September 4, 202500:35:07

Bill McKibben on The Power of Solar Power

In this Climate Chat episode, we interview author and activist Bill McKibben about his new book, "Here Comes the Sun." Bill McKibben is the founder of Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 for action on climate and justice, and of 350.org, the first global grassroots climate campaign. He’s written more than a dozen books, including The End of Nature, Deep Economy, and Falter, and has been a contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, and Rolling Stone. He lives in the mountains of Vermont with his wife, writer Sue Halpern. ABOUT THE BOOK: From the acclaimed environmentalist, a call to harness the power of the sun and rewrite our scientific, economic, and political future. Our climate, and our democracy, are melting down. But Bill McKibben, one of the first to sound the alarm about the climate crisis, insists the moment is also full of possibility. Energy from the sun and wind is suddenly the cheapest power on the planet and growing faster than any energy source in history―if we can keep accelerating the pace, we have a change. Here Comes the Sun tells the story of the sudden spike in power from the sun and wind―and the desperate fight of the fossil fuel industry and their politicians to hold this new power at bay. From the everyday citizens who installed solar panels equal to a third of Pakistan’s electric grid in a year to the world’s sixth-largest economy―California―nearly halving its use of natural gas in the last two years, Bill McKibben traces the arrival of plentiful, inexpensive solar energy. And he shows how solar power is more than just a path out of the climate crisis: it is a chance to reorder the world on saner and more humane grounds. You can’t hoard solar energy or hold it in reserves―it’s available to all. There’s no guarantee we can make this change in time, but there is a hope―in McKibben’s eyes, our best hope for a new civilization: one that looks up to the sun, every day, as the star that fuels our world. Link to Bill's home page: https://billmckibben.com Buy the book: https://billmckibben.com/books/here-comes-the-sun/ Follow Bill on Bluesky: ‪@billmckibben.bsky.social‬ Please Like and Subscribe! Dan Miller has been giving talks around the world on the need for urgent climate action for over 20 years. He is co-founder of The Roda Group, a climate-tech venture capital group, and he serves as an advisor for other climate funds and climate-focused non-profit groups. He started Climate Chat in 2021 on Clubhouse and added YouTube in 2023. Follow Dan Miller on X/Twitter: @danmiller999 Follow Dan Miller on Bluesky: @danmiller999.bsky.social and @climatechat.bsky.social Leon Simons is a climate scientist based in the Netherlands. He was a co-author with James Hansen on the 2023 "Global Warming in the Pipeline" paper that discussed the recent acceleration in global warming. Leon's work has focused recently on changes in aerosol emissions from ships and the impact of those changes on climate change. You can access Leon's research writings here: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Leon-Simons Follow Leon on X/Twitter: @LeonSimons8 and Bluesky: ‪@leonsimons.bsky.social‬ Follow Leon on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/LeonSimons/home Follow Stacey Randecker on X/Twitter: @DrivingMzStacey and Bluesky: @bikingmzstacey.bsky.social Follow Eli Rabani on X/Twitter: @radsci and Bluesky: @radsci.bsky.social You can leave a question in the YouTube Live chat. Please begin your question with "Question:" to make it easy for our mods to spot it. For more Climate Chat episodes, see our YouTube home page: https://www.youtube.com/@climatechat For recent YouTube Live Climate Chat programs: https://www.youtube.com/@climatechat/streams

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