Sri Lanka Protest. AntanO, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Sri Lanka Begging Russia and India for Fuel: A Nation Wrecked by Green Agricultural Policies

Essay by Eric Worrall

As Dutch police shoot at the children of farmers in the Netherlands, it is worth reviewing where lunatic green agricultural policies can lead.

An entire nation, down to less than 17,000 tons of fuel, because their insane organic farming policy bankrupted their agricultural sector, triggering a collapse in foreign currency reserves.

Anyone who thinks this can’t happen to Europe, think again. Europe is experiencing inflation because of the haemorrhage of foreign currency reserves, as European leaders try to maintain energy supplies they refuse to source domestically. The need to purchase expensive energy from outside the EU is driving down the value of the Euro, which is driving up European inflationary pressures.

Could the European situation get worse? Maybe. European nations have stronger economies than Sri Lanka, but no economy is impervious to political insanity, as Europe learned in the 20th century. Insane nitrate policies pursued by the Netherlands and other EU policies are threatening the productivity of the European agricultural sector. It was the haemorrhage of foreign currency reserves following Sri Lanka’s green agricultural fail which was the final straw which collapsed the Sri Lankan economy.

What happened to Sri Lanka was very sudden, the disaster occurred with little warning. One moment everything seemed fine, other than a few economists sounding alarms which were widely ignored, then everything abruptly went to hell, as the nation ran out of foreign currency and stopped paying international supplier invoices. The Sri Lanka government exhausted public foreign currency reserves trying to keep up the pretence of normality, until they ran out of foreign currency, and could no longer maintain the pretence.

Would European governments admit if they had such problems, or would they conceal their problems as long as possible, like the Sri Lankan government did? Do you trust your politicians to tell the truth? Which European nation will be the next Sri Lanka? Who will run out of money first? The Netherlands? Spain? Italy? Ireland? Maybe even Germany?

As Sri Lanka has proven, it is entirely possible for green stupidity to trigger a near total economic collapse. In my opinion economically ignorant EU leaders seem determined to follow Sri Lanka’s example, and create a Sri Lanka style foreign currency reserve crisis in Europe.

Correction (EW): 17,000 tons of fuel, not 10,000.

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July 7, 2022 6:08 pm

Politicians following the dictates of the Green New Deal or whatever you want to call it are no different than the followers of Harold Camping in 2011. The only difference is Harold Camping was a harmless lunatic. The Green New Deal fanatics however are not harmless. They are on course to leave a trail of tears and destruction.

Old Man Winter
Reply to  Steve Case
July 7, 2022 9:39 pm

The UN is rejoicing. There will be more of us to clean toilets!

The Benefits of World Hunger – By Professor George Kent in 2008 – the University of Hawaii – Published in UN Chronicle in 2008 & 2009

https://www.climatedepot.com/2022/07/06/un-journal-article-explains-the-benefits-of-world-hunger-ending-hunger-globally-would-be-a-disaster-who-would-clean-our-toilets/

Tom Abbott
Reply to  Old Man Winter
July 8, 2022 2:14 am

They could try cleaning their toilets themselves.

Old Man Winter
Reply to  Tom Abbott
July 8, 2022 5:11 am

It’s part of Klaus’s plan to turn his misery into our happiness!

Bruce Cobb
Reply to  Steve Case
July 8, 2022 9:20 am

Hopefully it won’t involve people being frog-marched halfway across the country though.

Ron Long
July 7, 2022 6:10 pm

Who will run out of money first? Eric, I don’t know, but what poetic justice it would be if the smirking idiots in Germany run out first. Incredible how advanced cultures can destroy themselves from internally.

Izaak Walton
Reply to  Ron Long
July 7, 2022 8:34 pm

Germany has a positive balance of trade and has done so for years. Rather than running out of money it is in fact getting richer every month. The US on the other hand borrows nearly a trillion dollars every year to pay for its military that can’t even beat the Taliban after 20 years of trying.

Reply to  Chris Hanley
July 7, 2022 10:20 pm

Their current account has taken a big hit but it is still positive.

Chris Hanley
Reply to  RickWill
July 7, 2022 11:07 pm

Not according to the link: “In May, Germany’s foreign trade balance amounted to almost USD -1 billion and was the lowest since at least 1990”.
Do you have more recent information?

Reply to  Chris Hanley
July 8, 2022 12:27 am

Current account is different to trade imbalance. It includes the financial flows as well. German banks and other financial services companies are involved in considerable International financing and that gets a return that flows through to the current account:
https://tradingeconomics.com/germany/current-account
Still slight positive. UK’s current account is much worse than Germany’s.

Trade balance is a subset of the current account.

USA is really the only country that has no need to bother about their current account and net debt position; at least while the rest of the world considers it has value. I think Russia and China will pry themselves off the USD. USA is abusing its privilege of being the world’s central banker by using that position to sanction Russia. Russia is in a different class to Iran for example.

Chris Hanley
Reply to  RickWill
July 8, 2022 2:00 am

The Trading Economics link goes the April balance.
The link in my post mentions the May balance.

meab
Reply to  RickWill
July 8, 2022 10:20 am

Russia’s GDP is about the same as New York City. That’s all. China is strong economically, but don’t claim that Russia can wag the dog.

