I have solar panels on my roof and the only thing I lack, is a decent storage battery system that doesn't cost me the price of a new car every ten years or so. I'm waiting for that but in the meantime, I will continue cycling my solar energy into the grid and drawing it back out at night time. At least I'm doing something.
I have solar panels on the roof and a battery. Best move ever! This time of year, I go entire months off grid.
I'm a big believer in distributed, rooftop power gen - so people have little need for power companies in their day to day life.
Sadly, America is going to start falling far behind the rest of the world. Someday, people will notice the drag fossil fuel is on the economy and the shift will.be quick. Thanks for not giving up and keeping up the messaging
This is such an important conversation. Here in California, our Public Utilities Commission has been making one move after the next to cripple rooftop solar in favor of large, utility-owned solar farms. Supposedly rooftop solar is a pain for them and their shareholders, and our governor has done nothing to stop them. But their value proposition is simplistic: it does not put any value on the overall benefit to the citizens of this state to have their electricity generation distributed and massively augmented, while minimizing harm to ecosystems. Nor does it consider that ecosystems provide more climate benefits than just being climate sinks: intact
ecosystems contribute climate resilience — percolating water, cooling the microclimate, etc. At the very least, large buildings (schools, data centers) should be incentivized to install solar, but that is not what the PUC is doing. Very glad to hear China and Utah are doing the right thing, and hope that California will get on board!
I think once word gets out that not only are renewable energy sources more ethically sound but fiscally/economically sound, the fossil fuel bros are cooked. My only slight quarrel is with the name Sun Day, since it invites confusion with Sunday, but the overall message is what matters.
Bill McKibben has done a very laudable work by promoting cost saving clean energy solutions. And Emily Atkin is to be commended for attempting to make us aware of what he has done. Unfortunately, there are other systems that are threatening our habitable earth. For some years now, climate scientists have warned us that earth’s warming cannot be totally explained by GHGs (green house gases) in the atmosphere. There have to be other sources. Thanks to recent peer reviewed papers by James Hansen and his co-authors we need to look more closely at energy. GHGs only prevent energy from radiating back into space. They have nothing to do with energy that is being absorbed by the earth. That is controlled by albedo – reflectivity. The higher the albedo the more energy is reflected into space and the cooler the earth remains.
In two recent papers James Hansen et al explain that the earth is darkening. It is absorbing more energy. That is because the albedo is lessening. There are three basic albedo systems on the earth. The first is ice and snow – from sea ice, ice sheets, glaciers, etc. These are all melting! The second is clouds. But recent research is showing that the bright white clouds that form over the oceans are disappearing as the oceans warm. The third is aerosols. In the last 10 years a group of climate scientists, including James Hansen, have been studying aerosols – particulates found in GHG emissions that reflect energy back into space. When we lessen GHG emissions we improve our climate but we also reduce the aerosols. The result is a warming effect that lasts for a while since the albedo effect of the aerosols is missing. James Hansen calls this the “Faustian bargain”. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/30/opinion/columnists/the-faustian-bargain-of-reducing-air-pollution.html
Here are the papers;
Large Cloud Feedback Confirms High Climate Sensitivity: May 13, 2025
The May 13, 2025 paper relies on the February paper for a discussion of aerosols – what they are and why they are important. There is a detailed discussion about how the removal of sulfur aerosols in the fuel tankers use caused a significant global warming. Hansen notes at the end of this paper that Leon Simons has done extensive work on aerosols. He has been interviewed in a number of YouTube videos.
Finally, James Hansen makes a plea to the media:
“There are many scientists out there with a depth of understanding at least as great as the clique of scientists that the media rely on. Given the success of this clique in painting us as outliers, we are dependent on the larger community being willing to help educate the media about the current climate situation. For that purpose, we will discuss – one-by-one in upcoming communications – several of the matters that are raised in our papers. Thanks for your attention.”
A list of James Hansen’s papers are available here:
Mr. Cranky here, but for those who missed it, a tip of the hat to big time Mr. Cranky's appearance in a one-minute pro-windpower ad airing across the pond: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bunG-GGqzQc
Apparently he got a degree in marine biology before "walking the earth." Our "clean energy" propaganda could take a hint.
