Just in time for my chapter on Solutions to Climate Change and prophylactics to general environmental collapse (almost to a full draft!), Bill McKibben, the authoritative environmental guru from Vermont, proclaims a moment for the sun, or chiefly, solar energy. His message is particularly timely because of the general despair as Biden's pro-environment, pro-renewable energy tax credits are destroyed by Trump et al.

McKibben believes that partly because of the sensible rest of the world, solar will have enough momentum to propel us into a clean-energy future.

One of many valuable nuggets--something I was not sure of--was that solar panels are increasingly recyclable, and because new ones are made with less of the most precious materials, like polysilicon and silver, old ones are like a gold mine and can be used to build many more panels. Furthermore, although there were concerns about lithium availability for batteries early on, those worries have abated, and some think we will be done with all lithium mining by 2050, after which it will just be continually recycled.

As we are grieving the more than 134 people killed by climate-change-fueled flooding in Texas, and especially the little girls of Camp Mystic, it is something to have a hopeful antidote to Trump’s vandalistic opposition to climate action and perverse sabotage of FEMA.

I highly recommend reading the whole article in the New Yorker, at https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/46-billion-years-on-the-sun-is-having-a-moment, and possibly his new book, Here Comes the Sun. Bill McKibben is always a good read, and this time, the news is surprisingly heartening.