Or Justice Bieber got a haircut or taylor intift moved back to new york. Rose fundee for charlie rose is provided by the following rose funding for charlie rose has been provided by rose additional funding provided by and by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and Information Services worldwide. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. Rose tom friedman is here, a Pulitzer Prize winning author and Foreign Policy kohls upist nor the New York Times, 2014 presented a convergence av conflicts for president obama at home and abroad. The crisis have not deterred him from faking eck difficult action to enact fundamental change in his second term. In beijing last month he announced a historic climate agreement between the United States and china followed by decisions unilaterally grant protection to nearly 5 million undocumented immigrants. And on wednesday he made history again with his announcement to do away with the half century long u. S. Estrangement from cuba. Im pleased to have tom friedman here to talk about these issues and more as we look back at 2014 and look forward to 2015. Welcome. Great to be here, charlie, thanks. Rose good to see you. So first, this specifically. Its very interesting time. Here is barack obama who suffered a huge defeat in the midterm elections. And is now almost liberated and doing things that hes probably wanted to do from day one. But somehow, some reason, bad advice, toughen me, tough adversary wasnt able to do. And hes taken advantage, carlie. The u. S. China climate agreement, big deal. It is a very, very big deal. Very easy to i think underestimate these kind of things. We undertake to try to achieve x, y or z. But when china puts into excuse me, next five year plan, all the ingredients, i believe its 2015, that they are undertaking to build up their Renewable Energy by 2030, by 20 . By roughly a thousand gigawatts. A thousand gigawatts. A thousand gigawatts. Wait a minute, that is exactly how much Energy ElectricalEnergy Capacity we have as a country. They are going to build a United States of Renewable Energy. Now charlie f they just do half that, okay, the implications of that in terms of own vacation, in terms of scaling, in terms of bringing solar panels down that cost volume curve, that is a huge deal, if they do nothing else. So its a big deal. Rose did you once say you would like to be china for a day. And theyre going to be china for a day. I think what i. Rose i like to make decision and make sure that they will take place. Be implemented. Exactly. In a sense, what the president is doing, in your lead in, with his executive authority is just that. Hes ordering and getting stuff done. Now the congress can roll it back, obviously, and some they might. But you cant just knock out his immigration bill unless you come up with a real alternative. These are important things hes doing in terms of, you know, legalizing people who are here, but also opening the way to some of the really hightech immigration that we need. Do you want to really reverse this cuba decision when the polls today tell you that two out of three cuban americans liked this idea. So i think hes really laid down the gauntlet to the other side. That you cant get away any more with driveby Foreign Policy. Drive by the white house and you say syria. Everybody laughs, you know, you drive by the white house, you say cuba, everybody immigration everyd laughs. You better have an alternative because hes not just talking about an alternative, hes laying one down. Rose do you think he goting to with his own mind and said look, i realize this has been a very, very tough election for me, and perhaps i made some mistakes, you know, whatever reason, it didnt go my way. But i have got two years left. Yeah. And this is a very big pulpit. Well, you know, i said we talked about it a little back in the last president ial election. It was really about we had two guys running. Barack obama ran as im not mitt romney. And mitt romney ran as peoples not that centrist guy who governed the state of massachusetts. So we had a election about nothing. Now we are say midterm basically about nothing. It was about whether isis people. Rose it was about we dont like the fact that nobody is about nothing. Right, exactly. Rose and everybody is about nothing. Exactly. I think thats a good way to put telephone. We had an election about whether isis people are coming over with ebola on the mexican border. It was truly kind of in outer space. But we can have elections about nothing, but the world is to the about nothing. There are big issues out there. There are big interests we have at stake. And in rising to those interests and challenges, you cant just have elections about nothing. And im glad the president has this executive authority. Im glad hes using it in exactly the way hes using it. Rose do you think the politics may change . You look at some of the early reaction on the republican side to kouba. Marco rubio, even jeb bush. Well, you know. Rose both from florida. How long is that party going to be dragged around by the base . Really, charlie, in my next life i want to be part of the base. The base has all the fun, okay. Clearly, you know. And at some point, theyre going to have to say, again, lets look at just the cuban american issue. Twothirds of cuban americans, i read in the poll this morning, support this. Because its a new generation. They dont carry the feelings, very legitimate feelings of their parents, having, you know, been exiled forcibly in some cases. So i think ultimately you have to Pay Attention to that. You cant just be responding to what Rush Limbaugh is stoking up in the base, you know. Youve got to actually look at the world. And thats what i think has been missing so much from our foreign and domestic policy. That we arent starting the day off by saying what world are we living in, okay, were living in that world. How