become Green China.

China's leaders have decided to go green out of necessity. Too many of their people can't breathe, can't swim, can't fish, can't farm, and can't drink clean water thanks to pollution from the country's thousands of factories that rely on coal and oil.

Unless China powers its growth with cleaner energy systems, and more businesses like software design and engineering, with fewer smokestacks, China will die of its own development.

And remember what we know about necessity: It's the mother of invention. And when China decides it has to go green out of necessity, watch out. You'll not only be buying your toys from China, but your next electric car, solar panels, batteries, and energy-efficiency software as well and that's not good for the U.S. and our economy.

ANOTHER SPUTNIK?

I think the Chinese decision to go green is the 21st-century equivalent of the Soviet Union's 1957 launch of Sputnik the world's first Earth-orbiting satellite. Sputnik's launch stunned America: It convinced President Eisenhower that the United States was falling behind in missile technology, and it spurred us to make massive investments in science, education, infrastructure, and technology. One eventual by-product of this push was the Internet.

Well, Sputnik just went up again: China's going clean-tech. And that means that America's view of China that China is trying to leapfrog us by out-polluting us--is out of date: China is actually going to try to out-green us.

Right now, China is focused on low-cost manufacturing of solar, wind, and battery technology and building the world's biggest market for these products. It still badly lags behind U.S. innovation.

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But research and innovation will follow the market to China. In fact, America's premier solar-equipment maker, Applied Materials, is about to open the world's largest privately funded solar-research facility--in Xian, China.

"If they invest in 21st-century technologies and we invest in 20th-century technologies, they'll win," says David Sandalow, the Assistant...