Here Comes the Sun — If We Fight for It

A remarkable headline recently appeared in Science, America’s leading scientific journal: “Here Comes the Sun.” It named the rapid rise of solar energy as the scientific breakthrough of the year.

That breakthrough is already reshaping the world.

Over the past decade, China has driven down the cost of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, and electric vehicles at stunning speed. In fact, the green technology that China exported in 2025 was worth more than what the U.S. exported in fossil fuels. Clean energy is no longer a niche technology or a moral aspiration—it is now the cheapest way to power modern life.

For the first time in history, replacing fossil fuels is not just a moral duty.
It is economically inevitable—if politics does not stop it.

The pace of change has been extraordinary. Last year, the European Union generated more electricity from solar and wind than from fossil fuels. So did Chile. Globally, renewables supplied just 5 percent of electricity in 2016. By 2024, that figure had tripled to 15 percent, and it continues to climb.

By the early 2030s, solar and wind are likely to generate more electricity worldwide than coal, oil, and gas combined. For electricity—and increasingly for transportation—a net-zero economy by 2050 is entirely achievable.

The reason is simple: solar and wind are now the cheapest forms of energy humans have ever invented. And battery prices are collapsing just as quickly. Electric vehicles are already the most economical cars to own in many countries. Energy storage—once the Achilles’ heel of renewables—is becoming routine and affordable, enabling storage providers to deliver electricity long past when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing.

This is not theory. It is happening now.

In Australia, solar power is so abundant during the day that this year, several major cities will offer three hours of free electricity every day. Households can store that power in home batteries. Electric vehicles can charge for free. Fossil fuels simply cannot compete with free.

Across the Global South, countries are leapfrogging dirty energy entirely—skipping coal and gas in favor of solar and wind. The clean-energy transition is spreading not because of idealism, but because it makes economic sense.

And yet—despite all this—we are still moving far too slowly.

The planet is heating faster than scientists predicted. Wildfires, floods, heat waves, and crop failures are accelerating. Every year of delay locks in more damage.

And delay is not accidental.  It is because of the greed of the fossil fuel industry world wide trying to preserve their profits.  In April of 2024 Trump said directly to oil sellers Give me a billion dollars for my election and I’ll give you everything you want.  And he has, attacking renewable energy everywhere he can.

Powerful interests are fighting to preserve fossil-fuel profits. In the United States, President Trump’s attacks on renewable energy are echoing across global politics. Corporations retreat. Governments hesitate. Climate action was pushed to the back seat at Davos, displaced by political theater rather than planetary survival.

This is not a failure of technology.

It is a failure of courage.

We already have the tools to build a clean, abundant, affordable energy system. What we lack is leadership willing to stand up to fossil-fuel power

That is why we must vote for the planet.

Vote in elections.
Vote in local utility decisions.
Vote with where your money goes.
Vote with what policies you demand.

A sustainable future is no longer a distant dream. It is visible. It is affordable. It is within reach.

To turn away now—when clean energy is winning on cost, on performance, and on human welfare—would be madness.

The sun is rising.

The only question is whether we will let it.