do we align ourselves with the big trends in that world in order to get the most out of our country and our the opportunities and our talents, and cushon the worst. Too many times we start the day by saying, where is the base . Where is the base . Okay. I think a lot of what the last election was about about disgust about it. Rose i like about it boldness. I like to see boldness in leadership. I totally agree. Rose but looking at climate, how close are we to some Tipping Point in terms of years unless we have drastic action, and a dramatic reduction of emissions . Well, you know, there is a concept, that climate Scientists Use which is our challenge is that we need to avoid the unmanageable, and manage the unavoidable. And thats really at the thats the sort of nice edge that were on. Because pick up the New York Times this morning. Big story about how the arctic just keeps getting warmer and warmer. And when the more ice melts, the less you have the rays of the sun being reflected off the earth. And the more those rays go right into the water, warm the ocean, the more ice meltsment and you get into that cycle, basically. Where everyone, theres certainly a strong consensus among scientists that by the end of the century, there will be no ice. You will be able to transit the arctic. You will be able to sale from, new york to seattle. Or just will. I think there is a lot of people feel its going to up and down like this, but directionally, that is clearly where things are going. Unless obviously you get some kind of climate event that reverses that. But you have to, you know, you have to presume that theyre right. And heres the real point, charlie. Lets say you are a climate denier and im not, okay. And what is my reaction. My reaction is well, lets say im wrong. And we do everything we can to get ready for climate change. What are we left with, lets see, were left with cleaner air, more innovative technologies. Less support for petro dictators. A stronger dollar, a stronger country an a more respected country. Thats if im wrong am if you ares wrong, were a bad biological experiment. So this is a nobrainer for me, you know. Rose you said the other day in a column that what we really ought to do is a gas tax. Thats the way to go. If we take that money and designate it to be used for infrastructure, think what we could be and do. I mean, first of all, we have a real problem. Last time we raised the gas tax was under that percent where we Ronald Reagan, okay. So if Ronald Reagan could raise the gasoline tax, we can raise the gasoline tax, especially when youre talking about, you know, 5, 10 currents a gallon, do you know between gas stations theres a dince between five and ten cents a gallon am but most importantly, just talk to our secretary of transportation. The Highway Trust Fund is basically broke. We cant fix our roads. This is not about building crazy high speed rail from chicago to los angeles, okay. This about the roads you ride on. The trust fund that is funned by our gasoline tax to support those roads is going bust. Because people are driving less. More hybrids, i mean its all actually a good news reason. So now is the perfect time, take the money, invest in infrastructure, create jobsment wouldnt you rather create jobs that way than by building a Keystone Pipeline that brings the worst dirty oil from canada to our sands, to the United States. And you have exactly the image you want, are you stronger and strengthen our productive capacity as a country. Rose one of the things you have railed about is us going dependent on middle eastern oil. An along comes shale oil and means that we will no longer be dependent on it. But are there risks at shale oil that concern you so that we cannot look at it as a panacea. There is no question. We see the governor of new york abandoning fracking in new york state. You know, my guide on there is my friend hall harphy who i think is one of the great environmentalists, an advisor, not a hank paulson. And you know, halls view is that there is a way to do fracking right so you dont get the met ann leakage which is so much more potent as a Greenhouse Gas than co2. That you dont des poile the water and environment. There is a way to do this right that actually doesnt cost much more the a all, charlie. The problem is we have no National Standard for fracking. The Oil Companies oppose that. Okay. So the epa, there is no epa standard for fracking. Its done at the state and local level. Thats why the governor of new york can do what he is doing. If anyone should be militatting for a National Standard, it should be the Oil Companies because there are a lot of moms an pops in the fracking business, they are the ones that dont have the resources or scien particular knowledge to do it right. The Big Companies do it right for pennies and nickels, it is not that expensive to do it rights. That is where we should be going. They should be leading it so you dont get local reaction, look what you did to my water. I turned on the tap and a flame came out. Its just, stop stop being dumb as we want to be. Rose there is also this factor, though. Because of decisions by a whole range of factors. We see the price of oil declining by the barrel. And some say it will become, if it continues to get lower and lower, it will stymie the development of alternative sources. Right. Rose one reason to go on the gas tax. Absolutely. There a real danger in that. My friend and teacher on the subject is phil verleger. Really a smart energy economist. And phil said in that column i wrote, there may be a moores law going on with fracking. That as moores law says the speed of microchips will double every 24 months. What if franking is a kind of moores law, that the Technology KeepsGetting Better and making it better, easier, cheaper, hopefully cleaner at the same time. What happens is you dont just knock out coal, god bless you for that