Bill McKibben On Climate Crisis, Climate Grief, Climate Action, & US Climate Policy — CleanTechnica Interview
In this episode of CleanTech Talk, renowned climate author and social movement leader Bill McKibben and I talk about the climate change crisis we’re quickly rolling into, climate grief and how to deal with it, US climate policy, rampant conspiracy theories, the great energy transition, and more. Listen to this first part of a two-part interview via the embedded SoundCloud player below or on your favorite podcast platform (links below).
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We quickly jumped into the core issue society is facing in the 21st century: even though we are quickly deploying and adopting cleantech solutions (solar energy, wind energy, electric cars, electric buses, etc.), we consistently remain a little behind what’s needed in order to stop our growing climate crisis. In fact, at times, it seems like we’re falling further and further behind in our challenge rather than catching up. Unfortunately, one thing we’ve discovered in recent years is that as scary and “alarmist” as climate scientists’ messages were a decade ago, those scientists were largely underestimating the risk and destruction. The situation looks worse today than it did then. The following tweet thread from climate scientist Peter Gleick was not covered in our discussion, as Gleick just published it last night and McKibben and I had recorded the podcast long before that, but it captures the point well:
A short, late-night thread about climate change.
Scientists have been warning about the threat of climate change for years.
But you know what we’ve gotten wrong? We were too conservative.
We underestimated how fast Arctic ice would disappear…— Peter Gleick 🇺🇸 (@PeterGleick) September 23, 2021
McKibben, who wrote the first book about climate change for a general audience back in 1989, noted in his introduction of himself that he now spends much of his time “volunteering at the task of failing to save the world.” In response, I said, “Yeah … we’re making so much progress, but it always feels like we’re a sizable distance behind what we need to do to solve the climate challenge.” McKibben’s framing in response was superb: “That’s exactly right, and the reason it’s right and the thing that’s the hardest to get across always to people is this one’s a timed test. And we’re just not used to timed tests in our public life.”
My first question for McKibben came from one of our top writers, Steve Hanley (who McKibben seemed to be a fan of). Steve’s question was about climate grief. He wanted to know McKibben’s take on climate grief, and on how climate grief could be leveraged to create political change. With his characteristic straight honesty, McKibben noted that he’s been feeling more climate grief lately due to all that has been going on this year — extreme flooding in some regions (like Europe and China), extreme wildfires in others (most notably Greece and the US West, which created so much smoke that it actually blew over in large volume to the East Coast). I think many of us have felt the same this year — even, as he noted, with decades of understanding that this was coming.
“In my experience, the only way to deal with that emotional toll — and it’s not a perfect solution, but it’s a partial one — is to be as active — as activist — as possible,” he said. “And I think that there are times when the only antidote in my life for that sadness that works is anger, and anger particularly at the forces in our society — the fossil fuel industry above all — that have systematically lied about this for decades and put us in the position where we are.” A Zen master might have said something else, but I think many people can relate to this, especially many CleanTechnica readers and listeners. McKibben did then add, “I’m not sure that that anger is any emotionally healthier than the grief, but it’s probably more productive in terms of getting stuff done, because we’re still at a place where breaking the political power of the fossil fuel industry is crucial to working at the pace where we now need to go.”
Continuing on the topic of climate politics, I brought up Senator Joe Manchin and the fact that he is a huge blockade to climate progress in Congress. Democrats have a slim majority in both the House and Senate and a rare chance to initiate strong climate legislation, but Manchin and Senator Kyrsten Sinema have been blocking progress on this for months. The former, Manchin, has received more campaign funding from fossil fuel industries than any other US senator (Republican or Democrat), and the latter has completely swerved from being a member of the Arizona Green Party to being the opposite of a Green.
“I gotta say, it feels to me like the Biden administration is doing what they can right now […] — not everything, and there’s plenty that I wish they were doing that they could, like stopping big fossil fuel projects and things — but on this front of getting legislation passed, you know, it now looks like we’ve got this bipartisan infrastructure bill, which isn’t particularly good on climate — it includes a lot of stupid giveaways to the fossil fuel industry — but it’s something, and it was the price for getting this other reconciliation $3½ trillion thing that we’re going to be fighting over for the next couple of months, and that really seems to represent the one big chance that America will take a big cut at the climate crisis in this decade. So, I think it’s incumbent on all of us to think how we can help make that happen. It is incredibly frustrating that Prime Minister Manchin gets to sign off on everything that happens, but that’s where we are! It’s a reminder that it would be good to win a few more senate seats next time around, so we weren’t in quite the same hamstrung position.
“But, look, our political machine is clearly geared to prevent change, not to accelerate it. It’s an antiquated system in every way, from the filibuster and the Electoral College on down. Right now, in an era when we need incredibly urgent action, that’s particularly frustrating. But, that said — what a difference a year has made! At least the country is no longer run, for the moment, by absolute jackasses. The fact that we came into 2020 with a president of the United States who believed that climate change was a hoax invented by the Chinese — I mean, if you were sitting on a bus next to someone who was muttering that, you’d get up and change seats, but this was the guy who was running our country.”
