Joseph Hardy of Wells is a former chemist, environmental educator, school administrator and court mediator.

As I write this essay, uncontrolled forest fires are burning in Spain and France. Another heat dome straddles our Western states, and the smoke from that region and from Canadian fires are compromising our air quality. It is understandable why people succumb to hopelessness about the future habitability of our planet and its implications for our children and grandchildren.

I have fallen prey to such feelings on occasion, but a recent trip out west has profoundly altered my thoughts and feelings about climate change.

Driving across the full expanse of Wyoming, my wife and I were astounded by the multitude of wind turbines — hundreds upon hundreds, visible in every direction, mile after mile. Wyoming! It is coal state, with a conservative governor and legislature, yet electricity from wind has reached 30% of its total generation, and more is to come.

Those turbines have helped shift my attention to positive rather than negative climate developments. I have also been influenced by an extraordinary website titled “Fix The News.” Based in Australia, it focuses entirely on good news around the world, and there is plenty of it.

The Amazon is experiencing its lowest rate of deforestation in a decade. China has reclaimed 125,000 square miles of the Gobi Dessert, and nearly two-thirds of its new cars sold this past year were electric. India and the European Union are installing grid solar at a record-setting pace and in Australia, solar has overtaken coal as an energy source for the first time. In Japan, one of the most popular cars ever — the Toyota Corolla — is going electric.

In the U.S., half of the homes now being constructed are utilizing heat pumps rather than fossil fuels for heating, and another renewable energy source — geothermal — is experiencing major breakthroughs via techniques borrowed from the fossil fuel industry and closed loop systems that don’t release water to the atmosphere.

Portland cement can now be manufactured from silicate rocks, rather than carbonates, potentially saving huge amounts of energy. Solar panels are 10% more efficient than those installed only 15 years ago. Large battery storage systems, like the one recently installed in Gorham, are reducing our reliance upon fossil fuels during periods of peak demand for electricity.

Focusing on such positive developments, however, doesn’t mean we can ignore reality.
As global temperatures and seal levels continue to rise, climate impacts in the foreseeable
future will become more severe. That translates to more coastal storms and periods of heavy rain, longer and more intensive heat waves, droughts and smoke from wildfires. Additional flora and fauna will become extinct, and we should anticipate more social disruptions associated with the migration of people fleeing inundated coastal lands.

Environmental movements, like other mass social movements, are frustratingly slow to gain momentum. Nevertheless, the emergence of new technologies, a growing acceptance of the need for sustainability and the falling costs of renewable energy are now a worldwide phenomenon.

Efforts to reverse global warming are becoming unstoppable, despite temporary setbacks associated with the current U.S. administration. Greenhouse gas emissions, after long centuries of rise, have peaked in many countries and are plateauing in the rest, including China.

Keeping our foot on the pedal in the transition to renewable energy, we can stay on a trajectory to attain net zero emissions, though it will take a few more decades to reach that goal. Even then, climate impacts will continue, but by scaling up technologies for extracting carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, those impacts can be reduced over time.

We may not be able to restore lost coastlines or lost species, but the planet will establish a new equilibrium, and still be habitable. That is more than hopeful — it is highly probable.