I'm in Texas, visiting a friend, thinking how we need more solar panels, electric vehicles, heat pumps, and sustainable systems to move away from burning oil and gas that supports dictatorial regimes in Russia, the Middle East, and the US right wing. It just makes sense to produce sustainable (endless) energy rather than remain at the whim of tyrants.

However, it's difficult for individuals to adjust to new paradigms and feel welcome in a new world. My house doesn't have solar panels because my family worries they will look ugly. Which is to say they would look different from our asphalt roof, an ugly but familiar thing.

Bigger barriers come from those profiting off the status quo. Oil companies, utilities, Saudis, Russians, Republicans, and automakers, expert massive influence over politics and perception.

They convince individuals that reasonable ideas such as the New Green Deal are fringe lunacy by pointing to what will be "lost," a very relative term. We "lost" film cameras, typewriters, and fax machines as their time passed and new things came along. (There's an argument around analog vs. digital, but I've made that elsewhere.) Losses are opportunities. Every exit is an entrance to some new place.

Often, we need a push. I bought an electric vehicle because Tesla made the car of my dreams. I'll never buy another gas burner. Our power bills are about to climb and that may push us to solar.

Globally, the Saudi Prince murdered a reporter and the royal family supported the 9/11 attacks. The Russians invaded Ukraine. Republicans are working to end our democracy. Individually, we stand up by moving away from dependence on the tyrants' economic supports, one electric car, one solar array, one vote at a time. It's a slow process, but I feel as though we might finally be sailing toward a new world.

Let's hope it's a good one.