From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
By Paul Homewood
There’s a very good piece by Ben Pile in TCW, on how green policies have led to the current, inevitable energy crisis:
AS inflation rises and the prospects for our return to normality following the pandemic fade ever more into the distant future, criticism is rightly focusing on financial institutions and regulators. They claim that printing money, which has inevitably caused prices to rise, was necessary to mitigate the economic chaos of lockdowns. But now they appear to be behind a third act of immense self-harm to help to steer the world to inflation and deliberately prevent economic recovery. The rise in energy prices the world has seen were not the result of an unforeseeable supply crisis, but engineered by those charged with managing the economy.
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Well worth reading in full here.
It is NetZero, all the way down.
This really was an excellent piece by Ben. The video he did to accompany it is superb too. High production values, measured tone of commentary. Laying bare uncomfortable facts, often from the mouths of the perpetrators themselves. Ready for a prime time slot on major TV.
https://youtu.be/IwvGlF9_fpw
It is a thought provoking video and that is the reason it will not make it to the smarmy news readers who cheer lead the green agenda in evening news bulletins.
The easy means to wealth is to subsidy farm. Green hydrogen will run for at least a decade before the real economics come to light.
ITYM ‘before it all goes BANG!’
JF
There is no greater threat to the well-being of the environment that poor people. Poor people don’t care about their environmental impact.
Neither do rich people who propagate Green myths as an indulgence that places poor people second, and for leverage over their competing interests.
Green’s contemptible “Let them eat cake” attitude about high gas prices:
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/victoria-taft/2022/03/03/biden-and-democrats-let-them-eat-cake-moment-in-face-of-exploding-gas-prices-n1563387
https://nypost.com/2022/03/08/bidens-war-on-truckers-will-make-everything-more-expensive/
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/03/08/americans-roast-pete-buttigieg-for-promoting-electric-vehicles-amid-skyrocketing-gas-prices/
For poor people, it’s not a matter of choice about caring for the environment but rather a lack of
resources to care for it even if they wanted to care. They’re in survival mode with only 2 resources: their life & their dignity. From that, their only goal is survival or it’s curtains! To get beyond survival
mode, they must keep accumulating things to get further & further ahead of the Grim Reaper. You
can’t quit & there’s no time for a pity party- doing them only causes them to lose ground in their race
to survive. This is doubly hard as the system they live in is corrupted by gangster governments
and/or individuals. Adding idiotic Green policy to the mix only makes it that much harder.
Willis wrote two great articles on the reality of poverty & Greenies making it even harder for the poor
to survive. I’ve posted a picture from the second article below. That stark difference does show up
on Google Earth.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/01/18/four-stories-two-worlds/
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/06/25/how-environmental-organizations-are-destroying-the-environment/
The Cambridge Sustainability Commission found that if the richest 10% of society reduced their CO2 emissions to the level of the average European and the remaining 90% of humanity made no adjustments to their lifestyles, global CO2 emissions would drop by a third within a couple of years.
Note that is reduction to the level of the average European not the level of the vast majority of people in the world. The bottom 50% of income earners were responsible for under 2% of global emissions compared to the top 1% of income earners 75% of global emissions.
So in this case you have got it bass ackward.
Speaking of asses, here comes Dave.
1) I love the way you assume that caring about the environment is summed up by low CO2 emissions, and only low CO2 emissions. That’s completely ass backwards.
High CO2 emissions are actually very good for the environment, as several recent articles here have shown.
2) For most of us, reducing our standard of living to that of your average European would be a huge cut in lifestyle. You also ignore the fact that the US and Canada the population density is much lower than that of Europe meaning we need to drive more.
Why is it most greens are so utterly ignorant of even basic facts of life?
3) I really love how you assume that since the poor don’t have the resources to consume like the rich do, this proves they care about the environment more than the rich do.
Mark. Sorry I didn’t express myself well enough.
