Sunlight Doesn't Go Through the Strait of Hormuz: Bill McKibben on Iran Oil Shock & Green Transition

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:00]This is democracyow democracynow.org.

[00:00:02]I'm Amy Goodman with Nurmine Shay.

[00:00:04]>> We turn now to climate change. Last month was the warmest March on record in over 130 years in the United States. An average rainfall across the country is at a record low so far this year. The dry conditions are fueling wildfires across Georgia and Florida ahead of what is expected to be a very hot summer. And now the WMO, the World Meteorological Organization, is predicting a likely super El Nino weather pattern to begin later this year through 2027, further driving up average global temperatures.

[00:00:38]Meanwhile, new research has found that a major ocean circulatory system in the Atlantic known as AMA is in danger of weakening to the point of collapse faster and sooner than previously thought. The Amach system, which includes the Gulf Stream, helps distribute heat around the planet. Its collapse could have catastrophic consequences.

[00:01:00]Scientists are now concerned the tipping point could be reached as early as the middle of this century. But despite overwhelming scientific consensus, the United States, the world's largest historical emitter of greenhouse gases, is moving away from taking the threat seriously. This is President Trump earlier this month at a Talking Point USA rally in Phoenix.

[00:01:23]>> The Green News scam, one of the greatest scams in history. Remember climate change, global warming, all of this?

[00:01:30]They actually had global warming, remember? And then that wasn't working because we're actually cooling as a planet. And then they just said climate change because climate change takes care of heat, snow, whatever you have.

[00:01:44]That was President Trump speaking at Turning Point. Despite this, the energy crisis caused by the war in Iran is underscoring the economic and security benefits of transitioning away from fossil fuels and towards renewable alternatives. For more on all of this, we're joined by climate activist and author Bill McKibben. His recent article in the New Yorker magazine is headlined, "The Iran war is another reason to quit oil." Bill McKibben's co-founder 350.org and Third Act. joining us here in our New York studio. Welcome back, Bill, to Democracy Now. Um, if you can uh talk about what the USIsraeli attack on Iran means for the climate. Well, what it meant what it means for energy policy is that everyone around the world can suddenly see the utter folly of relying on a fuel that not only is destroying the planet's climate, but also that can be bottled up behind a 20 m long waterway. I mean, sunlight has to travel 93 million miles to reach the earth, but none of those miles go through the straight of Hormuz. that makes it a very appealing alternative, especially now that it's cheaper than burning coal and gas and oil. So, the movement in the last month has been pretty remarkable around much of the world in the direction of what we used to call alternative energy. The only place that's not happening, of course, is here at home.

[00:03:14]>> And could you explain, I mean, first of all, the US now produces the most oil in the world. So, how does that play into this?

[00:03:21]>> Well, uh Pete Hegsth said the other day that there were tankers lining up outside uh the Texas Chip channel to get good old American crude. It's true that in the short run, uh this will probably be a bonus for the big American oil companies whose profits are through the roof and who, by the way, should be paying a serious windfall profits tax in any serious uh u government. Um but over the slightly longer term, what we're seeing is demand destruction around the planet. Uh look, the forecast for how American oil companies were going to stay rich and prosperous for the next couple of decades pretty much depended on everybody in Asia deciding they were going to drive gasoline powered pickup trucks. That's not what's happening.

[00:04:12]Instead, people are crowding into the showrooms of companies like BYD, the Chinese EV giant, uh uh because they don't want to pay. I mean, we're paying four and $5 for gas. It's much higher in much of Asia, uh which is, you know, where this story will be decided. Uh uh would that we were doing all this for climate reasons. I mean, we're meeting right now or just finished this big meeting in Santa Marta in Colombia with many nations trying to work towards a fossil fuel phase out on climate grounds. That isn't happening anywhere near fast enough. A bigger catalyst at the moment is the clear geopolitical imperative to get off fossil fuel while you can.

[00:04:59]>> So, talk about where you're seeing this around the world. As you say, in fact, countries are running to this as the US administration is running away from this.