I took the opportunity to point out that the first article I wrote about Donald Trump running for president was “Could The US Really Elect A Conspiracy Theorist?” Unfortunately, the country’s propensity for dangerous, idiotic conspiracy theories was even much greater than I anticipated.
I also asked McKibben if he thought the extreme weather events we’ve been seeing lately have been bringing more people into the climate action cause and could make the difference we need. To hear McKibben answer this question and talk more about the positive trends of the past few years, listen to the whole podcast chat. Of course, we also talked more about the urgency of the matter and the challenges we’re facing. Part two will be coming soon too, so stay tuned to CleanTechnica. I will preview that it covers significantly more complicated and nuanced matters within the US and global climate solutions community.
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Environment
Kia’s first electric hatchback is here and it has nearly 400 miles range: Meet the EV4 hatch
Who said hatchbacks are going out of style? Kia’s first electric hatchback, the EV4, went on sale in the UK on Monday, offering the longest driving range of any of its EVs to date. Here’s a full breakdown of prices and specs.
Meet the EV4, Kia’s first electric hatchback
After launching the sedan version in Korea in April, the EV4 already took the top spot as the best-selling domestic electric sedan in its second month on the market. It’s already being called a “box office hit.” Now, the new hatch variant is officially on sale.
Kia opened orders for the EV4 hatchback in the UK on Monday, starting from £34,695 ($47,700). The EV4 is Kia’s first crack at an electric hatchback.
With an impressive 388 miles of WLTP driving range, it’s also the longest driving range of any EV Kia has ever produced.
The hatch is based on the same E-GMP platform as the EV4 sedan and Kia’s other electric vehicles, but it’s custom-tailored for European buyers.
The base EV4 “Air” is available with two battery packs: 58.2 kWh or 81.4 kWh, providing a WLTP driving range of up to 273 miles or 388 miles on a full charge. Kia said it’s the brand’s first electric vehicle offering a range of over 380 miles.
The sporty “GT-Line” and top-spec “GT-Line S” variants are available exclusively with the extended range (81.4 kWh) battery, which offers a range of 362 miles.
All EV4 hatchback models are powered by a single front motor with 201 bhp (150 kW) and 283 Nm of torque, good for a 0 to 62 mph sprint in 7.5 secs.
The interior features a similar setup to Kia’s latest EV models, like the EV3 and EV9, with its new connected car Navigation Cockpit (ccNC) at the center. The setup features dual 12.3″ driver clusters and infotainment screens in a curved panoramic display. An additional 5.3″ touchscreen for climate control is included for easy access to heating and ventilation functions.
Like the EV3, Kia’s electric hatchback will include an AI Assistant, powered by ChatGPT. It will also be the brand’s first vehicle with several entertainment settings, including “Rest mode” and Theatre mode.”
With all the seats upright, the electric hatch has a boot space of 435 liters, which Kia claims makes it “one of the most practical vehicles in its segment.”
With a length of 4,430 mm, a width of 1,860 mm, and a height of 1,485 mm, the EV4 hatchback is about the size of Kia’s XCreed.
The EV4 hatch can recharge from 10% to 80% in 29 minutes, while the larger battery will take approximately 31 minutes to charge using a 350 kW DC fast charger.
| Kia EV4 hatchback trim | Starting Price | Driving Range (WLTP) |
| Air Standard Range | £34,695 ($47,700) | 273 miles |
| Air Long Range | £37,695 ($51,700) | 388 miles |
| GT-Line | £39,395 ($54,000) | 362 miles |
| GT-Line S | £43,895 ($60,200) | 362 miles |
Kia opened orders for the new electric hatch on Monday, July 1. It will join the EV3, EV6, and EV9 in the brand’s European lineup. The EV4 hatchback will be built at Kia’s plant in Slovakia to expedite deliveries, which are scheduled to begin in the Fall.
Kia also announced on Monday that a new EV4 Fastback variant will join the lineup, but didn’t offer any additional details. More info, including prices and specs, “will be revealed in due course.” Check back soon for the latest.
What do you think of Kia’s first electric hatchback? Would you buy one in the US? Unfortunately, it’s not likely to make the trip overseas, but we will see the sedan version launch at some point in early 2026. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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Tesla (TSLA) is about to release its Q2 2025 delivery and production results. Here, we examine what Wall Street expects and what would make sense in reality.
Wall Street has struggled to understand Tesla’s decline in deliveries over the past year.
The analyst consensus for the first quarter was over 450,000 deliveries in January, but that number dropped to 377,000 deliveries by the end of the quarter.
They had to adjust down by 73,000 units, or about $3 billion in sales, over just two months, and they still got it wrong by more than 40,000 units.