I wasn’t meaning to sound in favour of the Cambridge Sustainability Commission just pointing out that according to their research if CO2 emissions are any kind of a problem then the easiest way of dealing with them is to deal with the richest 1% responsible for 75% of emissions.
I would have thought that my many other comments on this blog would have demonstrated that I am sceptical about ‘climate change’ and I am not nor have I ever been a ‘green’.
I might be late to the table here but the reason that the poor don’t produce as much CO2 is because they are energy poor. But they want to get out of poverty as much as we don’t want to be there. Which means we either keep them poor (is that moral) or expect CO2 emissions to rise as they climb out of poverty.
So no matter what the rich do, we either keep the poor poor or CO2 will rise as we try to bring up just to the lifestyle of Europeans. In other words, even if the richest 10% were to reduce to Europeans levels, the 90% rise would swamp that reduction.
I seem to remember a few years ago, the fellow with his nose always pointed to the stars telling the crowd at a very left leaning event that “Energy prices will necessarily sky rocket under my plan”. I wonder if people remember that inadvertent telling of the truth from Saint O.
And his disciple Joe-the-slow reinstating policies to fuel the rocket for the Mighty O’s third term.
Very long video, but insightful, on energy, and a few other things: https://youtu.be/qWyhKobyM68
Lots of data and plausible conclusions.
Would love to see Middleton analyze and summarize.
Speaking of Obama, yesterday he gave a speech in which he warned people not to let our grief over what happened in Uvalde make us forget that today is the 2nd anniversary of George Floyd’s death while resisting arrest.
As to the damage being caused by the socialists amongst us.
Stacey Abrams, the woman who is running as a Democrat for the governorship of the state of Georgia, sits on the board and is the governor of an organization that not only wants to defund the police, they want to abolish the police. And to think, she ran unopposed in the Democrat primaries.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/stacey-abrams-governor-foundation-abolish-police
A Biden judicial nominee says that the criminal justice system is inherently racist.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-judicial-nominee-criminal-justice-system-racial-animus
A collage “professor” says that private property is racist.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/boston-university-professor-says-property-racist-excuses-black-lives-matter-riots-george-floyd-death
I hope that 3 links doesn’t bounce me into moderation.
Inflation is caused by reckless government overspending, and everybody knows it.
Shortages are caused by reckless government policies and everybody knows it.
When a country is beset by inflation or shortages, the government cannot claim it has been doing a good job.
The government has not done a good job and everybody knows it.
This is why inflation is the great destroyer. It destroys the peoples confidence in their leaders and their currency. And everybody knows it.
There can be confusion as a result of the different meanings of ‘gas’ in US and UK, by ‘gas’ Biden means gasoline not natural gas and of course he is lying.
According to Trading Economics the price of crude oil when Biden was elected in November 2020 was around U$40, when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 the price was already around U$90 and today is around U$110.
In other words it is the opposite, 70% of the price increase in oil can be attributed to Biden’s war on fossil fuels:
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Nov 2020– US avg- $2.19, $3.33 San Fran high, $1.72 Tulsa low; Diesel $2.48
Current avg– $4.60/$5.54 >2X
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1293019/us-daily-average-gas-prices/
The Puppet Master O’bommie the Commie’s third-term policy continues:
https://freebeacon.com/issues/flashback-obama-promised-electricity-costs-would-skyrocket/
https://www.heritage.org/energy-economics/commentary/obama-was-wrong-oil-we-did-drill-our-way-out-the-problem
Thanks for the references to the bad old days. Sad part is they are back and with a vengeance. If anyone needed a reminder that “O’bommie the Commie” predicted and promised the current and future energy situation, they need to look at the articles listed in your comment.
I’m thinking there may be a silver lining on the clouds of doom we’re seeing these days. The left is moving so quickly to clamp down on everything and anything, they may have misjudged the response of the folks who love freedom. By their actions the left is, once again, overplaying their hand and may suffer for it before the ’22 elections. When summer hits and the “peaceful protests” get into full swing, I expect to see a lot of folks resist and turn back the tide of the idiots rampaging. It may be the only way we return to a saner America.
