If we measure the vibrancy of an economy by its energy use, the EU peaked in 2006 and is down 10%. The UK, alas has fallen even further and faster and is down 30%.
John Constable at the GWPF has produced a damning report on Europe’s Green Experiment and remarked that there hasn’t been a fall in energy this large “since the end of the late middle ages”.
Effectively, the EU paid €770 billion to export it’s carbon emissions and jobs to China and import nearly everything else.
- The study shows that up until 2005 the EU’s energy consumption was on a rising trend, but it has now fallen by over 10% on the 2006 peak, and is now back at levels last seen in the 1990s. The UK is even more severely affected, with consumption falling by about 30% on its peak in the early 2000s and is now at levels last seen in the 1950s.
- Further analysis reveals that electricity generation productivity has collapsed, with system load factor falling from an adequate 56% in 1990 to a worryingly inefficient and expensive 37% in 2020.
A trillion dollars in subsidies to renewables — mostly paid by the EU
It takes a lot of money to destroy a good industrial base, and the EU had the cash:
The EU’s commitment of subsidies to the renewable energy sector is nearly 70% of the total across major economies, as can be seen in Figure 9, which compares annual subsidies (including tax expenditures) in the EU27, Japan, the UK, the US, and China. Over the period covered in this figure, total subsidies to renewables, including tax expenditures, amounted to €893 billion, of which the EU was responsible for €612 billion.
Like the fall of Rome
As the cost of energy went up, the people of the EU started to buy things from places which could make them cheaper:
The EU’s own data shows that energy prices have been consistently above the non-EU G20 average, with household electricity prices for example being 80% higher and industrial electricity prices being 30% higher, a difference that is largely due to policy. Similar effects are found in relation to both natural gas and transport fuel prices.
Was this “peak EU”?
EU and American Solar Panel Production never recovered from the GFC
Just look at the exodus. All those subsidized jobs in solar panel production headed for China in 2009. Wow. Just wow.
European subsidies created lots of green jobs (in China)
And this is just employment in the renewables sector. It’s not showing all the jobs destroyed in the EU making hairdryers, cars, fridges, and everything else… 
This is what Europe got for a trillion dollars
Europeans paid all that money but got less energy and made these dramatic changes to their energy sources (not).
The increase in actual power from wind and solar and biomass is marked with arrows.
China could afford to make solar panels because it wasn’t building them with solar power
Hapless consumers in the EU paid for expensive electrons to make them feel good, while they paid people in China to build the exact same things but with more coal than they would have if they had made them themselves.
Part 1
Part 2
\
Part 3
GWPF: Europe’s Green Experiment: A costly failure in unilateral climate policy, [PDF]
Economic Debt is truly astonishing in all of these countries that all this terrible technology was forced onto it’s citizens that they expect to pay back.
Not getting any choice on who to vote for didn’t help as all the politicians have turned into a colluding group that no longer listen to it’s citizens actual needs in stable electricity grids.
510
Climate change aka global warming – the biggest scam ever, and it is working. We have been betrayed by our politicians, our media, and various institutions. They can’t even get it right about a virus, but pretend they can adjust the earth’s thermostat whatever China and India do.
510
Likely next British rime minister liz truss says the only reason china is becoming the worlds largest economy is because the west has enabled them by exporting it’s technology and jobs. Which s pretty much the theme of jo’s article,
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/07/26/likely-next-uk-prime-minister-would-crack-down-on-tiktok-chinese-tech-firms/
Liz intends to rein in Tik tok and generally step away from china. Not before time.
351
Wot she said vs what she does?
300
And
Sold down the river
“Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer Strike a Deal, $370 Billion for Green New Deal Energy Transition, Tax Increases to Pay for it and More IRS Agents
July 27, 2022 | Sundance | 33 Comments”
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/07/27/joe-manchin-and-chuck-schumer-strike-a-deal-370-billion-for-green-new-deal-energy-transition-tax-increases-to-pay-for-it-and-more-irs-agents/
101
I and a couple of other people I know are still waiting for the 2020 USA income tax returns…..