Something similar is happening this quarter.
The Wall Street consensus was for 444,000 deliveries in April, indicating that analysts believed Tesla when it stated that the poor performance in the first quarter was solely due to the Model Y changeover and that it could return to growth or maintain demand, as it had delivered approximately 444,000 vehicles in Q2 2024.
However, that consensus waned throughout the quarter as data confirmed that Tesla is not production-constrained, yet still faces significant demand issues.
The Wall Street consensus for Tesla’s Q2 deliveries is now at 385,000 vehicles.
This represents a 13% decline year-over-year, despite Tesla currently offering record discounts and incentives, including 0% financing on both the Model 3 and Model Y in most markets.
However, it is likely that analysts are again overestimating deliveries.
Electrek’s Take
We have great data in Europe and China, where Tesla is basically down by a few thousand units despite the new Model Y being widely available during the second quarter.
The only primary market with limited data for the second quarter is the US.
The US is likely where the new Model Y had the biggest positive impact, and Tesla will need to perform well there for deliveries to surpass its Q1 2025 results.
The automaker has no chance at annual growth in the second quarter, but based on the best data available, I think it should end between 330,000 and 360,000 units – way below the current analyst consensus.
The lower end of the spectrum would result in a massive 25% drop in annual deliveries, while the higher end would result in a still significant 19% drop.
There’s no other way to cut it: Tesla’s automotive business is in crisis.
The crazy thing is that Wall Street is completely missing this story and only adjusting for the decline throughout the quarter.
At the end of the first quarter, analysts still expected Tesla to avoid a decline in deliveries in 2025, with approximately 1,850,000 vehicles.
The consensus now stands at 1.6 million units, which is still likely too high by 100,000 units, representing billions of dollars in sales.
Furthermore, they predict that Tesla will experience a resurgence in growth in 2026, despite the EV tax credit being eliminated in the US, its least affected market so far.
Tesla has minimal prospects for returning to automotive growth beyond some significant reforms that are nowhere in sight, given Musk’s leadership.
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Tesla’s stock (TSLA) crashed by as much as 5% in pre-market trading after President Trump threatened to set DOGE on Elon Musk, who has been criticizing his ‘Big Beautiful Bill’.
After being kindly shown the door to the White House last month, Musk had a brief moment of clarity and started to criticize Trump and the Republican party, which he helped elect with almost $300 million of his own money in the 2024 elections.
He highlighted how Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” is expected to increase the deficit and debt. The Tesla CEO even linked Trump to Jeffrey Epstein, something that has been well known for decades, but Musk conveniently ignored it as he was backing the President and wearing hats that read, “Trump was right about everything.”
Musk quickly calmed down and even apologized for “going too far” and started praising Trump again.
That didn’t last long.
Over the last few days, as the Senate attempts to pass Trump’s budget and tax bill, Musk has renewed his efforts to halt the legislation.
The CEO appeared to renew the attacks after the Senate updated the bill to kill the EV incentive sooner and to increase taxes on solar and wind projects.
However, Musk said that he doesn’t mind EV and renewable energy subsidies going away, but he believes that fossil fuel subsidies should also be removed, which is not in the plans at all.
Trump campaigned on Musk’s money, claiming that he would get America to “drill, baby, drill” again.
The CEO went as far as threatening any Senator who vote for the bill, all Republicans, to face his money in their next primary. He added that if the bill passes, he will create a new “America Party.’
Musk’s attacks have focused on the bill itself and the Republicans voting for it, but Trump likes to call it his bill, and unsurprisingly, he is unhappy with Musk.
Last night, he took to Truth Social to highlight again that Musk “would probably have to close up shop and head back to South Africa” without US government subsidies.
The President then suggested that he could have DOGE, a department that Musk created, go after him and the subsidies that his companies get:
Elon Musk knew, long before he so strongly Endorsed me for President, that I was strongly against the EV Mandate. It is ridiculous, and was always a major part of my campaign. Electric cars are fine, but not everyone should be forced to own one. Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far, and without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa. No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE. Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!
Tesla’s stock dropped by more than 4% in pre-market trading following the President’s threat.
Musk responded to the President by pointing out that he is asking to remove the subsidies, but he didn’t add his usual caveat of also removing all subsidies for fossil fuel.
Electrek’s Take
It’s both sad and funny to see Elon now. It’s sad because the US is plunging back into an energy dark age of relying on fossil fuels. Still, it’s amusing because Elon is acting as if he’s just now realizing what he has done, despite everyone but a few cult members screaming at him that this was going to happen for the last year.
Elon got what he wanted out of Trump with his $300 million, and now, he realizes that his influence has limits and that Trump is going to do way more damage than just what Musk wanted out of him: to stop illegal immigration and the so scary “woke mind virus.”
The result will be a significant blow to the growth of electric vehicles and clean energy in the US, and Tesla will be affected in the process, exactly what we have been saying for the last year.
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