But, maybe its just me. Hoping for a more civilized bygone era.
What is TCW? We don’t all live in the USA.
“Well worth reading in full here.”
Click on the link – find “About Us”
TCW = The Com Wom. presumably – The Conservative Wombat.
Or maybe – The Contrary Wompus.
Home Office in London.
The Conservative Women
The admirable blog which was called The Conservative Woman but found that people assumed it was Conservative in its politics, not just ‘conservative’ in its world view.
Sound on most things – i.e. they’ve published stuff by me – they are obviously scoring hits as they attract a lot of obvious pop-up trolls in the comments.
Reputely read by politicians so it is well worth supporting them in their efforts to acquaint our Masters with the costs of renewables, the risks to our Grid and the foolishness of Johnson, Gove, Starmer, Kwarteng…
JF
I have passed this article on to my MP, along with a few well chosen words of my own. One day, I hope he will see past the obvious fraud of “climate crisis”, but I’m not holding my breath. Everybody, please pass this on to your MP (or equivalent government representative) as it perfectly frames the situation we all find ourselves in. Hopefully, your government representative is less of a numpty than mine is.
This was all contrived.
The Wuhan flu was only dangerous to old people and those with 2 or 3 comorbidities. The vast majority of the population did not need to be locked down with the subsequent destruction of economies.
The surges of cash into the system were known to be inflationary but they did it anyway.
The shutting down of energy sources without something else in its place is catastrophically insane but they did it anyway.
Whoever is orchestrating this destruction of our wonderful world is categorically evil.
The subsidy farmers are the conductors and they are getting much wealthier with ever increasing influence. The useful idiots are smarmy media, government employees (including teachers and politicians) and all those who voted for greens and green aligned.
https://www.heritage.org/energy-economics/commentary/how-green-energy-subsidies-transfer-wealth-the-rich
Nobody is orchestrating anything. They are just f***ing stuff up by accident because they are thick, craven, or both.
There are always people who want to orchestrate things and there are always people who profit from how things turn out. I disbelieve they are one and the same often enough to waste our time looking for evil geniuses.
Do I have to provide links to pronouncements from the WEF or can you manage to do it for yourself?
To get you started towards your own research here’s an advisor talking about what to do about useless people that won’t submit to be injected with artificial intelligence capabilities in the coming decades.
https://stillnessinthestorm.com/2022/04/wef-advisor-yuval-harari-ponders-how-world-will-deal-with-useless-people
If you don’t like reading much, here’s a YouTube. Start at about the 3 min mark.
Todays inflation is not being driven by excess money, it is being driven because every product has an energy component, and when that goes up so does its price.
In the UK and Germany, because of their overreliance on wind, the problems started last september. Prices spiked 700%, year ahead prices up 250%.
Then the Ukraine war hit gas supplies.
And then the sluggish COVID recovery in trade. As trade slowed, prices fell, oil futures went negative. As trade speeds up, prices will rise.
All of these can be short term factors though, except our stupid reliance on wind. That is something we will suffer for many years I fear.
It is impossible for commodity inflation to cause over all inflation.
The reason why is simple. When people are forced to spend more on one product, they have less to spend on other products. When people spend less on these other products, the other products drop in price.
The small drop in price for a vast number of goods equals the large increase in price in one or two items.
Of course the big increase is easier to see compared to the small decreases, which is why so many people are convinced that increases in oil prices are capable of driving inflation.
Beyond that, a few years ago we had a complete collapse in oil prices, yet there was no deflation. That alone proves that oil does not control inflation.
You proceed from a false assumption that once new inflated prices are set, a manufacturer will lower retail prices when product production costs (oil prices) are reduced. This is simply untrue. Why would they? Large multinationals are not really competing with one another. There is tacit collusion on prices.
