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Sci Am Author Tells David Letterman How to Power the World on Renewables [Video]

How do you convince the American public that the entire country, and indeed the entire world, could generate all of its energy from the wind, the sun and water?

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American


How do you convince the American public that the entire country, and indeed the entire world, could generate all of its energy from the wind, the sun and water? Go on The Late Show with David Letterman, be earnest, present the plan you published in Scientific American and have Letterman smile at you.

That’s what Mark Jacobson did on October 9. Jacobson is a civil and environmental engineering professor at Stanford University, and he wrote our November 2009 cover story, A Path to Sustainable Energy by 2030. Although he didn’t mention the magazine on the show, and he has of course continued to advance his research, he unveiled the same plan he laid out in his highly visual article. The Late Show clip is below. As it begins, it’s easy to feel that familiar force coming—that Letterman is going to mock this geek or give him a hard time. But Letterman becomes spellbound by Jacobson’s vision and lets the interview go for 10 minutes—a long time in the TV biz. At the very end Letterman asks Jacobson to look directly into the camera and "tell people everything is going to be okay." Jacobson does! And without missing a beat he throws in a little speech, and Letterman just sits there and smiles at him.


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Read the Scientific American cover story: A Path to Sustainable Energy by 2030.

Mark Fischetti has been a senior editor at Scientific American for 17 years and has covered sustainability issues, including climate, weather, environment, energy, food, water, biodiversity, population, and more. He assigns and edits feature articles, commentaries and news by journalists and scientists and also writes in those formats. He edits History, the magazine's department looking at science advances throughout time. He was founding managing editor of two spinoff magazines: Scientific American Mind and Scientific American Earth 3.0. His 2001 freelance article for the magazine, "Drowning New Orleans," predicted the widespread disaster that a storm like Hurricane Katrina would impose on the city. His video What Happens to Your Body after You Die?, has more than 12 million views on YouTube. Fischetti has written freelance articles for the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Smithsonian, Technology Review, Fast Company, and many others. He co-authored the book Weaving the Web with Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, which tells the real story of how the Web was created. He also co-authored The New Killer Diseases with microbiologist Elinor Levy. Fischetti is a former managing editor of IEEE Spectrum Magazine and of Family Business Magazine. He has a physics degree and has twice served as the Attaway Fellow in Civic Culture at Centenary College of Louisiana, which awarded him an honorary doctorate. In 2021 he received the American Geophysical Union's Robert C. Cowen Award for Sustained Achievement in Science Journalism, which celebrates a career of outstanding reporting on the Earth and space sciences. He has appeared on NBC's Meet the Press, CNN, the History Channel, NPR News and many news radio stations. Follow Fischetti on X (formerly Twitter) @markfischetti

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