Gary Pearse
Reply to  meab
July 8, 2022 2:35 pm

Maybe Russia can’t wag the dog in economic figures, but they judged the political weakness of the US and Europe right on. They were certain that the big boys, with self-inflicted gaping wounds were not going to field armies and so this was an opportunity to clean things up in The Dombass and cement their position in Crimea.

Even the economy in Russia got a huge and continuing boost with the the windfall from incredibly stupid energy policies in the West. The sanctions proved to be a circular firing squad for the West. Russia is offering homesteads for people to expand its wine industry etc to replace European and N. American products.

Meanwhile Boeing needs sanctions to be lifted on Russian titanium which is a critical material for use in aircraft. With the need for nat gas for making nitrogen fertilizers (Russia is a major producer), etc.etc. This huge country (the distance btwn Chicago and Moscow is equal to the distance btwn Moscow and Vladivostock ) has everything. They are huge on education, science and tech and we have been dumbing down K to PhD for 3 generations. We need virtually a revolution to get this mess cleaned up.

Reply to  Chris Hanley
July 8, 2022 12:37 am

On top of that, probably the highest Government debt since this Republic exists. When the Euro fails, it’s going to land on their heads.

Gary Pearse
Reply to  Chris Hanley
July 8, 2022 1:57 pm

Useful idiots like Izaak simply toss out madeup bs thinking others are as gullible as he is. It’s how the lefty partisan Media creates stories. To be fair to Izaak, he probably believes this lie because of his favored sources of news. And to show how deeply unrehabilitatable the the Dark Side is, Izaak, by spending time at WUWT his better informed than most of them.

I had a bet with myself that as the meme collapses following falsification with the abject failure of forecasts for warming with CO2 rise, some of the smarter ones would bail out. I may lose this bet!

Simon
Reply to  Gary Pearse
July 8, 2022 9:26 pm

But you wont know for quite some time as it could be a while before it starts cooling again, or at least we are sure it is cooling again.

Reply to  Izaak Walton
July 7, 2022 9:56 pm

USA creates the world currency. While other countries continue to believe the US paper has backing, they will continue to hoard it.

US can just keep creating money and using it to buy whatever they want. Not sure if it is being accepted for Russian RUB though.

Germany is now paying almost three times the price for RUBs since the Russian/Ukraine conflict began. So their EUR are not going as far.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  Izaak Walton
July 8, 2022 2:19 am

“The US on the other hand borrows nearly a trillion dollars every year to pay for its military that can’t even beat the Taliban after 20 years of trying.”

It’s U.S. politicians who can’t beat the Taliban, not the U.S. military.

The U.S. military can only do what the politicians allow them to do. If you have real stupid politicians, like we have now, and in the past, then you get a debacle like Afghanistan. It has nothing to do with the military’s capabilities.

ozspeaksup
Reply to  Izaak Walton
July 8, 2022 3:23 am

think youre wrong on germany but right on ussa

Derg
Reply to  Izaak Walton
July 8, 2022 3:48 am

Exactly, the Dems love war. Obama was famous for droning brown people.

Absurd energy policies make all western states poor.

Simon
Reply to  Derg
July 8, 2022 2:39 pm

The Dems love war? Remind me again who it was that dropped 7.5 million tons of bombs on Vietnam Cambodia and Laos — double the amount dropped on Europe and Asia during World War II?

Simon
Reply to  Derg
July 8, 2022 9:47 pm

And correct me if I’m wrong, but wan’t it a Republican who made the call to go in to Iraq?

Tom Abbott
Reply to  Simon
July 10, 2022 3:24 am

It was a good call. H.W. Bush should have deposed Saddam when he went over there during the first Gulf War. He shouldn’t have left it to his son to do. Saddam deserved to die. He was allowed to live too long. You don’t like it? That’s your problem.

niceguy
Reply to  Tom Abbott
July 12, 2022 5:38 pm

Either that or allow Russia to offer a gracious and peaceful exit to Saddam.
The anti war maximalists defended Saddam so much that option was off the table.

Bob boder
Reply to  Izaak Walton
July 8, 2022 5:23 am

Pretty sure the US beat the living snot of the Germans a few years back.

Gary Pearse
Reply to  Bob boder
July 8, 2022 3:14 pm

They had a lot of help from Hitler opening a disastrous front with the USSR that broke Germany’s back.

“the Germans allotted almost 150 divisions containing a total of about 3,000,000 men. Among these were 19 panzer divisions, and in total the “Barbarossa” force had about 3,000 tanks, 7,000 artillery pieces, and 2,500 aircraft. It was in effect the largest and most powerful invasion force in human history.”

https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-II/Invasion-of-the-Soviet-Union-1941

That had to soften thing up a bit for the Allies!

Moreover, Soviets having also pushed through neighboring countries into Berlin. They ended up with 3 million German prisoners of war, more than had invaded, especially when those killed are added on.

D. J. Hawkins
Reply to  Izaak Walton
July 8, 2022 8:14 am

…borrows nearly a trillion dollars every year to pay for its military…

Incomparable stupidity on your part, Izaak, as usual. The total US budget for FY 2022 was $6 trillion. The military budget was $715 billion, or $944 including Homeland Security and the VA. The military budget is not the tail wagging the dog.

