By Georgia Kelly
In 2009, I read a fascinating article in Scientific American Magazine by two climate scientists, Mark Jacobson, professor and researcher at Stanford University and Mark Delucchi, research scientist at UC Berkeley. It detailed a plan to power 100% of the planet with renewable energy by 2030. That got my attention!
But, unfortunately, that window has closed because too little progress has been made in reducing the use of fossil fuels and increasing the use of wind, solar, hydroelectric, and geothermal energy sources.
While Mark Jacobson maintains that getting to 100% renewable energy is feasible, he notes that the blocks are social and political. I would add economic interests are another roadblock. In order to educate the public about how we could actually transition to renewables, Mark created the Solutions Project with actor Mark Ruffalo, documentary filmmaker Josh Fox, and renewable energy executive Marco Krapels.
Mark’s research over the past few decades focused on creating maps of how each state in the U.S. and each country in the world could run on 100% renewable energy. They found the mix of wind, solar, and water that was possible to harness in each area and diagrams of these maps are posted on the Solutions Project website.
The projected date now is 2050 and even this may be unrealistic unless there are serious efforts to reduce fossil fuel use and get as many renewable sources online as soon as possible. With Trump paying a German firm $1.2 billion to halt their US wind projects and in stopping at least five other domestic wind projects, this administration is taking us backwards instead of forward in addressing the climate crisis.
Many sources of pollution, including deforestation, continue adding to the ongoing pile-up of climate disasters. Jacobson writes about them and poses solutions in his new book, Still No Miracles Needed (pub. May 2026). The technological “miracles” that are not needed are nuclear power, carbon capture, and geoengineering, and he will explain why in his Sept. 5th presentation.
What I found fascinating in reading his new book are the many energy storage possibilities he described that do not require lithium batteries or rare minerals. These are options we never hear or read about. This is where Mark Jacobson has done us a great service. He knows the possibilities and is always looking for new and more sustainable ways to achieve them.
Back in 2014, when I asked a climate activist/author who I could invite as a credible yet visionary climate scientist to address Praxis Peace Institute’s conference in San Francisco, he recommended Mark Jacobson. The name was familiar and sure enough when I dug out my 2009 copy of Scientific American, there was the article by him that so impressed me at the time that I saved the issue – and, I still have it seventeen years later!
Mark was the final presentation at that conference and he graciously agreed to speak in Sonoma in 2017. Now, nine years later with a lot more information for us, he will return to the Sebastiani Theater on September 5th at 1:00 pm to tell us about the possibilities and the challenges. Afterwards, he will answer questions from the audience and sign copies of his new book.
What I so admire about Mark Jacobson is his mix of hard science combined with a strong visionary capacity. Very few scientists have both abilities. What some people may label unrealistic is usually their own stuckness in “what is” instead of being able to project outside of the scientific Overton window that frames every possibility by the limitations of where we are right now. Jacobson escaped from that window a long time ago and is always refining his work, updating it, and seeking the unseen possibilities that can inspire us into action!
Don’t miss this wonderful opportunity to hear one of the leading climate scientists of our time. Tickets are available at www.praxispeace.org/events
A Reception is ticketed separately and will be held in a nearby private home. Tickets to both are available.
Mark Jacobson’s off-the-grid house can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDWH7rktrXw
Georgia Kelly is the founder/director of Praxis Peace Institute, the non-profit organization hosting Mark Z. Jacobson in Sonoma.
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