The decreased costs due to cheaper oil are now pure profit and the consumer is already accustomed to paying the higher prices. The prices may drop a very small amount with lower cost of production, but will not lead to any significant deflation. Oil, which initially drove inflation, is now a profit center when the inflated prices are never lowered.
A decline in oil prices will lead to greater economic activity for the average consumer since they have more money to spend, but the new inflated prices will be permenant. Think government baseline budgeting. The big multinationals will show massive profits once oil prices moderate.
Ah, the old collusion on prices lie.
If your paranoia had any basis in reality, no product would ever drop in price.
The clearest example is one I’ve already mentioned, the fact that oil drops in price when supply exceeds demand.
No, there was no collusion, petrol prices fell because of lowered demand during lockdown.
And fuel prices came down. In fact the drop in demand generally through lockdown caused a drop in prices in some areas.
However today, it is electricity that is specifically more expensive in Europe due to the instability of wind power.
Electricity drives manufacturing, and will be reflected in the price of the product.
The rise in energy prices the world has seen were not the result of an unforeseeable supply crisis, but engineered by those charged with managing the economy.
I have never seen a statement so utterly untrue.
Come now, griff, you do worse on a regular basis.
JF
Come now, griff, you do worse on a regular basis.
To be fair, I don’t think griff reads what he writes…
Hint: Liberals I’ve “red pilled” told me removing their heads from their doofuses improved their
vision 1000%. It also improved their disposition as they didn’t see the world as being so dark &
stinky, too!!! 😮
Although griff is guilty of their typical understated tone with far too many “supporting evidence” references to wade through in a finite amount of time, they may actually have a (minor) point here …
Hanlon’s Razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity (and/or ignorance and/or incompetence and/or indolence and/or …).
Hanlon’s Razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity
Any sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from malice.
OK, you might deny that it was engineered on purpose, but you do see that the increase in price of energy is because of the drive to stop fossil fuel use, yes?
And this is the best that the grauniad reader’s initiative for fearmongering can come up with.
If it’s so “utterly untrue”, it should be trivial for you to refute it.
We all know that the reason you don’t, is that you can’t.
So ridicule is once again the only weapon in your barely existent mental arsenal.
The US economy shrank by 1.5% during the first quarter of this year.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/us-gdp-contracts-further-in-1q
BREAKING: Researchers just discovered the disease that’s killing America!
On top of the contrived policies designed to eradicate cheap and plentiful energy, our governments fixation with Green Energy/Net Zero has taken another dangerous step today.
Because energy prices are sky rocketing thanks to the state knowingly blocking energy extraction and new energy exploration sites, existing energy supply companies are benefitting in the short term, high prices are generating high profits.
This short term windfall profit hides the longer term impact of policy i.e. destruction and end of the supply firms completely. They have been prevented access to new investment to fund exploration activity by the Green Investment movement actively blocking their financing needs. The only other option they have to remain in business, is to plough back profits.
Our government has today declared it will impose windfall tax levies on oil and gas companies, thus removing their own and only source of funds needed for future activities.
The coordinated war on fossil fuel supply by Western governments continues.
The victims of this insane state driven high energy cost program, are the poor and vulnerable in society. Young families barely able to afford to live will not be able to fund their food and energy costs thanks to the Green energy Net Zero lunacy continuously being advanced.
People mostly children and the old limited income people, will die this winter because of this insane state fixation on Green Energy nonsense.
“It is a common misconception that the climate agenda is driven by science. But it is a matter of historical fact that green ideology sprang from the very top of global society. In the 1960s, it was the Club of Rome, a think tank formed by wealthy industrialists and their pet academics that turned their fears about overpopulation and resource-depletion into a computer simulation that forecast civilisation’s imminent collapse. And so it is today with climate change, every earlier environmental scare story issued by that simulation now having been debunked by reality.”
Maybe Exxon knew….
What really takes the cake, and grinds my gears is how the Green Blob and Climate Catastrophists turn both the truth and all logic on its head by blaming fossil fuels and our reliance on them for this mess.