Jim B
Reply to  D. J. Hawkins
July 9, 2022 10:59 am

Something fishy about that Isaak Walton fella.

July 7, 2022 6:13 pm

Sadly, this should be front page news in every newsprint in the western media, but it’s not which demonstrates their blind allegiance to green policy.

Were it not so tragic for humanity it would be funny.

Old Man Winter
Reply to  HotScot
July 7, 2022 8:09 pm

This is what’s happening politically in the US. Despite Brandon’s total commitment
to doing everything the liberals wanted, liberals will keep pushing forward until
eventually the MSM will have to blame Brandon for it. This will shield liberalism
& its failed policies from being blamed. Likewise, this will be done everywhere
else in the West for the same effect. That way when the dust settles, other
liberals can pick up where they left off, without anything really changing, even
though people will have died because of their failed policies. The cause is
everything. Nasty!

Originally in the WSJ- “The Beltway’s Case of Biden Remorse”

https://www.businesslend.com/news/the-beltways-case-of-biden-remorse/

https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2022/07/07/ohio-dems-reveal-just-how-toxic-joe-biden-is-n590585

Tom Abbott
Reply to  Old Man Winter
July 8, 2022 2:32 am

“the MSM will have to blame Brandon for it. This will shield liberalism
& its failed policies from being blamed.”

No. No way. Nothing is going to shield the Democrats from the voters this time around. I bet Democrats, Independents and Republicans all grind their teeth in anger every time they fill up their gasoline tank. That anger is going to translate into votes against the Democrats who are causing this anger.

Old Man Winter
Reply to  Tom Abbott
July 8, 2022 5:19 am

Short-term, you are correct. Long-term, they’ll succeed because they will throw all
the blame on Brandon as well as rewrite the past which they’re already censoring.
Unlike conservatives/libertarians who see things for what they are, the average
person will accept what they’re told once the pain is relieved. That’s how libs have
always escaped the wrath they should have gotten in the past & it’ll work again, like
clockwork. It sucks that the average person is so wishy-washy but that’s reality!

Tom Abbott
Reply to  Old Man Winter
July 10, 2022 3:30 am

“That’s how libs have always escaped the wrath they should have gotten in the past”

The lefties escape because they have the Leftwing Media running interference for them.

The Leftwing Media is the most dangerous organization in the Western world when it comes to personal freedoms. They make the Left seem reasonable when it is anything but reasonable. They will lie all of us into slavery if we don’t wise up.

Propaganda works and we get plenty of it from the Leftwing Media. They create a false reality where Leftists are heroes and everyone else is a villain.

And a lot of gullible people believe what they are told without question.

Maybe the gasoline prices will wake enough people up.

meab
Reply to  Old Man Winter
July 8, 2022 10:28 am

Liberal dimocrats are clearly planning to throw Biden under the bus while still promoting their failed policies. It isn’t going to work as nobody thinks that Biden is calling the shots – his growing dementia is evident to everyone. Even my extreme left-wing sister-in-law says that Biden is not aging gracefully but still defends Pelosi, Schumer, and other dims that are clearly well beyond their use by – expiration date.

Editor
Reply to  HotScot
July 7, 2022 8:49 pm

Half of what should be front page news doesn’t make it to any page at all and/or is so misrepresented that it would be better if it didn’t.
Example: ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) blames the energy crisis in east-coast Australia on Margaret Thatcher (yes, really, quote below!) and says state governments would run the energy supply properly (presumably including all the state governments that have been closing coal-fired power stations and preventing gas production].
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-17/energy-crisis-gripping-australia-east-solution-western-australia/101159102
“You can thank Margaret Thatcher for the gas supply crunch Australia’s east coast has been plunged into.”.

They are no better for international news. Here is the list of all the ABC articles on the Dutch farmers’ protest and the shots fired at them by police:
Start of list.
End of list.

Derg
July 7, 2022 6:17 pm

Didn’t Stokes tell us that Sri Lanka was fine?

paul courtney
Reply to  Derg
July 9, 2022 5:44 am

To sustain the “liberal world order”, sacrifices will have to be made.
By others. Sri Lankans and you and me.

Mario Lento
July 7, 2022 6:28 pm

This is sad but the world should learn from this and the sunshine should put a spotlight on the actions that led to this result.

Being that this is a technical blog, I’d like to hear some more details and specifics of their actions which led the to where they are.

What policies and limitations led to them needing what from outside the country?

Did they shut down productive energy plants to instead install solar and wind turbine boondoggles?

hiskorr
Reply to  Mario Lento
July 7, 2022 7:10 pm

If you’ve followed the news, in short, the Sri Lankan economy depended on ag exports to exchange for fertilizer, oil/gas, and other stuff. The gov’t decided to go organic so they would not need fert, save on imports, right? But ag production went down 50-60%, so not only no more exports, but not enough food. So they needed to import food as well as other stuff until they ran out of money. Darwin sucks!

