Here Comes the Sun by Bill McKibben

In Here Comes the Sun, a veteran climate writer shows how solar power could still pull civilization back from the brink.

by Mike Tidwell

I was just back from my Peace Corps service in Zaire when famed climate scientist Dr. James Hansen marched up to Capitol Hill in 1988 and told Congress—for the first time—that global warming was real. Fossil fuel combustion worldwide was overloading the atmosphere with carbon, he said, and overheating the planet.

A year later, author Bill McKibben published his lyrical masterpiece The End of Nature, which grappled with the economic, social, and spiritual implications of a future where natural planetary rhythms give way to rampant wildfires, incessant sea-level rise, and heat waves that trap people, plants, and animals in their death grip. That book changed my life, as it did for legions of readers. It saddened me, and left me alarmed about the future of my loved ones in America and Africa.

Fast-forward 36 years and pretty much everything McKibben predicted in The End of Nature—and more than a dozen subsequent books—has proven true. Still, even in this late stage of climate upheaval, and even with the anti-science posture of the current administration, McKibben is an optimist.

In his latest book, Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization, published in early 2025 by W. W. Norton & Company, McKibben makes the case for solar energy, which he argues is much more disruptive and revolutionary in the global energy market than we’ve previously understood.

With a bit more of a push from world governments and cooperative U.S. states, he says, we could soon generate enough electrons from the sun to lead us toward a carbon-neutral world.

Sound far-fetched? Consider the evidence: Every day, McKibben writes, human beings deploy a gigawatt of new solar power infrastructure worldwide, capable of generating as much power as a large nuclear power plant. every day. This is happening in wealthy places like California, emerging economies like China, and poor nations like Pakistan.

In just the past two years, Pakistan has installed solar panels equal to one-third of their entire power grid. Images on Google Earth show rooftops in Karachi suddenly covered with solar panels where none existed before. Panels are ubiquitous in rural areas, too, powering water pumps and illuminating isolated schools. Super-cheap equipment from neighboring China, combined with DIY tutorials in Urdu on TikTok, now make this clean and reliable source of energy available to millions of Pakistanis.

California, meanwhile, has recently installed so much solar power—combined with utility-scale batteries—that gas combustion for electricity generation has fallen a staggering 40 percent in the state over the past two years.

And forget the term “petrostate.” McKibben writes that China is rapidly becoming the world’s first “electrostate,” moving toward the electrification of everything—cars, trains, buildings—while exporting electric vehicles, batteries, and solar panels to the rest of the world.

Combining vivid anecdotes with solid reporting and stylish prose, McKibben paints a picture of an emerging world that should give us some encouragement. I think of my tiny village in the Congo, where today there are still no functioning roads or cars or electricity at all. These villagers contribute almost nothing to global warming, and yet suffer from food stress triggered by record floods and punishing droughts. This injustice helped turn me into a full-time climate activist two decades ago, and today I advocate furiously for state and federal laws that will allow solar to compete with oil, coal, and gas on a level playing field—where it wins every time on price and reliability.

Communities across the country joined together for “Sun Day” in September 2025. Today, solar power is 41% cheaper than fossil fuels.

Of course, there’s so much more to do before renewables like solar and wind can displace the $4 trillion global fossil fuel market. Nations around the world—with or without the United States—must adhere to the goals of the 2015 Paris climate agreement. And in accordance with the principles of climate justice, we must ensure shared access to clean energy for all nations. Furthermore, impacts of the extraction of minerals like lithium on places like the Congo must be minimized, and communities compensated for any harms.

But this “fresh chance for civilization” is within our grasp. Germany, already a leader in solar, responded to gas shortages caused by the Ukraine war by passing laws encouraging “balcony solar power.” This permits apartment dwellers to simply hang a panel from their balcony and plug it directly into an electrical wall outlet, powering up to 20 percent of their home’s electrical needs. Who knew this was possible? The country has since generated 600 megawatts of solar energy annually, just from these balcony panels! Here in the U.S., Utah has passed a similar law, and other states will soon follow.

Is solar power, as McKibben writes, “a last chance for the climate”? Probably. I hope RPCVs nationwide will read this book and remember the urgency and innocence of their overseas communities. I hope they will raise their voices loudly in support of the most important revolution of our time.

Mike Tidwell (Zaire/DRC 1985–87) is the author of The Ponds of Kalambayi: A Peace Corps Memoir (Lyons Press) and, most recently, The Lost Trees of Willow Avenue: A Story of Climate and Hope on One American Street (St. Martin’s Press).