Note that if you purchase something via one of our links, including Amazon, we may earn a small commission.
A quote of the week, plus a tip for bug-friendly backyards.
We’re not short of energy, but we are short of time.
– climate activist and author Bill McKibbon, speaking with Ezra Klein for The Ezra Klein Show
Dear Reader,
If you haven’t yet listened to Bill McKibben talk to New York Times op-ed writer Ezra Klein on The Ezra Klein Show, please do. (And don’t miss Bluedot’s editorial director Leslie Garrett in conversation with McKibben.) As usual, McKibben, who has the distinction of being one of the earliest to sound the alarm on climate change with his 1989 book The End of Nature, has plenty to say, about both what has brought us to the climate crisis we’re in and how we can get out of it. McKibben himself has never wavered in his conviction that fossil fuels are killing our planet. But what has changed is his outlook, which, with renewable energy now cheaper than fossil fuels (not to mention safer and far more plentiful), is more optimistic that we just might be at a tipping point when the market drives us toward the necessary shift. Admittedly, we have to squint to see a fossil-free future. As Dot writes this, the U.S. administration is announcing $700 million in funding to bail out the coal industry, which one climate writer likened to throwing a lifeline to a ship that had already sunk. But even with world leaders doubling down on fossil fuel extraction, McKibben notes that, “All of a sudden, there really is an abundance of energy. So we’re not short of energy, but we are short of time. If we’re going to make any real difference in the single most critical question that humans face — which is the rapid heating of the Earth — then we have to do this very fast, faster than economic forces and things by themselves would produce.”
McKibben gets into the nitty-gritty — outlining how rapidly improving battery technology is addressing many of the criticisms of renewable energy, how widespread adoption of EVs and (his personal fave) e-bikes is transforming how we move ourselves around, and how an abundance of clean energy can make what’s currently unimaginable possible.
Of course, against all this promise is McKibben’s pointed reminder that we are up against a ticking clock.
Urgently,
Dot
For more Bluedot Climate Quick Tips, click here.
