5 Things Bill Nye Wants for Christmas

Bill Nye sat down with the Rolling Stone’s Tessa Stuart yesterday to talk about his new book Unstoppable: Harnessing Science to Change the World, which came out last month, and what he’d like to see come out of the COP21 Paris agreement.

Bill Nye laid out his wish list just in time for the holidays. “By 2050, 100 percent renewable all over the world—we would not be making any more carbon dioxide or methane,” he said. “We would have clean water for everyone on Earth, we would have reliable electricity for everyone on Earth and we’d have a means to take carbon out of the air.”

The goal of 100 percent renewable by 2050 is backed up by several recent reports. This summer, professors out of Stanford and U.C. Berkeley laid out a plan for the U.S. to convert to 100 percent renewable energy in less than 40 years. And just last month, the same researchers came out with a roadmap for 139 countries to go 100 percent renewable by 2050. In September, Greenpeace published its Energy Revolution 2015 report, which also proposes a pathway to a 100 percent sustainable energy supply by 2050. One of the lead researchers on the Stanford study, Mark Jacobson, said the “barriers to getting to 100 percent clean energy are social and political, not technical or economic.”

Politicians are even on board. Two Democratic presidential candidates, Martin O’Malley and Bernie Sanders, who unveiled his plan earlier this week, call for a transition to 100 percent renewable energy in their climate plans. And even while some politicians drag their feet because of the fossil fuel industry’s influence on our political system, cities and states are plowing ahead with ambitious renewable energy targets. Places as different as Kodiak Island, Alaska; Burlington, Vermont; and Aspen, Colorado have already made the transition to fossil-fuel-free energy.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

Bernie Slams Trump on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon

7 Ways the Outcome of Paris Climate Talks Will Impact Your Day-to-Day Life

Mark Ruffalo: ‘Monsanto Chief is Horrible’

Adidas Unveils 3D-Printed Shoe Made From Plastic Ocean Waste