20
with refunds
20
That’s not a good omen.
30
Oh yessss. That’ll teach those naughty Chinamen!! They’ll censure Tik Tok!
I’m sure a severe “dressing down” will turn the tables on the Chinese economy & within a year or two the UK will again be a major competitor! Dream on all you climate change hacks and wake up. The electorate are so brainwashed it’s really easy to lead them all down the garden path to see the fairies & unicorns.
When the Electorate wake up it’ll be far too late. The politician’s certainly will never wake up in time! Wonder if the lights will ever burn brightly in Blighty again.
261
This misses the point totally. The mistake is demonising CO2 and a belief that wind and solar are sustainable means of electricity production. China leads the world in most technology development now and they recognise the importance of coal to manufacturing.
271
OK Tonyb she may rein in TIK TOK, but what about a return to proper BASE-LOAD energy and ditching S & W ASAP?
Admittedly she couldn’t be more stupid than the Boris/Carrie loonies, but that’s a very poor yardstick to measure yourself by.
191
Is this the same Liz Truss
20
Australian jobs, technology and IP have been stolen in broad daylight for two decades or more and successive governments on both sides did nothing. I raised the alarm years ago when I was struck by how much freedom Chinese ‘researchers’ had to wander the corridors and labs of our research institutions, allegedly engaged in ‘collaborative research’. I recall vividly a conversation I had with four or five scientists/engineers/local gov’t staffers at an Australian seminar, during which I voiced my concerns once again. The temperature in the room dropped and I was met with horrified looks before they all made excuses to scuttle away from that dreadful racist.
90
And what technology wasn’t given away to China, was actively and surreptitiously stolen…And the West turned a blind eye to open theft of technology.
60
How stupid are we… just have a look around you.
20
So censorship is OK as long as it’s what you agree with?
I would suggest you wean yourself off tictok instead of demanding the government force it.
Narcissists need a place to gather and promote themselves, Idiots the same, TicTok is that place. Keeps the rest of the internet free. Remove that platform they could end up anywhere, Naa best to keep them in one place.
Move away from China, don’t they make everything in your country as well, you can just stop buying made in China stuff. Apparently their crystal balls are excellent though.
The United Nations agenda 21 was the de-industrialisation of the west, this is bigger than China.
71
The west needs to completely stop buying solar panels and wind turbines. Today.
That’s only a start, of course, as there’s a lot more that needs to be done and/or undone, but it would be a good start.
301
Socialism is not only on the march but winning everywhere. It is doing what the communists could not with threats of bombs and bullets. We the people are being crippled by the extremely rich and very powerful however we still have the vote but for how long? The ignorant who support socialist agendas think they stand to gain but are they in for a shock. Remember the kulaks in Russia. They forced out the Tsar and his autocracy but were then subjected to the most cruel dictatorship. The same will happen again when Schwarb and Gates take over but only if we let them.
191
Net Zero produced the most dramatic fall in European energy since the late Middle Ages
The assumption behind the headline of this article is wrong.
This is not merely “unintended consequences” of a stupid unscientific policy, it is indeed the very purpose of it.
Energy Starvation is quite deliberate and designed to lower our standard of living and “progress” us further on the “Road to Serfdom” to reference Frederick von Hayek’s 1944 book on the topic.
Why is this happening?
So power that the Elites lost with the liberation of the common people out of serfdom that occurred with The Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution can be reinstated.
341
Engineers on the brink of extinction threaten entire tech ecosystems
While computer science course take-up had gone up by over 90 percent in the past 50 years, electrical engineering (EE) had declined by the same amount. The electronics graduate has become rarer than an Intel-based smartphone.
That part of the technology industry which makes actual things has always been divided between hardies and softies, soldering iron versus compiler, oscilloscope versus debugger. But the balance is lost. Something is very wrong at the heart of our technology creation supply chain. Where have all the hardies gone?
Engineering degree courses are a lot of work across a lot of disciplines, with electronic engineering being particularly diverse. The theoretical side covers signal, information, semiconductor devices, optical and electromagnetic theory, so your math better be good. There’s any amount of building-block knowledge needed, analogue and digital, across the spectrum from millimetric RF to high-energy power engineering. And then you have to know how to apply it all to real-world problems.
