#CauseForOptimism

I'm a life-long, hardcore speculative fiction fan. I love a good, dark dystopian tale as much as the next SF geek. Some folks would accuse me of contributing to the dystopian vision of humanity's future via my Aquarius Rising trilogy. I beg to differ. The dystopian narrative casts an oppressive shadow over our current media world view. Heck, I'm so burned out by the contemporary news (and the silly U.S. presidential election histrionics) that I'm in desperate need of something to lift the mood. And I don't believe that I'm alone.

So I've made myself a mid- (or late-) year resolution. At least once a week, I'm striving to post something on my blog that provides a smidgen of hope that humanity's future will be better than our present. As an SF writer / reader, these posts will tend to focus on science, technology, and the social evolution of our species. I do genuinely believe that we're making progress. I think there is #CauseForOptimism. And I choose to share that with others, in the hope that it will lift your sagging spirits as it does mine.

So here we go. This is a story about renewable energy -- sourced from Bloomberg, no less, hardly a bastion of "tree-hugging" -- providing concrete evidence that we may yet avert the worst effects of climate change.

Fossil Fuels Just Lost the Race Against Renewables

The race for renewable energy has passed a turning point. The world is now adding more capacity for renewable power each year than coal, natural gas, and oil combined. And there's no going back.
The shift occurred in 2013, when the world added 143 gigawatts of renewable electricity capacity, compared with 141 gigawatts in new plants that burn fossil fuels, according to an analysis presented Tuesday at the Bloomberg New Energy Finance annual summit in New York. The shift will continue to accelerate, and by 2030 more than four times as much renewable capacity will be added.
"The electricity system is shifting to clean,'' Michael Liebreich, founder of BNEF, said in his keynote address. "Despite the change in oil and gas prices there is going to be a substantial buildout of renewable energy that is likely to be an order of magnitude larger than the buildout of coal and gas."

To read the full article, go here:

Fossil Fuels Just Lost the Race Against Renewables

And embrace your "glass half full" persona. There is, indeed, Cause for Optimism. Pass it on!!!

#SFWApro