Kind of reminds me how they claimed that natural gas was the cause of the grid outages in Texas two winters ago.
Wind and solar dropped better than 90%.
Natural gas increased by about 20%.
Since natural gas was unable to completely take up the slack caused by the drop in wind and solar, the whole thing was the fault of natural gas and the only solution is more wind and solar.
The appropriate meme:
https://patriotpost.us/memes/88618-total-creep-2022-05-25
And, from the incredibly prescient Corb Lund, the appropriate song:
Found the link to this article on Dr Patrick Moore’s Twitter page: The Four Pillars of Energy Lysenkoism. Like the linked article in the posting above, this one too I think is an eye-opener.
Energy Lysenkoism | Compact Mag
Energy Lysenkoism rests on four major pillars, three of which Wolfe identified back in the 1980s. The first is a “general distrust of a society with abundant energy supplies.”
Which brings us to Energy Lysenkoism’s second pillar: “that society should be forced to alter and re-orient itself to minimize energy use,” as Wolfe put it:
These first two pillars are braided together to form the third: what Wolfe characterized as “a general dissatisfaction with the present social and economic structure of society and the suggestion that energy should be used as a means for societal change not directly connected with energy.”
And it is this third pillar that gives rise to the fourth: Energy Lysenkoism’s maturation in the era of climate change. Wolfe couldn’t have anticipated the invocation of “emergency,” “crisis,” and the incantation of capital-“s” Science as a mantra to shut down democratic interrogation of green policy aims. Such sloganeering creates conditions in which anyone who questions the anti-ecopocalypse strategy of degrowth can be branded a “denialist,” irresponsibly keeping the world from converting to 100 percent renewable energy. It is in cutting off debate or discussion of alternatives that this fourth pillar truly puts the “Lysenkoism” in Energy Lysenkoism.
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The nature of Energy Lysenkoism reminds me of how Naziism permeated every facet of society in Germany as did Communism in the old Soviet Union in the last century. In both cases, an attempt to alter or transform the whole of society was involved. The end was not a good one both cases, and that is what has me worried. History does repeat itself.
As the World Economic Forum continues in Davos, Switzerland, the Western developed world needs a wake-up call to what is going on here. Unfortunately, I do not see it getting one. The WEF and the COP[OUT] conferences can both be seen as attempts to impose this transformation on all of the Western civilization — and probably the rest of the world as well.
I’d forgotten about Ben Pile. He is an excellent writer. One of the best.
Whenever people start talking about OPEC, like to point out this Paul Krugman paper from 2001, http://web.mit.edu/krugman/www/opec.html. When people say that the US cannot affect the price of oil, I like to point out several things: 1.) That’s a good thing because every bit we produce goes to our GDP. 2.) That’s a good thing because every bit we don’t import adds to our GDP. 3.) That’s a good thing because every bit we don’t import reduces our trade deficit. 4.) That’s a good thing because it means lots of tax revenue (see and 2). 5.) Don’t be so sure about that, a little competition could spur production in lots of other places. Many producers produce inefficiently (and messily) because they believe price rises will keep them wealthy. E.g. Venezuela, Russia in the 1990s… They don’t keep their equipment maintained and they waste/spill a lot. US hoarding sends a signal to oil producing nations with two implications: 1). Alternative Energy is nowhere near ready, otherwise the US would be extracting its oil before prices fall; the US likely doesn’t expect alternatives to ever be better than fossil fuels (I’d like to get into this, but I’ll save it for another time). 2). Current producers can make money by keeping production low. If the US told the world it believes alternative energy R&D would pay off within the next 50 it would mean nothing, unless they back it up with extraction for the medium term. I believe that if the US said that there was no future in oil, and backed it up by pumping full- tilt to take advantage of the current high prices, we’d see both alternative research take off as well as exploration, extraction, and productivity throughout the world. Reagan wasn’t the Great Communicator because of how he talked. Actions speak far louder than words.