This isn’t the sort of course you opt to do because you can’t think of anything better. You have to want to do it, you have to think you can do it, and do it well enough to make it your career. For that, you need prior exposure. You need to have caught the taste. And to make it your life, there has to be a lot of high-status, high-wage, high-interest jobs to do at the end.
140
And even modern software “engineers” seem incapable of writing decent bug-free code. Nearly all software released these days is released with little or even no testing and with some very fundamental defects. Or removing desired functionality that existed in previous versions of the code because they didn’t bother speaking to actual users about what they wanted or how they actually used the software.
I agree, actual hardware engineering is too hard for today’s “school” graduates, and where it is actually taught, it has to be dumbed-down so diversity quotas can be filled.
61
Yes engineering is the backbone of an industrial society.
My youngest son did Materials (creating alloys etc at a molecular level) Engineering at Oxford uni. His holiday job in 2nd and 3rd yrs was with citibank in london on over £50k per year equivalent. In his 4th Masters year he (and fellow engineer students) was swamped by job offers from Banks and finance houses. He graduated after 4yrs with an MEng 1st class and took a job with a finance consultancy building systems for hedge funds. He’s been living in San francisco for 6yrs now.
Alas good practical maths students do Eng and the Banks and money managers want those maths skills and lure them away from Engineering with huge rewards. Thats where the talent has / is gone.
110
Look around you. There’s a dearth of Electrical Power Engineers and competent peers in many branches of Engineering.
People who actually know how a grid, refinery, steel mill, pipeline, cathodic protection, etc, really work.
Functional Infrastructure requires knowledge, experience, and thought. Now disparaged in favour of feelings.
When life gets difficult enough, the value of these things will belatedly be appreciated.
110
China has no shortage of such people.
In the West, students in “school” are learning about the 57 or whatever supposed “genders”.
In Chinese schools they learn calculus and other useful things, no longer deemed to be of importance in the West.
101
David
It has been going on for quite a while. I had exposure to the US university system in the early 1970’s and got the explanation as to why people in my field usually had Masters or above degrees.
Seemed it was because a fair bit of a bachelors degree was fixing what hadn’t been taught in high school. One high school system it was possible to graduate without having made formal acquaintance with the English language.
70
It takes 10 years to “grow” a competent engineer. 4-6 yrs at Uni, and 6 to 4 yrs to integrate “education” into knowledge.
In 40 yrs practice, I’ve met more educated incompetents than I ever thought possible.
A competent Engineer is one with Education, Experience, Imagination, Perception, Humility, Curiosity, and Grace.
Most of these things are learned, not taught, in the practical world. Wisdom and Knowledge are different things. Experience is theory tempered by practice and coloured with failure, regret, and introspection.
Competent engineers are not “graduated”. They are Forged in fire and time.
150
Most technical managers in China actually come from Taiwan and studied at MIT in the States :).
00
No doubt the Extinction Rebellion and Insulate Britain activists are pleased with the way things are going at present. Is anyone looking at how they are changing their lifestyle. I doubt it as they are part of the elite and have a free pass to continue as before.
Change is only mandated for us serfs.
Meanwhile I get to wondering how we are going to manage when the present generation of hardware engineers retire. Have we got enough coming through the pipeline?
This covers the entire spectrum from plumbers to fix heat pumps to the incredibly gifted engineers who make the machines that produce the chips that hold 128 GB of data on a piece of silicon the size of a fingernail.
On the latter subject, if China did decide to invade Taiwan then we are in deep doo-doo as either the manufacturing plants will be destroyed or we would be at the mercy of the Chinese in the same way as we are with neodymium etc.
10
The company that makes the machines which make computer chips is Dutch company ASML, worth US$220 billion. It’s the biggest company on the Netherlands stock market.
20
And even with all this knowledge and science, Australian politicians want to drive us down the same path to penury! This surely is the definition of madness and stupidity!
