Story highlights John Sutter: To avoid catastrophic levels of global warming we need to be off fossil fuels by about 2050

United States and other countries desperately need to put a price on carbon pollution, he says

John D. Sutter is a columnist for CNN Opinion who focuses on climate change and social justice. Follow him on Snapchat, Facebook and e-mail.

(CNN) Charlie Catania signed up the first day he could.

It was May 2014 , and the solar-leasing giant, SolarCity, had just come to town -- "town," in this case being Las Vegas, where the retired 71-year-old once worked as a Baccarat dealer. ("The James Bond game," he explained to me, apparently noticing through the phone that I'm no good at gambling. That was "when the mob used to run this town," he said. "It was great.")

Catania is a guy who knows a smart bet when he sees one, and putting solar panels on the roof of the home he bought in 1976 seemed to be just that. Smart. And safe -- the right thing for the environment and his wallet. Las Vegas, Nevada, of course, is in the middle of one of the hottest, sunniest deserts on Earth. So there would be no shortage of sunlight hitting the panels that would power his home. Plus, the deal with Solar City seemed so sweet. He'd lease the panels, not own them (he couldn't afford to buy them) but he'd basically be guaranteed low-to-moderate electricity bills for the rest of his life.

Cheap energy from the sun would cushion retirement, he thought.

Now it doesn't look that way, and he feels swindled.

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