‘Free Solo’ Climber Alex Honnold Brings Solar to Places That Need It Most
He started the Honnold Foundation while living out of a van, deciding to focus on solar grants because it solves energy poverty in communities quickly and reliably.
Alex Honnold at the summit of El Capitan.
Photographer: Jimmy Chin/National Geographic/AP Photo“There’s so much that we don’t know about the natural world. That reinforces the need to protect these areas, which are under threat from logging and mining efforts. People are trying to exploit this forest and we don’t even know all the species that live there.” Alex Honnold, climber, co-star of “Explorer: The Last Tepui” and founder of the Honnold Foundation, stays up at night thinking about small solutions that improve lives. —As told to Eric Roston
It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the scale of the problems that have brought on climate change—and the ones it’s causing. But if you solve them, almost every aspect of human life improves.