201
Australian politicians want to drive us down the same path to penury!
Don’t worry we won’t reach penury according to CNN
CNN’S ‘Climate Correspondent’ Predicts All Life on Earth Is About to End
WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE! Well, not today, maybe not tomorrow, but from what you read and see lately, one would assume that we, and the rest of the planet, are on life support. All life on earth. Maybe even cockroaches. Keep reading.
Screw writing out the will and trust; spend all your money now. “WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!”
30
So many parallels with the world’s Covid response.
In the Covid case, a scorched earth policy was used to treat a relatively small threat- that is a respiratory infection on par with a bad influenza outbreak.
With the Climate Change approach, again total destruction of Western Civilization though for a non-existent rather than small threat.
I concur that the only plausible rationale for these policies is to restore power to the elites (AKA the WEF and CCP).
221
Without coal, gas, nuclear or real hydro (not SH2) there is no real, accessible, inexpensive or on-demand electrical energy.
I include hydro because in Kaliforniastan the Leftoids are now demolishing hydro power stations, right in the middle of an electricity shortage and drought, so not even hydro is acceptable to these people even though it has no “carbon” (sic) emissions and no “scary” radioactive processes, not understood by its opponents, like nuclear does.
I predict the future for Europe and Australia, but not the US after Trump wins the next election, will be vastly more windmills, hundreds of thousands more, they will be EVERYWHERE, including at sea, thousands of square kms more of solar panels, hugely expensive central Big Battery Banks and domestic Battery Banks to grab power on the rare times it is produced and available.
Electricity will become so expensive it will be deemed a luxury item only, few will be able to afford it and people will revert to living by the sun as they used to. Of course, even paraffin wax candles will be out of the question because oil. Beeswax candles were always expensive and unaffordable for common people.
China will continue to enjoy cheap electricity partly made with Australian coal and gas and the world’s cheapest and longest lasting gas supply contract signed under the auspices of John Howard.
241
As Jo has laid all this is observable and recorded, yet here in Australia we choose to take no lessons from it.
Albanese and Bowen will deliberately go over the same cliff and expect different results, because magic or something.
211
Never forget that Albo Labor + the Greens + Teals loonies BELIEVE we will change our climate by following the EU lemmings over the cliff and we’ll all live happily forever.
The Albo loony even told us yesterday that we’re now “out of the naughty corner”. Hows that for a scientific description?
Yet under the Coalition govt we were changing to S & W at a faster rate than most of the OECD, but Labor etc BELIEVES we should bankrupt ourselves even faster, or 43% net ZERO by 2030.
But will our barking mad loonies still have that warm fuzzy feeling as we continue to WASTE endless billions of $ for a GUARANTEED ZERO change to our climate and most of our remaining jobs and industry disappear down the plug hole?
200
Don’t forget that Oz is now over $1 trillion in debt.
Increasing debt to fund this scam is insane.
It seems that there are very few politicians from any party with any sense at all.
141
In Leftist post-modernist ideology there is no such thing as objective reality. The truth is whatever you BELIEVE it to be.
That’s what dominates their “thinking” and is the reason behind their anti-science ideology.
That’s one reason why there’s no easy way out of this cluster*.
It’s hard to argue the case for science when you’re dealing with people who are fundamentally anti-science.
Britannica also has a fairly decent article on post-modernism.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/postmodernism-philosophy
71
A quote from Europe’s Green Experiment.
Reality wins every time.
61
China’s economy however faces enormous problems. Since capital is allocated at the whims of corrupt communist cadres, there is immense overcapacity across all industrial sectors of colossal proportions. Their banking system is utterly insolvent. Nothing short of a total collapse will rebalance the system and unwind the resource misallocation. It won’t be pretty, that’s for sure. I doubt the CCP can survive it. Time will tell.
100
It beggars belief that such a policy disaster could be entirely accidental, but I suppose one must never underestimate the stupidity of the average politician – or of the people who vote them in to office.
Not that there is much of a selection. Better choice in a box of Quality Street.
70
But far less quality.
