Food for Thought: No One Person Can Stop the Wind — The Good, Bad, Ugly and Hopeful of the Climate Crisis

Climate scientist Shero Dr. Katharine Hayhoe takes on Trump in the fight of our lives and shows how we can win by acting together and making clean energy unstoppable.

By Alliance President Terry Gips

In one more inimitable, inspiring Substack piece of hers, forceful, brilliant climate scientist and author Dr. Katharine Hayhoe reminds us how far renewable energy has come in the world despite the attempts of the fossil fuel industry and President Trump to block it.

She continues to battle them through her counter punches with her self-described “clear-eyed” analysis and rallying us to real opportunities for change. Hayhoe doesn’t shy from sharing the sobering reality of what we’re up against but shows us possibilities and underscores our power to change energy systems, especially when we look to history and other countries around the world. Certainly, her energy alone could be enough to light our entire country.

I’d summarize her gift of three important need-to-knows for us to confront the climate crisis:

  1. We Have Effective Renewable Energy Storage Solutions – We’ve constantly heard the refrain from fossil fueled politicians: “The sun doesn’t shine at night and the wind doesn’t always blow.” Hayhoe acknowledges this and points out the result is that “energy storage is one of the fastest-growing areas of innovation today.”

    She points to “the variety of energy storage techniques being developed in Texas, from gravity-based systems to compressed air.” She’s written about how “Finland is home to the world’s largest sand battery and is constructing  one of the largest underground heat storage facilities in the world” and how these technologies are ideal for large-scale systems.

    She then points out that “for smaller applications — like home energy storage units, electric vehicles, and laptops — lithium-ion batteries remain the go-to solution.” Incredibly, “the global price of lithium-ion batteries has dropped 20%, reaching a record low of $115 per kilowatt hour.”

    Meanwhile, she points to a 44% increase in the number of battery energy storage systems installed last year around the world, with 80% of it going into grid-scale storage systems that will ensure around-the-clock supply of energy to the grid.

    She provides an important reminder that “regardless of what the Trump administration says, the world is accelerating towards a clean energy future.” In fact, last year the EU got 11% of its power from solar energy, besting coal, and that percentage is only expected to grow in coming years.

    “Also in 2024, investors across the globe spent almost twice as much money on green energy than on fossil fuel projects, with investments hitting $2 trillion, a new record,” Hayhoe exclaims.

    But don’t just take it from her. According to the Executive Secretary of the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change Simon Stiell, ”The world is undergoing an energy transition that is unstoppable.”

    His predecessor Christiana Figueres agrees, saying, “Renewables aren’t only healthier, faster, cleaner and more abundant.They undercut fossil fuels where they are at their weakest: their rampant and unsolvable inefficiency. Politics will not be able to stand in the way of this technological transition.”

“Drill, baby drill” is a challenge but the wind keeps blowin’ and the sun shinin’. Credit: Talking Climate
  1. Trump’s Anti-Renewable Efforts Will Hurt Renewables and Our Country…Again – Hayhoe expresses concern that “the new US President has issued a slew of executive orders targeting climate action efforts since his inauguration, rolling back many Biden-era programs with the stroke of a pen. One Executive Order pulls the US out of the Paris Agreement again, although it will take a full year to legally go into effect. This means the US will join Iran as the only two countries in the world not participating in this global treaty.

    The US already receives 10% of its electricity from wind and US wind energy production reached a record high in 2024, Hayhoe points out.

    But she points out two other counter-productive, shoot-yourself-in-the-foot acts that Trump is calling for: A sweeping Executive Order pausing new federal permits for both onshore and offshore wind farms and one reversing the Biden-era incentives for electric vehicles. Trump stated, “The US will not sabotage our own industries while China pollutes with impunity,” but Hayhoe counters by saying that last year more than 50% of vehicles sold in China were EVs, compared to only 20% in the US. In Norway, the global leader, the EV share stands at 90%.

