Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance Civilization

On December 7 we get the year’s earliest sunset, followed by the shortest day on December 21 and the darkest morning in early January. This timing doesn’t match the solstice because Earth’s tilt and elliptical orbit make our solar day slightly longer than 24 hours as we move fastest near early January. That small shift moves sunrise and sunset milestones off the solstice, meaning the darkest-feeling afternoon of winter arrives now.

For environmentalists the last few years have been a series of bad defeats, but underneath and largely unnoticed there is one big good thing that is happening and that’s the rapid rise of power from the sun.The cost of alternative energy has fallen below the price of fossil fuels. Now around the world every 18 hours people install solar panels equivalent to a coal fire power plant, this is faster than any energy transition in history. It may be the only remaining chance to slow down the rapid heating of the Earth. Bill McKibben is the author of the new book “Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance Civilization.”