Sometimes electricity provides unexpected benefits. In a remote village in China's Fujian province in which young men have traditionally had a hard time finding wives, the arrival of electricity has attracted more brides

Renewable biofuels are meanwhile making inroads in the transportation fuels market and are beginning to have a measurable impact on demand for petroleum fuels, contributing to a decline in oil consumption in the United States in particular starting in 2006... The 93 billion liters of biofuels produced worldwide in 2009 displaced the equivalent of an estimated 68 billion liters of gasoline, equal to about 5 percent of world gasoline production.

Improved energy productivity and renewable energy are both available in abundance—and new policies and technologies are rapidly making them more economically competitive with fossil fuels. In combination, these energy options represent the most robust alternative to the current energy system, capable of providing the diverse array of energy services that a modern economy requires. Given the urgency of the climate problem, that is indeed convenient.

Building a world where we meet our own needs without denying future generations a healthy society is not impossible, as some would assert. The question is where societies choose to put their creative efforts

The real potential of electricity lies not in providing social amenities but in stimulating long-term economic development

The challenge now is to renovate the baroque structure that the Kyoto Plan has become—or else scrap it and get ready to start all over.

Urgency and vision are the twin pillars on which humanity's hope now hangs.