I'm Alan Alder, and this is clear and vivid conversations about connecting and communicating.

In May, the Chinese were putting up three gigawatts of solar panels a day, a gigawatts the rough equivalent

of a large coal-fired power plant. So one of those was going up every eight hours. Here's the

thing. If we lived in a world where climate change was not the greatest crisis we've ever

faced, then we could just sit back and let economics do its thing.

Thirty years from now we'll run the planet on sun and wind because it's cheap.

But if it takes us anything like 30 years, sadly, then the planet we run on sun and wind will be a broken planet.

That's why alongside the forces of economics, we need the forces of activism to help make

this happen at the pace that gives us some chance of catching up with physics. That's Bill McKibben.

It's over 35 years since his book, The End of Nature, was for many people their first introduction

to the dangers of global warming.

His latest book is both optimistic and sobering. It's called Here Comes the Sun, a last chance

for the climate and a fresh chance for civilization. Its optimism stems from what he argues is the

astonishing surge in the use of solar and wind power around the world.

What's sobering is that the United States seems determined to live in the fossil-fueled past,

giving over leadership in the fight against global warming and in the technology that's powering that fight to countries like China and India.

Bill, I saw you speak in East Hampton out on Long Island a couple of weeks ago.

Oh, I'm glad.

You were terrific.

What a communicator.

You talked to us as though we were in your living room.

You were so at ease.

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