James H
Reply to  hiskorr
July 7, 2022 9:06 pm

Did ESG financiers push the government to ban fertilizer though? That or the WEF-infiltrated governments of many Western countries seem to be pushing that so hard right now for their 2030 nitrogen elimination goal. I first wondered why push this so hard now when there’s still 8 years and there’s constant warnings of food shortages in the news?

Why add this issue to food shortages when the Ukraine invasion is also putting pressure on food? Then I realized that that’s the reason. They need to do it now while the can gaslight us about food shortages being caused by Putin. They cause the pain and Putin gets the blame.

mario lento
Reply to  James H
July 7, 2022 9:42 pm

First CO2, the stuff of life, then Nitrogen, which is the most abundant gas in our air (actually not nitrogen but the compounds nitrite and nitrates.) Next they will limit water… oh wait…

Graham
Reply to  James H
July 7, 2022 10:03 pm

Hi James H,
The green leaning and socialist governments around the world are ignorant of how nitrogen fertilizer has been used to feed the massive increase in the worlds population in my life time .
From 2 billion people to very close to 8 billion now .
If is an undisputed fact that if for some reason nitrogenous fertilizer was unobtainable globally for any reason the greatest famine that this world has ever known will occur.
This is a fact.
All fertilizer has escalated in price but urea 46% nitrogen has increased over 300% in New Zealand .Urea is manufactured using natural gas and this is another reason why these green loons hate it.
The loony left just keep finding more ways to maximize food shortages .
They are banning and Taxing nitrogen fertilizer because it releases nitrous oxide which they believe is a warming gas .
What these idiots do not know is that vegetable growing farms have to use large amounts of urea to grow vegetables year after year on the same land to feed the world .
The inmates are in charge of the asylum when their actions are pushing the world towards a food shortage .

Reply to  Graham
July 7, 2022 11:56 pm

You say they are ignorant but reality may be that they are using their understanding as a means towards that great reduction of population that many Malthusians want.

ozspeaksup
Reply to  AndyHce
July 8, 2022 3:40 am

see the Geoirgia Guidestones got blown up yesterday??
Hooray
greentard wet dream manifesto on them was: reduce pop to 500k globally

Rainer Bensch
Reply to  AndyHce
July 8, 2022 4:08 am

Yes, and they can’t argue for elimination of useless eaters when there is abundant food.

Reply to  AndyHce
July 8, 2022 6:01 am

I don’t believe any of the politicians and so called scientists have a clue about what results will occur. They are ignorant of farming and agricultural practices.

We have reached the point where the farming population has the percentage of farmers is as low as it’s ever been. How many 2nd and 3rd generation city born and raised people currently exist. They only know that food is made in the back of the grocery.

How many folks would know how to kill and butcher a cow, or kill and process fowl? Most would vomit immediately.

How many know planting spacing for row crops? How many have sat and worried about rainfall or freezes?

These folks are going to learn the hard way, just like the French Revolution.

ozspeaksup
Reply to  Graham
July 8, 2022 3:39 am

urea used to be what it sounds like
urine
and came from the animals grazing the land after the crops grew
and then came gas and chemicals and massive segregated to crop or CAFO etc farms
no real shortages we just need to process our own sewage and feedlot manures properly

hiskorr
Reply to  ozspeaksup
July 8, 2022 12:17 pm

Really? That’s what the Sri Lankans tried!!

Graham
Reply to  ozspeaksup
July 8, 2022 1:33 pm

I remember visitors to China 50 years ago telling me the stench on the land out side the cities .
The peasants collected the night carts and spread it on their rice paddies .
If that is what you want to go back to just do it .

Mac
Reply to  Graham
July 8, 2022 4:13 am

Reminds me of an old joke. A man was parked outside an asylum changing a tire when all the lug nuts disappeared into a drain. He was sitting there puzzling over what to do when an inmate approached and said Why don’t you take one lug nut from each of the other wheels. The man said That’s a great idea. The inmate replied We may be crazy but we aren’t stupid!
So are govts stupid rather than crazy or both?

DrEd
Reply to  Mac
July 8, 2022 2:40 pm

Both, clearly.

ozspeaksup
Reply to  James H
July 8, 2022 3:36 am

like climate everything is Putins fault too
ukraine IS shipping wheat and ore out via barges
funny the msm doesnt mention it neither does that prat _elensky
(Z is a banned letter, sheesh)

Reply to  James H
July 12, 2022 1:34 pm

James, most relevant comment so far.
As I understand it, organics has nothing to do with it, Sri Lanka went non-GMO. Have you noticed the media outlets screaming loudest with glee, are all aligned with the holey Profit of GMOs, master Baal Gates himself?
Sri Lanka is being punished for turning away from the Good Path as laid out by Monsatano and their high priest Gates of Hell.
But we live in a world where people with university degrees do not understand the difference between Organic and non-GMO. The one is unicorn farts, the other is purely the avoidance of genetic material manipulated by people who feel the earth needs to lose 7 billion people immediately. You trust them?
I bet you nobody in Baal’s house eats GMOs, just like they did not get that hollow needle poison intervention trial thing they insist we all beg for…

mario lento
Reply to  hiskorr
July 7, 2022 9:40 pm

Damn. That was succinct! Thank you. And it’s hard to believe they fell for it and the result happened so fast. Just like Biden and the current admin’ here in the US. It did not take long for things to go to shit.

