Bill McKibben

Environmental writer, educator, and activist; founder of Third Act, co-founder of 350.org, and Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College. He is the author of The End of Nature and advocates for climate action and a rapid clean-energy transition.

Cheap Solar Makes Deployment Speed the Decisive Climate Question

Environmental writer Bill McKibben argues that solar and wind have become the cheapest new sources of electricity, making a global shift away from fossil fuels economically likely. The climate question, he says, is whether deployment can move fast enough to limit further warming, rather than arriving decades after the damage is locked in. McKibben contends that permitting barriers, political resistance and fossil-fuel interests—not a lack of technology—now pose the central obstacle.

TEDAug 6, 20265 min read