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Cory Doctorow
@pluralistic@mamot.fr  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

In Bill McKibben's new book *Here Comes the Sun*, he frequently laments activists' tendency not to celebrate our wins, a habit that sees us always feeling as though we were losing, even when we're racking up massive victories:

https://billmckibben.com/books/here-comes-the-sun/

--

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/10/02/there-goes-the-sun/#carbon-shifting

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Bill McKibben

Here Comes the Sun

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.
A Chinese Communist propaganda poster showing a cross-section of Chinese people waving the Little Red Book. The Little Red Book has been replaced with solar panels. The background has been replaced with the EU flag.
A Chinese Communist propaganda poster showing a cross-section of Chinese people waving the Little Red Book. The Little Red Book has been replaced with solar panels. The background has been replaced with the EU flag.
A Chinese Communist propaganda poster showing a cross-section of Chinese people waving the Little Red Book. The Little Red Book has been replaced with solar panels. The background has been replaced with the EU flag.
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Cory Doctorow
@pluralistic@mamot.fr replied  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

*Here Comes the Sun* is an extraordinary, beautifully told, exhaustively researched and argued book about the remarkable progress of solar energy over the past five or so years. McKibben is speaking as much to his fellow activists as he is to the people on the sidelines, trying to get them to understand the quiet, profound changes to solar, to "update their priors" about whether a solar transition is possible, and what impediments stand between us and decarbonization.

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Cory Doctorow
@pluralistic@mamot.fr replied  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

For example, you may have read that the material bill for solar is simply too large to pay; that there isn't enough copper, enough conflict minerals, enough lithium for the panels, wires and batteries we'll need for a solar transition:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/06/with-great-power/#comes-great-responsibility

This is just not true, for several reasons.

First, the material bill for solarization is in freefall, with no end in sight. The amount of *stuff* we need to make panels, transmission lines and batteries keeps declining.

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https://pluralistic.net

Pluralistic: Circular battery self-sufficiency (06 Aug 2024)

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