LOL about Darwin – he just called it like it seemed to be. I tell people sometimes, it’s too bad that we “have to have” clean water. Humans have elevated themselves by controlling their environment… and over time, we as a species have evolved so that we can not live on this planet naturally without major control over all aspects of our environment.

Can we live outside and drink from a puddle or body of water outside or live anywhere without modern implements, even in the tropics like any wild animal?

Reply to  mario lento
July 7, 2022 11:58 pm

In a great many places it is the environment that has changed. Untreated water is now toxic or carries parasites and pathogens in much of the world.

Mario Lento
Reply to  AndyHce
July 8, 2022 8:33 am

Hi Andy: When did water not carry parasite and pathogens and lots of them?

Reply to  AndyHce
July 8, 2022 9:39 am

Surface water has never been safer. Humans no longer crap or piss on the ground, or in open trenches. Instead, we have this fairly recent tool called ‘sanitation’ where we channel our waste stream into a processing facility which filters and cleans our precious bodily fluids, and properly disposes of the toxic wastes.

DrEd
Reply to  hiskorr
July 8, 2022 2:35 pm

Organic farming is stupid, un- and anti-scientific, and immoral. A mortal sin. A disgusting invention of ignorant and stupid self-styled “ecologists” without any intelligence or capability for rational thought.

Old Man Winter
Reply to  Mario Lento
July 7, 2022 7:29 pm

Essentially, the government forced farmers into an immediate conversion
to organic farming.

Beside the two articles which are listed below the end of this article above,
I found one more using WUWT search on top of the page.

WUWT- A Cautionary Tale: Good Idea, Disastrous Results

WUWT- Go Organic, And Starve!

Sri Lanka Food Shortages Due to Fertilizer Ban, (Not Putin)
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/06/24/sri-lanka-food-shortages-due-to-fertilizer-ban-not-putin/

mario lento
Reply to  Old Man Winter
July 7, 2022 9:43 pm

Thank you!!

Reply to  Old Man Winter
July 8, 2022 9:40 am

I’m waiting for the analyses which claim “the right people didn’t try it.”

.KcTaz
Reply to  Mario Lento
July 7, 2022 7:55 pm

Assuming you are asking about Sri Lanka, here you go. There is not much technical information but there is a whole lot of stupidity, or sacrificing their people to the NWO commands. I suspect it’s mostly the latter since multiple other nations are doing the same stupid things which will lead to the same results. Politicians may be dumb but they aren’t plum dumb and some of them are smart.

Sri Lanka Police Open Fire on Protestors
4/21/22
https://trendingpolitics.com/sri-lanka-police-open-fire-on-protestors-dodii/

Sri Lanka is going through economic and supply chain crises. Many farmers have said the past year has been the toughest of their entire life. Sri Lanka is in the worst economic crisis since its independence in 1948. Its foreign currency reserves are at the lowest levels since its independence on record. No one hasn’t felt the bite of inflation in fuel, food, or medicine. In addition to this there are shortages in all three categories.
It all started last year when President Gotabaya Rajapaksa implemented a sudden ban on chemical fertilizers. The entirety of this ill-advised policy is now just being realized even though it has been reversed. Farmers in Sri Lanka say they are now having the hardest times in modern history making an income. Rice yields have dropped to 2.92 million tons in the time period of one year. Previously it was 3.39 million tons. Local officials warned that the island’s 22 million people may face starvation.

mario lento
Reply to  .KcTaz
July 7, 2022 9:45 pm

Thank you for the insight.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  .KcTaz
July 8, 2022 2:46 am

It looks like the time is ripe for the Chicoms to come in with a bail-out. For a price, of course.

Derg
Reply to  Tom Abbott
July 8, 2022 3:55 am

This ^

ozspeaksup
Reply to  .KcTaz
July 8, 2022 3:46 am

ah yes Borlaugs green revolution that used gene modding and hybrids that need seedcos to create and a high price reliant on chemicals and pesticides to grow 3 crops a yr not one maybe 2 at best before
concurrent huge rise in leafhopper pests using more pesticides as they didnt have a lean time and got feed all yr round. more food so people felt secure and has a lot more kids..kids they wouldnt have had and overcrowding they also wouldnt have had, and when things go south?
a lot of people going hungry (gee just like they did before)

Kelvin Duncan
July 7, 2022 6:50 pm

New Zealand will be next.

Reply to  Kelvin Duncan
July 7, 2022 7:37 pm

What irony! Back in the heyday of the USSR, the standing joke was that the Soviets would shortly conquer the entire world except for New Zealand, which would need to remain independent in order to provide the Soviets with real commodity prices for economic planning purposes.

ozspeaksup
Reply to  Eric Worrall
July 8, 2022 3:47 am

ha ha funny
ussa govt doesnt need anyones help to stuff itself and others up, does an amazing job yr after yr

Reply to  Eric Worrall
July 8, 2022 9:44 am

More like the KGB released a Parasitic Mind Virus. Despite the perps no longer being in business, the virus has awoken and taken a path of it’s own.