One little correction, too. The ultimate output from US rooftop solar is max 40% of current US electricity use, not total energy. So maybe 15% if we "electrify everything." NREL came to similar conclusions but I gotta say they have often been on the high side with these claims.
So yeah, we need solar and wind farms on all kinds of land. And lithium batteries. Even if we back off our consumer-materialist tendencies to any conceivable degree.
Space does not permit going into how the undeniable impacts from lithium, rare earths, etc., are being exaggerated and spotlighted in comparison to the extraction for more standard/typical materials like iron, aluminum, gold, silver, nickel for stainless steel, cement & gravel, in addition to fossil fuels. Also, while sodium batteries are in development, lithium utility batteries today already have gotten rid of cobalt and nickel, using the iron phosphorus LFP type.
I sometimes vacation at a lake about 15 miles from McKibben's home in VT. There is small hydro facility on the lake along with a transmission line and penstock on the mountain overlooking it and a dammed reservoir feeding it. Nobody gives this stuff much notice. But I guarantee if any of it was proposed today, locals and environmentalists would launch a campaign against it, just like all they do against solar and wind farms.
It just kills me to read young people saying they are too cynical to do or think something. Cynicism needs to be earned and even then it is wrong. To me, it's a sentiment from privilege. As in the spectacular Kurosawa 7 Samurai film, the main Samurai says he has lost every battle. At the end, he acknowledges who wins, but after another huge sacrifice. Time to stop self-pity and cynicism and continue to fight for what is right and just.
Really enjoyed this interview. Inspiration when I've been feeling down. In NYC where I live, balcony solar would really change things and make solar generation more accessible. Thanks to both of you!
Great conversation! I was so happy to learn that my state, Maryland, is one of the Solar App+ states! Which is great b/c we plan to go net zero, but aren't yet ready to build until after the tax credits go away.
I have solar panels on my roof and the only thing I lack, is a decent storage battery system that doesn't cost me the price of a new car every ten years or so. I'm waiting for that but in the meantime, I will continue cycling my solar energy into the grid and drawing it back out at night time. At least I'm doing something.
Great interview!
I have solar panels on the roof and a battery. Best move ever! This time of year, I go entire months off grid.
I'm a big believer in distributed, rooftop power gen - so people have little need for power companies in their day to day life.
Sadly, America is going to start falling far behind the rest of the world. Someday, people will notice the drag fossil fuel is on the economy and the shift will.be quick. Thanks for not giving up and keeping up the messaging
More power to you both, Emily and Bill, and to the increasing number of Americans who "get" solar power! Onward and upward!
This is such an important conversation. Here in California, our Public Utilities Commission has been making one move after the next to cripple rooftop solar in favor of large, utility-owned solar farms. Supposedly rooftop solar is a pain for them and their shareholders, and our governor has done nothing to stop them. But their value proposition is simplistic: it does not put any value on the overall benefit to the citizens of this state to have their electricity generation distributed and massively augmented, while minimizing harm to ecosystems. Nor does it consider that ecosystems provide more climate benefits than just being climate sinks: intact
ecosystems contribute climate resilience — percolating water, cooling the microclimate, etc. At the very least, large buildings (schools, data centers) should be incentivized to install solar, but that is not what the PUC is doing. Very glad to hear China and Utah are doing the right thing, and hope that California will get on board!
Great interview! Happy Sun Day!
I think once word gets out that not only are renewable energy sources more ethically sound but fiscally/economically sound, the fossil fuel bros are cooked. My only slight quarrel is with the name Sun Day, since it invites confusion with Sunday, but the overall message is what matters.
Bill McKibben has done a very laudable work by promoting cost saving clean energy solutions. And Emily Atkin is to be commended for attempting to make us aware of what he has done. Unfortunately, there are other systems that are threatening our habitable earth. For some years now, climate scientists have warned us that earth’s warming cannot be totally explained by GHGs (green house gases) in the atmosphere. There have to be other sources. Thanks to recent peer reviewed papers by James Hansen and his co-authors we need to look more closely at energy. GHGs only prevent energy from radiating back into space. They have nothing to do with energy that is being absorbed by the earth. That is controlled by albedo – reflectivity. The higher the albedo the more energy is reflected into space and the cooler the earth remains.
