Humans might be smarter than we often seem

We have, I think, gotten to where we don't have to be told that the climate is changing -- warming and also becoming more unpredictably wild.

But perhaps more than we recognize, the human species -- subset United State-ians -- is finally doing something about reducing fossil fuel use by adding renewable energy sources.

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Renewables are taking off -- the curve is escalating fast.

 

Solar and wind, enhanced by batteries, are beating the costs of old-fashioned oil and coal energy. As the graph highlights, we may have unthinkingly unbalanced the climate with older fuels, but human science is coming to our undeserved rescue.

 

That particularly means solar energy installations; the number just goes up and up.

 

The energy transition is hard and disruptive, but we seem capable of achieving it. And the transition in China, which matters even more than we do in the US of A, seems on a strong path.

 

All graphs snagged from the economist/curmudgeon Noah Smith.