Autotrophy
In my twenties, I was a slam poet. I wrote a poem once about a photosynthetic female -
she was an autotroph
she had radical energetic independence which
afforded her radical generosity
She was a heroine - a chimera of an algae and human, growing her own food, generating her own oxygen, and recycling her own nutrients. a kind of biological perpetual motion machine that did not kill or take from other beings, produced no toxic waste, was self-sufficient and symbiotic collaboration (akin to the symbiosis of lichen, but a human taking on the role of the fungi working with the algae). She was synthesizing a livingness from the sun and the finite resources sequestered within her own mass. A kind of ethical livingness. Embodying a finite bit of matter in exchange for performing expressive life for a bit of unique time.
I say this, because in just May 2025, China installed 93 GW of solar capacity. That is 100 solar panels installed every second.
For Context, in all of the United States for all of our years of installing solar, we have a total of 248 GW of solar capacity installed. In one month, China installed almost half of the entire solar power capacity of the United States.
According to this recent report by The Guardian, China installed 198 GW of solar since January - In 5 months, China has installed what the entire US has installed over all time.
To date, China has installed nearly 1,000 GW (4x the US capacity) and half of global total solar capacity.
Why US capitalists don’t see the value in building the relatively ‘free’ electric generation of solar, is beyond me (say nothing of climate benefits).
(As of today, my beloved New York State has installed 6GW).
China is on the path to
“technological autotrophy”.
It is NOT passive Climate CHANGE.
It is Climate CHOICE.
Choose Autotrophy.
See also my presentation at the July 19 Event at CPW, entitled FEASTforChange, curated by Kathy High, inspired by Ellen Levy and Victoria Vesna and supported by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund.
