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

by Bill McKibben Narrated by Patrick Lawlor

Overview

From the acclaimed environmentalist, a call to harness solar power and rewrite our scientific, economic, and political future.



Every eighteen hours, the world puts up a nuclear power plant's-worth of solar panels. At the same time, combustion continues to melt our poles, poison our bodies, and drive our global inequality. And it is no longer necessary: For the first time in 700,000 years, we know how to catch the sun's rays and convert them into energy.



In Here Comes the Sun, world-renowned author Bill McKibben tells the story of our sudden spike in power from the sun and wind. McKibben traces the arrival of plentiful, inexpensive solar energy, which, if it accelerates, gives us a chance not just to limit climate change's damage, but to reorder the world on saner and more humane grounds. Getting there means overcoming obstacles like Big Oil, but McKibben sees a chance for a new civilization: one that looks up to the sun, every day, as the star that fuels our world.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"No journalist has covered the climate story longer or better than Bill McKibben… Here Comes the Sun [is] an essential read for anyone interested in where the climate story is heading."— Mark Hertsgaard The Nation

"Stirring and closely argued… [Here Comes the Sun] is visionary."— James Dinneen New Scientist

"Compelling… A paean to the emerging dominance of renewable energy."— Kirkus Reviews

"Arguably the biggest story happening in the world right now and also the most hopeful."— Chris Hayes

"No one has done more to raise the alarm about climate change or to address the problem than Bill McKibben. In Here Comes the Sun, he shows that we all have the technologies we need to move forward. If any book could make a thinking person hopeful about the future, this is it."— Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

"With plainspoken eloquence and immense clarity, McKibben describes the rapid transition to a solar-powered civilization as already begun and gaining momentum fast. This is good news, as it will lead to a healthier and more-just future for everyone; and yet there is opposition to this process from easily identified vested interests. So there are political battles to be fought, and in that ongoing struggle this book will be a crucial aid: it brings the news, it maps the situation, it gives courage. Read it and see."— Kim Stanley Robinson, author of The Ministry for the Future

"Trust Bill McKibben to find light in the darkness—and oh what a light it is! This is the energizing vision and game-plan so many of us have been waiting for, and of course it comes from one of era’s most imaginative and trusted voices."— Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate

"Bill McKibben has the unique ability to make important books both fun and a pleasure to read. For more than forty years he has campaigned about Nature and our place in it, but Here Comes the Sun may be his most timely and necessary volley yet."— Richard A. Cohen, author of Chasing the Sun: The Epic Story of the Star That Gives Us Life

"This is a history, a handbook, a hopeful look at the energy revolution that’s already well underway. Here Comes the Sun takes us into a new era beyond fossil fuels and all the literal and political poison they bring—and shows us what the obstacles are in getting there. Written with Bill McKibben’s inimitable clarity, it is also a gripping read about science, history, culture, and possibility that equips us all to be climate champions."— Rebecca Solnit, author of Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities

Kirkus Reviews

2025-07-15
The noted environmentalist and writer serves up a paean to the emerging dominance of renewable energy.

McKibben, a pioneer in writing about climate change (his first book,The End of Nature, appeared in 1989), holds that it’s too late to stop global warming: “Our best hope now is simply to stop the heating of the earth short of the point where it cuts civilization off at the knees.” If we’re going to reach that best hope, we’ll have to force the issue and stop working at our current pace, which, he gloomily adds, seems unlikely. After all this, though, McKibben becomes a bit more optimistic, as he profiles technologies that can provide necessary relief. In 2024, he writes, more than nine-tenths of the world’s new electricity came from renewables; China now has the industrial capacity to produce all the photovoltaic equipment the world needs to replace fossil fuels; batteries are becoming ever more efficient and can increasingly be thoroughly recycled, such that we need not mine the earth for more minerals. What’s wanted, writes McKibben in a polemic that stays refreshingly shy of hyperbole, is political will, and this can be done. As he notes, California “managed to produce from renewable energy more than 100 percent of the electricity it was using for long stretches of the day,” and that figure is only growing. Still, he recognizes, the fossil fuel industry is fighting tooth and nail to keep Big Oil predominant, and the present presidential administration is antagonistic to anything that smacks of environmental responsibility, such that “the US might decide to become an island of internal combustion, and then the essential nation might turn out to be China,” which would suit China just fine.

A compelling argument for altering our energy regime before we’re toast, if that’s not already the case.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940193046059
Publisher:	HighBridge Company
Publication date:	08/19/2025
Edition description:	Unabridged

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