By George Monbiot
Excerpt: The US attack on Iran has made the need for renewable energy inarguable. Environmentalists are now being seen for the pragmatists that they are …
The logic of switching to renewables looks ineluctable. …
We are on the cusp of vast, cascading shifts in energy supply and storage. Any country that fails to respond will remain trapped in the fossil age, facing high bills and insecurity, while others transform their economies. …
Greens who were long dismissed as “idealistic” and “unrealistic” now look like hard-headed pragmatists and true patriots. They are years ahead of their rivals in demanding a transition that makes sense on every level: environmental, economic, and political. …
The war has triggered a global surge in demand for electric vehicles (EVs), solar panels, heat pumps and other fossil-free technologies. Inquiries about buying EVs have risen 23% in the UK since the attack on Iran began, by 50% in Germany and by 160% in France. There’s similar interest in India, south-east Asia and South Korea. Even in the US, where Trump has done everything possible to stymie the technology, there’s 20% more interest than before the war.
The same goes for domestic solar panels and heat pumps. People in this country aren’t nearly as ignorant of their own interests as the Mail and the Telegraph like to pretend.
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