You won't find that alert flipping through the pages of Vogue or Harper's Bazaar. Nor will you find it on the Style network or the runways in Milan. No, that recommendation comes straight from #1 bestselling author and New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman, and it's a trend that I guarantee we won't be regretting along with our leg warmers and leisure suits.

Last week at the Book Expo America conference in L.A., I had the opportunity to listen to Friedman speak about his new, upcoming book Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution - and How It Can Renew America. It publishes in September, and from the few excerpts I heard him read and comment on, I already know it's masterful. The author writes with insightfulness and urgency on a topic that is pertinent to every single person in existence, and I can easily say it's one of the books I'm most looking forward to reading this fall.

So here is what we know: global warming, human consumption, and population are rapidly increasing at paces that can't be sustained in the long run by our planet. This is not news.

What Friedman discusses in his upcoming release, though, is that time is ticking faster than we realize, and that little changes - a compact fluorescent light bulb here, a hybrid car there - will not nearly suffice in saving the earth. Major, disruptive, collective changes, like breaking down of the oil companies, modified business practices, and new government policies - have to come from somewhere, and fast.  Whether it be from China, Europe, or the United States, it has to happen - and he has heartfelt hopes that it happens with Americans leading the way, for many reasons.

It's easy to see that Darien has done a great job so far in encouraging a green revolution - the real kind of revolution that actually brings about change. Darien has an active Environmental Defense Group, the new Library building will be green, our businesses and organizations have adopted environmentally friendly practices, and we're constantly reading and thinking about new ways to save our beloved planet. I think we can proudly call ourselves trendsetters, and Friedman's book is a great tool for encouraging us to continue to think and act in big ways.

Summer has yet to begin, but I'm already looking ahead to an incredibly green fall.