20
Looks like the Wuhan Flu has done a great job in devastating economies and weakening rival economies around the world. I wonder how man other diseases are being considered? It’s certainly cheap warfare. And you can use economic warfare to shut up anyone who questions it, like Australia.
110
Well, the World Homicide Organisation just declared monkeypox to be a global health emergency…
And no doubt there’ll soon be outbreaks of foot and mouth disease in meat producing countries in line with plans to transition to insect protein for non-Elites.
91
“Well, the World Homicide Organisation just declared monkeypox to be a global health emergency…”
It is if you are homo.
30
We’re all in this together, signed John Sapiens, WHO Director of internal affairs.
20
And China now wants a special price on coal, having punished us and left our coal to rot on the docks at their special price of $75 a tonne. Now it is over $400 a tonne and they are prepared to talk? Meanwhile our wine has a 400% duty and they are bribing the Solomons to hand control to them, a critical country the Japanese took by force. It’s another cold war, military threats and cash inducements for a growing Chinese sphere of influence. We have been here before.
Totally fake Climate Change is just another weapon in the political and economic arsenal. And that is true for the EU who see it as a path to centralize economic control and ultimately being a world military superpower as well, an alliance between Germany and France, against the United States and Russia and China.
61
Its time to get a little surly with the CCP/China – way overdue.
61
Its got to the point now where I think stuff it, just let the insane uniparty WEF lackeys break the grid good and proper, so all soros9 watchers and inner city latte sippers can get a good dose of the ‘clean and green’ future that the davos billionaires are demanding from THEIR politicians and THEIR media outlets around the world…Chainsaw and diesel generator sales could be good niches to get in to.
111
When it fails they will blame the free market and capitalists etc etc, and the liberals, etc etc.
Just look at any country that has fallen, despite it always being certain policies, the people always blame everything on one group they prescience as corrupt and responsible.
10
The entire western world is under the control of Luddites . The irony is that that control is being implemented using technology . When the technology is finally destroyed or made useless we may try to return to reality . It will be interesting to see what happens to the technology base when the lights go out due to a lack of wind at night or the inability to repair the grid when the renewables breakdown . Most backup systems use gas or diesel and these are being demonised .
Interesting time ahead…
100
I think what’s going on in South Africa is a reasonable representation of where Australia is heading. Trying to desperately produce power with power plants that haven’t been maintained for 28 years but without the skills or management capability to do so.
Plus being told by the UN that the future is in weather-dependent random generation and thus no loans being provided to train people to maintain real coal power plants or build new ones.
101
The challenge of power in Victoria existed from the earliest days. No black coal and no natural gas. The development of brown to to first produce gas which powered Victoria for 90 years, then briquettes which heated the Victorian homes in black coal burning grates, not wood burning grates and finally the wonder of electricity under Sir John Monash and the SEC. We had so much cheap electricity Premier Henry Bolte invited Alcoa to make cheap aluminium at Portland. Now the electricity costs more than the aluminium and we have to subsidize it
So Labour has fired the workers, demolished the power stations, banned gas, banned fracking, banned burning firewood, banned gas exploration or even exploration wonders why Victoria is becoming a mendicant state with no manufacturing and no power, running out of gas and crippled by RET taxes and still paying off a multi billion dollar French desalination plant which was never used. Victoria is heading for broke, which suits China fine.
All that energy in the ground, untouched. And all those Chinese windmills.
Dictator Daniel Andrews, friend of President Xi, is perfectly happy with all this. It’s all about personal power. And he publicly accepts all the blame for the blatantly criminal activities of his friends because no one cares and no one can do anything anyway. And the press is so extremely left they are on the footpath as in America. Never a critical word is written. All hail the Glorious leader.
Climate Change crippling economies? Who needs to discuss Europe? We have it all at home.
181
I don’t think most Australians are aware of the extent of CCP infiltration into our political processes or the extensive “friendship” between certain Australian politicians and the CCP. And our “intelligence” agencies are utterly clueless and asleep at the wheel.
81
Dictator Daniel Andrews will be safe after the eventual fall. He has been promised the presidency of the largest island in the Sprattlys recently acquired by mr Xi.
