The 1,230 gigawatts (GW) of renewable power generating capacity in place at the end of 2009 now constitutes just over 25 percent of total generating capacity worldwide. This is over three times nuclear generating capacity and roughly 38 percent of the capacity of fossil fuel-burning power plants worldwide.

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

The bottom of the oil barrel is now visible.

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

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 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.