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Renewable energy in the spotlight at Coldplay’s Sunday concert at the Rose Bowl.

(David Callaway is founder and Editor-in-Chief of Callaway Climate Insights. He is the former president of the World Editors Forum, Editor-in-Chief of USA Today and MarketWatch, and CEO of TheStreet Inc. His climate columns have appeared in USA Today, The Independent, and New Thinking magazine).

SAN FRANCISCO (Callaway Climate Insights) — I took a short break last week from the circus in Washington and plunging stock market to drive down the California coast and attend a Coldplay concert at the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles — and was treated to the best and worst reminders of the challenge of the climate transition along the way.

Driving outside Bakersfield, you are greeted by hundreds of small oil wells, drilling into the dry ground constantly like a small army of alien pickax workers, destroying the planet with every relentless swing. But less than an hour away is a beautiful art exhibit outside Paso Robles called Light at Sensorio by artist Bruce Munro, featuring 10,000 solar-powered lights laid out in a vineyard-like setting reaching to the night sky.

As I was considering the contrast between old and new energy, the Coldplay concert itself surprised me by being performed entirely on renewable energy, including glowing bracelets that allowed producers to change the stadium colors at will to match the music. A far cry from the Bic lighters we all used to hold up, or cell phones.