you knock out solar and wind as well. And thats why we want fracking to be a bridge to a clean energy future, not a ditch. And it could become a ditch if the Technology Takes us there and we dont compensate for that. And that could be our undoing. Rose were talking about 2014. But looking at the front page today we talk about cuba and we have talked about climate. Theres also a russia and later north korea. Look at putin, his press conference today. I mean, what is your sense of what he has accomplished, the challenge he faces, because Falling Oil Prices have put his economy in recession and in danger. I consider him and by the way, this is not monday monday quarter backing, si have been writing this since march. I think putin is a towering fool. Rose towering physical. Towering fool, and i will tell you why. Rose who got away with crimea. Our friend Warren Buffett licks to say in the 2008 economic crisis, when the tide goes out, you see who isnt wearing a bathing suit. And when the oil tide goes out, you also see who is buck naked. And i would tell you putin is a guy who was born on third base and thought he hit a triple. I am standing here on third base, here he was, 110 barrel oil. He thought he was a genius, okay. And suddenly its 50, he doesnt look like such a genius any more. In my view, putin is a guy, a leader who at one and the same time is taking on the market, mother nature, moores law and human nature all at the same time rses but therefore this irraise man who will necessarily dot rational. The famous first rule is hold, when are you in one, stop dig, right now he is in one. The idea that he would dig it deeper, i think at a certain point, he has already, you know, probably cut net worth of all his cronies. But i think people forget one thing about russia. I have seen some of this in the analysis, you know where i stand, are the russian people, even putin says this, were used to sacrifice, hitler, winters, were used to sacrifice. This is not your babuska russia. Remember putin built a huge middle class. These are people with cars, jobs, homes, the ability to travel. Now you have come hell has no wrath like a middle class that loses its ability to travel, okay. You have gotten all these people, all these opportunities and suddenly say okay, no travel. By the way, your ruble, that air particular you are trying to buy, now takes ten times as many rubles to buy. And we will see how in to suffering they are, you know, for crimea. I walls find that people who tell me the other guy is ready to suffer, he is the guy who has the secure government job. Rose and can leave. Can leave, exactly. But people telling you about other people are ready to suffer, im a little dubious. Rose as we end the year also in the headlines is north korea because of hacking. Someone said this morning on my cbs program, you know, that they had won the first cyberwar, north korea wchblts look, its you know. They intimidated a company to withdraw its moviest. Hard case its a hard case because in my view, incredibly stupid movie. Stupid not in the bad humor but do you think we should be making movies about assassinating city leaders even, you know, the awful tyrannical leader of north korea. There are enough people killing people in the world. Its not funny to me. That said, i cannot dispute what you said. They have intimidated soniment and our theatre operators from showing this film. And i find that very disturbing. Rose what is disturbing to me, is a they intimidated them and everybody is alarmed at that. But if they could do it to sony, who else can they do it to. Why not the charlie rose, New York Times, the washington post, the wall street journal. We dont like that editorial. Were shutting you down for a day. Rose how about con ed. And i think right, we are if he beginning of something i find very unnerving. Charlie. Rose they an a country you thought had any technological talent and all of a sudden a huge hit. Well, they did build a nuclear bomb on their own as a her hit kingdom. Rose with the help of pakistan and a lot of money. But there obviously was enough talent for that and who knows, maybe they are other help too. Rose china. Anybody, any of the people you mentioned. I did a come awhile back where i said there are four words disappear fringt english language. Our kids can forget about these words. They are first of all, priv see. Forebet about it. Proif see is over. Number one, number two, average, average is over. In a world where robots, Automation Software to you can do above average so much more easily. Later, for climate reasons, whatever you are going to save, please save it now because later will be too late, and lastly local. Local is over. If i go out in the lobby here, you know, and punch you in the nose, people will be look at friedman punching charlie rose in poland in 30 minutes, okay, someone will have a camera ot there and tweet. So you know, privacy, average, local, and late remember all over. And what will be. Rose to what consequence. And that is what i really ask. I really am talking to my Dear Colleague maureen dowd the over day really saying, i have to say, glad i had my journalism when hi it, you know. Rose because . Because it was just a lot simpler. And it wasnt that we were under scrutiny. People were always writing letters, attack, writing about you. But just physically as a journalist, you know, when i was a foreign correspondent, i just had to write my story at night, file it in. I didnt have to tweet, facebook, instagram, update for the web, you know. You could actually sit back and reflect. Hey, what happened today. And then type it out on something called, i dont know if your viewers know what this is, its called a type require, put pressure on a key and if leaves an impression of a letter on a piece of paper and file it by tellex, but i will take that over what we have today any day. Rose lets talk about isis. Where