More than 40% of the world’s electrical demand in 2024 was met via clean sources — solar and wind.
A report by the energy think tank Ember said the milestone was driven by a boom in solar power capacity, which has doubled in the last three years.
More than 40% is a large number. A hopeful number.
Perhaps even better:
In 2004, it took one year to install one gigawatt of solar power.
In 2023, humans installed one gigawatt of solar power every day.
But imagine what that number could be if we hadn’t suffered years of intentional misinformation, political malfeasance, and disingenuous denial about the growing impact of climate change.
Imagine how much better our world might be if corporations did not deliberately lie about the impact of greenhouse gases and politicians didn’t take their money to perpetuate those lies and legislate as if they were the truth.
Every single politician who, at any point in the last two decades, has denied the realities of climate change is responsible. Every politician —mostly Republicans — who has and continues to turn a blind eye to science is a part of the problem. Their names should be etched on a monument of shame for all to see.
We are making enormous progress in the pursuit of clean energy, but let us not forget the decades of malfeasance by politicians who accepted money from fossil fuel companies in exchange for campaign contributions to support their desperate attempts to cling to power at the expense of humanity’s future.
