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On April 22, 1970, on the morning of the first Earth Day, I stood on a rock outcropping at Acadia National Park and watched that sun as it made its first touchdown on our continent.
That day, 20 million Americans, Republicans and Democrats alike, demonstrated against 150 years of industrial development and its toxic effects: oil spills, pollution, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides.
It was a hugely successful day that led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Environmental Education Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts.
Standing on those rocks 55 years ago and feeling energized by the raucous national energy, I never imagined the existential changes our country would undergo in a little over half a century. So many of those changes bring me much grief and worry for the future of children all over the world.
But there's a worldwide revolution happening that only now do I understand is mind-blowingly radical and capable of reorganizing both the world economy and world power while at the same time saving us from much more dire threats to life on the planet.
That revolution is birthed by the sun, our burning neighbor 93 million miles away, whose photons slather the sky with pink in the morning and bathe my body in warmth through the day. In the last three years, mankind has massively scaled up its ability to convert those photons to energy, clean energy we won't need to fight wars to access and that won't destroy life on this planet.
On Sept. 21, the autumnal equinox, events will be held all over the country to celebrate that clean energy revolution. And one of those events will be held right here in Portland's Lincoln Park. In a nod to Earth Day, the day is called Sun Day.
The event is sponsored by Third Act, an organization founded by Bill McKibben to support old hippies like me in their attempts to preserve a safe and flourishing home for their children and grandchildren.
Earth Day was a bipartisan day of protest to protect the health and well-being of our lands and waters. It is my hope that Sun Day will also be a day that unites us as a community over our shared concerns for the future of our oceans, our forests and our children.
Most of this revolution in technology is coming, sadly, not from us but from China. In the last year, Chinese firms have pledged at least $227 billion across green manufacturing projects in countries like Pakistan, Indonesia, Morocco, Spain and Brazil. They are investing in battery production and recycling facilities, mineral procurement and charging equipment.
Mexico, Bangladesh and Malaysia are using primarily renewably produced electricity in everyday activities like heating and cooling buildings and powering vehicles. In Africa, solar panel imports from China rose 60% in the last 12 months. China, in May, was installing 100 solar panels a second and three gigawatts of solar power a day. A gigawatt is the rough equivalent of a coal-fired power plant.
In Europe, you can go to your local hardware store and buy a solar array, bring it home, install it on your balcony, plug it in and it will immediately power your appliances and lighting. Balcony panels are everywhere. But here, thanks to the misinformation and lobbying of the tremendously threatened fossil fuel fellows (soon to be fossils themselves), only one state, Utah, has permitted this kind of solar array. Let's be the second state and reform Maine's permitting process.
Think about how radically different world politics would be if each country was not dependent on some other richer country for their energy needs. Poor Vladimir Putin would have no cudgel to hold over Europe. What liberation!
Sun Day in Portland (tomorrow, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.) will be a day of music, food trucks, art and celebration and information tables staffed by people who can answer any and all of your questions about this energy revolution. Please join us.