That is the common myth, but it is just that, a myth that perpetuates the idea that we have to sacrifice our standards of living to solve climate change.

All energy is the result of sunlight, especially fossil fuels. Sunlight enabled photosynthesis that created the plants that were buried for eons to create oil, coal, and natural gas. We are going to war and expending much of our productive capacity to dig up sunlight from the ground that was buried there by carbon sequestration before we even arrived as a species while we are bathed in so much light energy that we have to use some of that fossil fuel to make sunscreen so we don’t die of skin cancer.

When we discovered fossil fuel and used market forces that deny externalities to make them cheap we stopped working on alternatives. Reducing the cost of production is what capitalism does best, but it also can get stuck in a fatal status quo to protect itself from the threat of obsolescence. When it is threatened it will deploy any resources available, including political forces, to remain viable. It is now cheaper to build new solar energy supplies than it is to maintain existing fossil fuel production. So, why aren’t we moving at all possible speed toward solar energy? Only the power of corporations to act against the best interests of society are stopping us.