[00:05:08]>> The president of South Korea said the other day that he wasn't able to sleep at night trying to figure out where they were going to find energy supplies. The place they're going to find them, he said, is homegrown energy. uh Indonesia, which is going to be one of the most important powers in the world, uh announced within days of the start of hostilities that they were going to put a 100red gawatts worth of solar on their grid in the next few years. Um, everybody's figuring out that it is ludicrous to be exposed any more than you have to to the completely volatile and undependable supply of fossil fuel when, you know, the sun rises pretty much every morning.

[00:05:55]>> And if you could explain uh uh to your point, you know, the argument here is that you know renewables are too expensive. They take too long. But China meanwhile has built so much clean energy very very quickly. It's a world leader in clean energy investment, installation and manufacturing. How did that happen?

[00:06:15]>> Well, the Chinese decided that this was going to be the strategic imperative and so they got to work uh and they've driven the price down so far that this is by far that we live on a planet where the cheapest way in to produce energy is to point a sheet of glass at the sun. Uh that's been true now for three or four years and it's showing up in the fact that 95% of new electric generation around the planet last year came from the sun and the wind. Now the US is the exception to that. Even here though we're seeing continued investment in this stuff just because of economics.

[00:06:52]The state where it's growing the fastest is that radical progressive hub Texas.

[00:06:58]Um um and at Third Act, we've been having lots of luck this spring in state legislatures around the country getting them to approve this so-called balcony solar or plug-in solar. That's the very easiest, cheapest way for apartment dwellers and others to get in on this burgeoning revolution.

[00:07:18]>> Bill, we just have two minutes and I want to get to the El Nino and the possible collapse of this Amokch, the Atlantic Ocean circulation system. What this means nothing good. Uh when I wrote the end of nature 40 years ago, this was one of the things that we were talking about as a possible result of climate change. As you melt uh uh as freshwater pours off a melting Greenland, it changes the salinity and hence the density of seawater in the North Atlantic. That density drives this giant heat distribution engine, the biggest on the planet. If it collapses, as the chief scientist on this work now said is at least a 50% possibility this century, then it's a civilizational scale event.

[00:08:04]Temperatures plummet across Western Europe. Sea levels rise sharply and quickly along the eastern US. But basically uh uh this basically we add I don't know 30 or 40 parts per million CO2 almost immediately to the atmosphere as CO2 leaves the ocean. Uh uh these are the kind of things that they make science fiction thrillers about. Uh it would be the biggest single event in the history of our species. Um we want to avoid it at all costs. The main tool that we have right now to do that is the very rapid deployment of clean energy.

[00:08:47]>> The last 30 seconds. Are you hopeful?

[00:08:50]>> Uh I'm hopeful that we actually have a tool finally to put to work. We're not going to stop global warming. Amy, we may be able to start shaving tenths of a degree off how hot the planet gets. And that would at the very least be helpful.

[00:09:07]Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org, founder of the organization Third Act, his latest book, Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization. We'll link to your article, The Iran War is Another Reason to Quit Oil. Um, that does it for our show. I'll be in Boston tonight in Brooklyn for screenings of the new documentary about Democracy Now. Steal this story, please. showing at the Coolage Corner Theater in Brooklyn. Then on Friday, May 1st and Saturday, I'll be in Silver Spring, Maryland at two benefit screenings, one for WH Howard University PBS and the other for WPFW Pacifica Radio. Uh see democracynow.org for more information about this these calendars. Then we'll be at the Charles Theater in Baltimore and uh on Sunday we'll be in Philadelphia doing a a fundraiser for Phillyam. That's Philadelphia public access. Again, you can go to democracynow.org for all details. Democracy Now produced with Mike Burke, Dina August, Messiah Rhodess, Maria Terina, Nicole Sales, Osar Nasser, Trin Maru, John Hamilton, Robbie Karen, honey, Diego Ramas. Our executive director is Julie Crosby. I'm Amy Goodman with Nine Shake.

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