Graham
Reply to  Kelvin Duncan
July 7, 2022 10:25 pm

NZ will not be next as long as I am breathing
Farmers are getting fed up with our government and provincial areas are very anti government
Our cities are more supportive of the socialist policies but are gradually waking up to the dark place this government is taking the country .
We have Labour (socialist ) kept in power by the Greens who are mad as hatters and the Maori Party who are pushing for Co Governance .
The opposition is National (conservative) and Act ( ultra conservative ) who will put some much needed backbone into a conservative government if the tide turns and National become the government with the help of Act .
We have already had some tractor rallies into cities to push our point of view .We hope the next one does not end up like the one yesterday in Holland .

Reply to  Graham
July 8, 2022 12:02 am

Mind control isn’t just for the masses. The officials are also under control. Violence against their own people is not off the table or even something requiring much thought.

ozspeaksup
Reply to  Graham
July 8, 2022 3:49 am

well ardens good at mouthing platitudes to Maoris to keep her butt on the power seat
see shes doing some deals with albo as well. NOT looking forward to what they hatch between them
shes WEF young leader material and should be removed!

Derg
Reply to  Graham
July 8, 2022 3:56 am

There are too many non farmer voters.

AGW is Not Science
Reply to  Derg
July 8, 2022 6:36 am

And too little appreciation by such non farmer voters about HOW STUFF WORKS. They all seem to think the world can continue to function as it has without fossil fuels and all of the contributions they make to what they have the privilege of taking for granted.

DrEd
Reply to  Graham
July 8, 2022 2:44 pm

Good luck. Don’t give up.

Reply to  Kelvin Duncan
July 8, 2022 12:36 am

New Zealand is going behind slowly. Overall net debt position is not bad.

ozspeaksup
Reply to  Kelvin Duncan
July 8, 2022 3:46 am

no such luck

markl
July 7, 2022 7:23 pm

Another victim of ESG promoted by the UN.

DrEd
Reply to  markl
July 8, 2022 2:47 pm

More people need to do as I have done – Refuse to invest in ANY company pandering with ESG greenwashing bullshit. There are plenty of other investments that are still motivated to maximize returns to shareholders – period.

Graham
July 7, 2022 7:44 pm

This is a warning to every country trying to go green and expecting other countries to supply you with essentials .
Crazy governments all over the world are making stupid choices fighting a non existent threat of climate change .
Nearly every free country in the world have signed up to the Paris Accord to reduce green house gases .
I will detail the dumb politics that our green tainted government in New Zealand are doing to our country. Jacinda Adern our communist Prime Minister.
She was the President of the International Union of Socialist Youth in 2009 and a taped speech at the conference has her using the word the word comrades ” 15 times in 8 minutes .
The very first action that she took was to ban any more off shore oil and gas exploration .
Why would our prime minister take that action unless she was intent on destroying our country .
We were not going to stop using fuel in the next 20 years and the gas from Taranaki is used to manufacture urea to grow vegetables to feed the cities and grass to feed animals that feeds 6 times our population around the world.
Her government is intent on destroying our main export industry which is grass land farming which earns 70% of our overseas earnings .
We are going to be levied TAXED soon on our methane emissions from our animals and nitrous oxide from our nitrogen fertilizer .
Make sure you are not the next country to follow down this rabbit hole .

Reply to  Graham
July 8, 2022 1:04 am

I would recommend you circulate this video as much as possible in NZ, David Siegel shows that methane has almost zero effect on climate. Imposing taxes on methane is nothing short of fraud:

CD in Wisconsin
Reply to  Right-Handed Shark
July 8, 2022 11:11 am

Thanks for this video Right-Handed. As a non-scientist it serves to reinforce my understanding of how insignificant CO2 is as a factor in our climate. It is tragic that the everything said in this video is still largely unknown or ignored in govt, the media and academia.

If the contents of this video are known to the alarmists in climate science today, I can only imagine the level of arrogance and egotism that must exist in their heads if they believe they are doing the “right” thing with this climate alarmist campaign.

The problem with climate science is that climate science is following the money.

CD in Wisconsin
Reply to  CD in Wisconsin
July 8, 2022 11:45 am

OOps.

The problem with following climate science is that climate science follows the money.

CD in Wisconsin
July 7, 2022 7:47 pm

“To err is human, to really screw things up requires government.”

Derg
Reply to  CD in Wisconsin
July 8, 2022 3:58 am

In the US, the screw ups are Dems and RINOs.

D.M. Anderson
July 7, 2022 7:47 pm

Sri Lanka – Blessed by God, cursed by foolish government.

.KcTaz
July 7, 2022 7:48 pm

“As Sri Lanka has proven, it is entirely possible for green stupidity to trigger a near total economic collapse. In my opinion economically ignorant EU leaders seem determined to follow Sri Lanka’s example, and create a Sri Lanka style foreign currency reserve crisis in Europe.”
I don’t know about the leaders of Sri Lanks but I am fairly certain that European leaders are not stupid, do know exactly what they are doing and what the results will be and want those results. This is truly terrifying.
Just as terrifying is that the Biden administration appears to be on the exact same path by design, as well.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  .KcTaz
July 8, 2022 2:53 am

“Just as terrifying is that the Biden administration appears to be on the exact same path by design, as well.”