In two recent papers James Hansen et al explain that the earth is darkening. It is absorbing more energy. That is because the albedo is lessening. There are three basic albedo systems on the earth. The first is ice and snow – from sea ice, ice sheets, glaciers, etc. These are all melting! The second is clouds. But recent research is showing that the bright white clouds that form over the oceans are disappearing as the oceans warm. The third is aerosols. In the last 10 years a group of climate scientists, including James Hansen, have been studying aerosols – particulates found in GHG emissions that reflect energy back into space. When we lessen GHG emissions we improve our climate but we also reduce the aerosols. The result is a warming effect that lasts for a while since the albedo effect of the aerosols is missing. James Hansen calls this the “Faustian bargain”. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/30/opinion/columnists/the-faustian-bargain-of-reducing-air-pollution.html
Here are the papers;
Large Cloud Feedback Confirms High Climate Sensitivity: May 13, 2025
https://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2025/CloudFeedback.13May2025.pdf
Global Warming Has Accelerated: Are the United Nations and the Public Well-Informed? February 3, 2025
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00139157.2025.2434494#abstract
The May 13, 2025 paper relies on the February paper for a discussion of aerosols – what they are and why they are important. There is a detailed discussion about how the removal of sulfur aerosols in the fuel tankers use caused a significant global warming. Hansen notes at the end of this paper that Leon Simons has done extensive work on aerosols. He has been interviewed in a number of YouTube videos.
Finally, James Hansen makes a plea to the media:
“There are many scientists out there with a depth of understanding at least as great as the clique of scientists that the media rely on. Given the success of this clique in painting us as outliers, we are dependent on the larger community being willing to help educate the media about the current climate situation. For that purpose, we will discuss – one-by-one in upcoming communications – several of the matters that are raised in our papers. Thanks for your attention.”
A list of James Hansen’s papers are available here:
https://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/
Other sources:
Richard Crim: The Crisis Report – 112
https://open.substack.com/pub/richardcrim/p/the-crisis-report-112?r=16l6m&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Paul Beckwith: James Hansen’s New Paper and Presentation: Global Warming Has ACCELERATED video 40:08
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZplU7bJebRQ
Mr. Cranky here, but for those who missed it, a tip of the hat to big time Mr. Cranky's appearance in a one-minute pro-windpower ad airing across the pond: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bunG-GGqzQc
Apparently he got a degree in marine biology before "walking the earth." Our "clean energy" propaganda could take a hint.
One little correction, too. The ultimate output from US rooftop solar is max 40% of current US electricity use, not total energy. So maybe 15% if we "electrify everything." NREL came to similar conclusions but I gotta say they have often been on the high side with these claims.
So yeah, we need solar and wind farms on all kinds of land. And lithium batteries. Even if we back off our consumer-materialist tendencies to any conceivable degree.
Space does not permit going into how the undeniable impacts from lithium, rare earths, etc., are being exaggerated and spotlighted in comparison to the extraction for more standard/typical materials like iron, aluminum, gold, silver, nickel for stainless steel, cement & gravel, in addition to fossil fuels. Also, while sodium batteries are in development, lithium utility batteries today already have gotten rid of cobalt and nickel, using the iron phosphorus LFP type.
I sometimes vacation at a lake about 15 miles from McKibben's home in VT. There is small hydro facility on the lake along with a transmission line and penstock on the mountain overlooking it and a dammed reservoir feeding it. Nobody gives this stuff much notice. But I guarantee if any of it was proposed today, locals and environmentalists would launch a campaign against it, just like all they do against solar and wind farms.
It just kills me to read young people saying they are too cynical to do or think something. Cynicism needs to be earned and even then it is wrong. To me, it's a sentiment from privilege. As in the spectacular Kurosawa 7 Samurai film, the main Samurai says he has lost every battle. At the end, he acknowledges who wins, but after another huge sacrifice. Time to stop self-pity and cynicism and continue to fight for what is right and just.
Really enjoyed this interview. Inspiration when I've been feeling down. In NYC where I live, balcony solar would really change things and make solar generation more accessible. Thanks to both of you!
Great conversation! I was so happy to learn that my state, Maryland, is one of the Solar App+ states! Which is great b/c we plan to go net zero, but aren't yet ready to build until after the tax credits go away.