Here Comes the Sun

Bill McKibben

Accept this gift the scientists have brought

Stop me if you've heard this one: when we burn stuff (any kind of stuff, really: wood, coal, oil, gas) it turns into carbon dioxide and water. The water isn't even noticeable, but the CO2 goes into the atmosaphere and traps heat. You might be surprised to hear that the atmosphere is substantially hotter now than it was even 60 years ago. (I'm 70 years old, and I remember -- this is true.) What's more, this global warming causes all kinds of problems forest fires, sea-level rises, etc. As always, the people who suffer most are the ones who aren't rich.

Oh, you have heard that? Why aren't you worried? Well, I know the answer to that, because I've heard it many, many times: "The scientists will figure something out." As a card-carrying scientist myself, I am not reassured by hearing that you're relying on me to FIX THIS.

But Bill McKibben is here to tell you that we did it! We scientists done figured something out. (Well, not me, personally. I'm a neuroscientist. Fixing the climate is not within my remit.) Just in the nick of time! Very dramatic. And it is astonishingly cheap. In the world right now solar power is the cheapest way of producing energy -- even cheaper than burning stuff.

What they figured out is this: solar panels that produce electricity when the sun shines on them, windmills that produce energy when the wind blows (we call them wind turbines now, because that sounds so much cooler), and batteries for when the sun is not shining and the wind is not blowing. Also, heat pumps and electric cars that make it possible to do everything we used to do by burning stuff with electricity. And, as McKibben never tires of pointing out, the sun is everywhere, and after we use it, it is still there.

Here's the problem: you all need to accept this gift! And you need to accept that it won't be invisible. You'll see these windmills and solar panels everywhere. Right in your own back yards and on your rooftops and balconies. You also need to accept that solar energy is inexpensive. Most of the folks using it are not rich. Very few people are going to become obscenely wealthy by selling it. This is a problem, because we are stuck in this world where we only do BIG STUFF if someone can become very, very rich.

Yes, I know. Change is HARD. But change is coming, whether you want it to or not. Please, please, for everyone's sake, accept this gift.

Brok3n Engines

★★★★☆ Here Comes the Sun, by Bill McKibben