Yes, but States have Constitutional rights, and don’t have to follow Biden over the cliff.

Derg
Reply to  Tom Abbott
July 8, 2022 3:59 am

Agree but states don’t control energy.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  Derg
July 10, 2022 3:35 am

States can control energy. I could see Texas declaring that all oil produced in the State of Texas on private land would be consumed in the State of Texas and any excess would be sold to others.

Texas could secure its energy supply despite what the national government is doing.

John Garrett
July 7, 2022 7:53 pm

Sri Lanka is what the U.S. would look like if the deranged wishes of the dimbulbs of NPR were imposed on the country.

Sri Lanka is where the U.S. would end up if Elizabeth Warren (a/k/a Pocahontas) or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Sherrod Brown or Bill McKibben or Ed Malarkey or Bill de Blasio or Greenpeace or Extinction Rebellion or the Sierra Club were put in charge.

The idiots simply will not learn.

CD in Wisconsin
Reply to  John Garrett
July 7, 2022 8:00 pm

The ability of government to screw things up is inversely proportional to the intelligence level of those in power.

Reply to  John Garrett
July 7, 2022 8:56 pm

News Flash — those idiots you mentioned have already couped their way into power, with Traitor Joe as their figurehead puppet. Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Holland, the G7, SA, and the US (to name a few) are swirling the bowl as we fiddle. The times are more than interesting; they are desperate. The Great Hoax is a smokescreen for the New World Nightmare.

ozspeaksup
Reply to  Mike Dubrasich
July 8, 2022 3:53 am

suggest a name change
to
New World ORDURE!!!

Reply to  John Garrett
July 8, 2022 12:05 am

Learn what? They are on the road to real success.

Bob
July 7, 2022 7:55 pm

Bungling government politicians, administrators and bureaucrats. The stupid just never ends. There must be a way to hold these heartless criminals to account.

Disputin
Reply to  Bob
July 8, 2022 2:30 am

There is. An AK47!

ozspeaksup
Reply to  Disputin
July 8, 2022 3:53 am

cos democracy is a word but NOT a fact anymore

. A.KcTaz
July 7, 2022 8:37 pm

It appears the US supply chain may get a whole lot worse. This benefits unions and, thusly, Democrats but no one else.

California trucking prepares for shake-up under independent contractor law AB5
7/3/22
https://bit.ly/3utBDQb

…Matt Schrap, the CEO of the Harbor Trucking Association, which represents drayage companies, issued a brief but harsh statement in response to the high court’s decision.
“It is extremely unfortunate that this Court couldn’t see through their own political agenda to identify the obvious preemption that exists under the F4A,” he wrote in an email to FreightWaves. “This ruling will have far reaching impacts that will upend the industry as we know it. Tens of thousands of truck drivers will be driven out of established business relationships within a week. No doubt this will further stress the supply chain.”

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/california-trucking-prepares-for-shake-up-under-independent-contractor-law-ab5

ozspeaksup
Reply to  . A.KcTaz
July 8, 2022 3:54 am

hope the truckies decide to boycott anything in or out of cali

July 7, 2022 8:58 pm

The USA is not far behind. Despite what they (the leftists climatic fanatics in the Democratic Party) surely read and hear coming out of Germany etc… the energy challenges they are experiencing given the rather (un)fortune events in Ukraine were precisely what President Trump warned about. The Germans were smirking. I suppose now they are not smirking, but rather agonizing.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/07/trump-right-german-housing-group-begins-throttle-tenants-heating-night-save-gas/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=the-gateway-pundit&utm_campaign=dailypm&utm_content=2022-07-07

Tom Abbott
Reply to  George T
July 8, 2022 2:58 am

“I suppose now they are not smirking, but rather agonizing.”

Now they see what Trump saw long ago. They should go consult Trump on the way forward, if they have any sense.

Chris Hanley
July 7, 2022 9:36 pm

The official title “Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka” explains all.

Ktarpley
July 7, 2022 9:39 pm

Farmers in the Neaterland are protesting crazy nitrogen policy that will put farmers out of business

July 7, 2022 10:19 pm

 Who will run out of money first? The Netherlands? Spain? Italy? Ireland? Maybe even Germany?

None of the above.

UK had a current account shortfall of 18.3% of GDP in Q1 2022. That is what I regard as unsustainable.


Philip CM
July 7, 2022 10:45 pm

If it wasn’t for the idealists and their isms, the world would be a far better place.

Rhoda R.
Reply to  Philip CM
July 10, 2022 3:40 am

BINGO! Big time Bingo.

July 7, 2022 10:53 pm

You should replace EU with EU & UK or European. We’ve got just as mad politicians as everyone else

anthropocene
July 7, 2022 10:58 pm

Isn’t the argument on here that the increased CO2 in the atmosphere meant that it was almost impossible to not have agricultural output increasing? All the advances made during the agricultural revolution of the last 70 years could be dropped – farmers could sow crops and then put their feet up and simply watch them grow into wonderful yields /sarc.