    She highlights Trump’s Inaugural address doubling down on fossil fuels, “We will drill, baby, drill,” he said. Trump went on to say, “We have something that no other manufacturing nation will ever have – the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth, and we are going to use it.”

    However, Hayhoe counters with the facts: According to the BP Statistical Review, it’s Venezuela that has the most oil reserves of any country; the US is number nine. Russia has the most natural gas, while the US is number five.

    Hayhoe calls out Trump for Declaring a National Energy Emergency while failing to mention solar and wind as domestic energy sources. “If there’s an energy emergency and we need energy, then you would want to [include] wind and solar energy — but he is clearly excluding expressly those,” said Michael Burger of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University. “It lays bare what’s really driving this, which is fossil fuel interest.”

    To learn more about these executive orders, Hayhoe recommends this episode of The Daily and points to the Climate Backtracker, a project of Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, as a source to keep tabs on all the things the new US administration is doing to “scale back or wholly eliminate federal climate mitigation and adaptation measures.”

    I would be remiss if I didn’t provide an historical context based on my experience working in the White House for President Carter. In 1979 the US was the unparalleled world leader in renewable energy. This was great for US business, the economy, jobs, national security, saving consumers money and, oh yes, the climate.

    And then we gave it all away with a President Reagan who took down the solar panels from the White House and stopped funding renewable energy research and projects. Denmark and other countries gobbled up the technology and sold wind turbines back to us. Was that good for American business, our country or world?

    Now we have another President who seeks to follow in Reagan’s footsteps by halting wind projects and tax credits for renewable energy and EVs while proclaiming, “drill baby drill”.

Together we can address climate change. Credit: Talking Climate
  1. History Shows Our Actions Together Can Create Real Hope and ChangeOne of the things I’ve always loved about Hayhoe is her willingness to experience despair while encouraging us to feel our feelings. As she says, “It’s easy to feel discouraged when we see the impacts of climate change-fueled disasters like the LA wildfires juxtaposed against policy changes and setbacks we know will make the problem worse.”

    She adds, “In weeks like this, when the weight feels heavy, it’s more important than ever to remember that no one can tackle the climate crisis alone. Now, more than ever, we need each other. And when we work together, we can change the world.”

    History illustrates the power of the individual when we come together. As I wrote in this essay after the most recent IPCC report came out:

    In a world that seems increasingly out of control, we are desperate for hope: real hope, a hope that acknowledges the full magnitude of the challenge we face and the very imminent risk of failure.

    Where can we find such hope? We find it in action. The world has changed before and, when it did, it wasn’t because a president, a prime minister, a CEO or a celebrity decided it had to.

    Change didn’t begin with the King of England deciding to end slavery or the President of the United States giving women the vote or the National Party of South Africa opting to end apartheid. It began when ordinary people – people of no particular power, wealth, or fame – decided that the world could and should be different.

    Who were William Wilberforce, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, and all the countless others who shared and supported and fought for their visions of a better world? They were people who had the courage of their convictions, who used their voices to advocate for the systemic societal changes needed.

    We are the people who changed the world before: and we are the people who can change it again.

    Hayhoe emphasizes, “Change begins with individuals, but it thrives in communities. In the past, individuals have altered the course of history by coming together, and tackling climate change is no exception. That’s why it’s so important for each of us to find our people— to amplify our voices and experience the strength, comfort, and hope that comes from knowing we’re not in this alone.”

    At the heart of her work is a huge question that can be transformative: “What inspires you to care about climate change? Is it your children, your garden, the sport or place you love, your faith, or your community? Whatever your motivation, there’s a group out there for you—people who share your values and vision for a better future.”

    She suggests groups from Science Moms and Third Act to EcoAthletes and GreenFaith, reminding us that “countless communities are already making a difference” that you can see compiled on her website.

    Hayhoe ends her uplifting piece with the powerful conclusion to her book, Saving Us: “The first step across the abyss we all face together is to recognize we are not alone. Together, we are the answer to climate change; and building that bridge begins with a conversation, today.”

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