You document some interesting clean energy projects in China, which might surprise some people. There’s a new city, Rizhao, where 95 percent of hot water comes from solar energy, and China is doing well with its wind energy development. Is this a drop in the bucket, or do you think industrializing nations like China and India could surpass us in “hunkering down”?

They’re defintiely going to surpass us in green tech. I was just in China, and the progress is staggering (as is the amount of coal they’re mining — they’re big players in both green energy and black energy).

In the best case scenario, what percentage of our energy requirements do you think could be met by wind and solar energy in the next few decades?

It depends entirely on how much political pressure we build. The problems aren’t technical. They’re political.

Well, okay. So what have you learned, from your current nonprofit 350.org (named for the maximum safe number of parts per million carbon dioxide in the atmosphere) and from your previous group, Step It Up, about what works and what doesn’t work in environmental activism? Any surprises?

What works is getting people up and going. Last year at 350.org, with no real resources, we managed to pull off what CNN called “the most widespread day of political action in the planet’s history” on any issue. There were 5,200 simultaneous demonstrations in 181 countries, all demanding that we pay attention to the science of climate change. We’re on track for even bigger actions this year, especially on 10/10/10, when we’re hosting a giant Global Work Party.