Old Cocky
Reply to  anthropocene
July 8, 2022 12:54 am

If you ignore other limiting factors

Rod Evans
July 7, 2022 11:42 pm

The examples of left wing political control across the world are there for all to see.
The issue is, the media and thus the people following the media lead, ignore it. Look at the cases we are all aware of but simply ignore.
Cuba, a basket case in one of the most potentially prosperous areas of the world. Venezuela, an oil rich nation second to none in oil reserves, completely bankrupt of political ideas and in economic chaos. North Korea, a closed totalitarian state, one harvest away from complete starvation. The majority of countries making up Africa are politically bankrupt and too dangerous to invest in.
Despite these examples and so many more, the Western world is doing all it can to emulate their folly of progressing left wing deindustrialisation ideologies. The left, or totalitarians to be more descriptive, are using climate change and environmental arguments, as levers. They are determined to return the developed world to undeveloped third world status.
The disaster that is unfolding in Sri Lanka, is just the latest left led failure that will be ignored. If it is not helpful to the left’s cause, the media will not focus on it. The shooting at farmers children driving a tractor in convoy by Dutch police, for example, has been ignored by British media, no coverage at all.
The power of the real authority advancing ‘one world state’ control is clearly very influential ,with state media now controlled and on side.
It seems no amount of evidence to the contrary will deflect these anti capitalist zealots, chasing on with their one world government ambitions.
It will be a cold winter be prepared as best you can.

July 8, 2022 2:08 am

With all due respect – the headline to this story is garbage – green agricultural policies are not the root cause of what’s going on there. They may have shone a spotlight onto things but were the straw that broke the camel.

something‘ (lots of things) has been wrong with Sri Lanka for quite some time now and the ‘Green policies’ were an attempt by a patently corrupt and or inept Government to shore things up.
Sri Lanka has been on Skid Row for a while now

The reason I’m saying this comes from the assertion here that Sri Lanka depended upon food exports

Search sri lanka exports” and you’ll see something like this:

Quote:
Sri Lanka’s Top 10 Exports:
The following export product groups categorize the highest dollar value in Sri Lankan global shipments during 2021. Also shown is the percentage share each export category represents in terms of overall exports from Sri Lanka.

  1. Knit or crochet clothing, accessories: US$3.5 billion (27.1% of total exports)
  2. Clothing, accessories (not knit or crochet): $2 billion (15.7%)
  3. Rubber, rubber articles: $1.2 billion (9.3%)
  4. Coffee, tea, spices: $1.1 billion (8.8%)
  5. Gems, precious metals: $548.3 million (4.3%)
  6. Electrical machinery, equipment: $360.6 million (2.8%)
  7. Fish: $341.4 million (2.7%)
  8. Mineral fuels including oil: $301.9 million (2.4%)
  9. Machinery including computers: $299 million (2.4%)
  10. Miscellaneous food preparations: $195.2 million (1.5%)

By value, Sri Lanka’s top 10 exports accounted for over three-quarters (77%) of the overall value of its global shipments.

Gems and precious metals represent the fastest grower among the top 10 export categories, up by 243.9% from 2020 to 2021.
Endquote

From here

There’s not a lot of food exporting in that list.

And here, slightly interesting but an epic voyage into minutia, is from the BBC and doesn’t mention anything green. but the BBC wouldn’t.

The interesting bit in there is that ‘schools have been (physically) closed for three years and all lessons online – because of fuel shortages’
Highlight:”For Three years, schools have had no fuel for heat, cooling, light, cooking whatever”

So yes maybe the leadership there is or has recently gone Green, but something much deeper is at root and has been for a long time.

PS. Holy <expletive> Cow
Is Sri Lanka, has Sri Lanka been, in microcosm what’s going wrong in the whole rest of the Western World…..

i.e All this contemporary Greenery and EnergyWendyWendy is an exercise in rearranging Titanic’s deckchairs – Green being a last ditch (and misguided) attempt to stop the whole ship from going down?

Maybe not misguided, is there completely nothing left that can be done?

How much shit are we all really in here?

Charlie
Reply to  Peta of Newark
July 8, 2022 2:51 am

That something much deeper is socialist borrowing and spending so that Sri Lanka was paying a huge proportion of its revenues on servicing debt interest repayments.

ozspeaksup
July 8, 2022 3:22 am

i’d suggest political mismanagement and theft of funds played a larger part than just not using chem fertilisers. the soils should have had enough residual to get a yrs worth crops anyway reliance on imported expensive GMO rice etc thats heavily reliant on pesticides and fertiliser might also have played a hefty part

Ack
July 8, 2022 4:50 am

Maybe China will sell them some of the oil Biden gave them.

Elliot W
July 8, 2022 2:06 pm

Just read a BBC long article on the Sri Lanka mess. The woke reporter blamed all the current problems on govt tax policies enacted a few years ago!
The msm is handling Sri Lanka imploding the same way it is handling the Australian energy crisis — convince people their salvation lies in doubling down on the ruinous green wokeness .

Quartermaster
July 9, 2022 10:36 am

All they have to do is send tankers to Novorossiysk. There’s plenty of fuel there. I hear it’s at a substantial discount oo.

janice baker
July 12, 2022 7:58 am

i subscribe to Common Sense with Bari Weiss. Today (July 12) there is a very interesting article by Michael shellenberger – strong emphasis on fertilizer ban, accompanied by appalling stats, but also other factors .