61
Mischief Reef would be a good place where the Chicomms could install Comrade Dictator Dan as the First Emperor of the Dan Dynasty.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mischief_Reef?wprov=sfla1
61
While all this is going on, lets not forget Desalination plants, Useless (con cent ration) Co vid camps and other stupid wonderful ideas our magnificent leaders have fostered upon us to pay off on the tax payers credit card – I hope our grand children will forgive us?
81
The unused covid camp in Queenslandistan apparently cost $360,000 per inmate position.
They couldn’t think of any cheaper ways to house people for ten days?
101
These camps are not solely for quarantine purposes. Within 12/18 months they’ll be crammed with asylum seekers, refugees and all who invite themselves to our land of diminishing wealth.
I can see the Labor parties, both state & federal not to mention a large slice of Liberal party
members salivating at the success of their forward thinking!
61
Or political dissidents.
10
Surely those people who have been watching all this must realise now that the timeline for this fall in, well, so much really, corresponds almost exactly to the rise in the implementation of those two forms of renewable power in current favour, wind power and both versions of solar power.
Tony.
130
Except nuclear fusion and heat below the mantle, all power is basically solar power. At least fossil fuels which have created the modern world are commandable, not unreliables, uncontrollables and unserviceables.
40
By the time we have enough replaceables, it will be time to replace them all. When do we get our money back?
50
Tony
When wind and solar arrive in their full blacked out splendour how do all those big buildings with their HVAC needs for breathability get on?
30
Absolutely correct really, they will be shells, with no one allowed to enter ….. every high rise in every city, every one of them. Those huge HVAC units on the roof of every one of them, are the ONLY source of breathable air inside the buildings, circulating air into and out of every one of them. No electricity, no circulating air, shut the doors.
Incidentally, I speculated on high rise building supply of power in an earlier Post at my home site.
Using Co generation, and even trigeneration.
You have the original (natural) gas turbine driving the generator. The waste heat from the exhaust drives a smaller steam driven turbine/generator unit, the secondary generator, adding to the total generated power, and the waste steam (the third part of the equation) can be used for heating and cooling.
They come in sizes ranging up to 5MW, and one Unit is around the size of a shipping container. It can be connected to the natural gas supply, or to an independent supply, or also use other fuel sources as well, and the Unit can be installed in the Basement. There are buildings already utilising this form of power supply.
Here’s the link to my article, and it’s a long read, and surprisingly, although I was not as much aware (then) of HVAC as I am now, the article is still pretty much ‘on the money’.
You can read it if you want to, and I tried to do ‘the sums’ for it.
Here’s the link – What Is A Green Building (Part 3)
At the finish, glance again right at the top of the Post for the date I wrote it, March 2009, thirteen years ago.
Tony.
30
Winter Is Coming
natural gas rationing in Europe is coming
70
When I installed my heat pump heating in Melbournistan, I decided to keep the old ducted gas system.
I knew that in the People’s Republic of Vicdanistan, under the guidance of our Dear Leader, Comrade Dictator Dan, that we would be soon facing either electricity or gas rationing or electricity or gas grid outage or both.
I thought I’d keep the option of using either system.
The electrical parts of the ducted gas system can be run by a small generator.
The heat pump should be able to also run by generator when the grid is down but I have to get the electrician to install a grid isolation switch and power input socket.
50
The ‘shutdown for maintenance’ was probably to resite the compressors.
20
As always, the old adage ‘follow the money’ is pertinent here. That said, we shouldn’t stop following the trail when we get to some local politician, western billionaire or corporation, because the trail often fades but actually keeps going, all the way to China.
40
“A perfectly good civilisation is going to waste”, applies here. Not sure where I saw that, but I’m sure it was a very wise person.
130
Reminds me of that skit about a young chap sleeping off a big night out in a back alley dumpster, the black waste collector lifts the lids and says, ‘ looky here, someone throwed away a perfectly good white boy.’
20
Green Dreams, Inflationary Realities
We must find ways to combat climate change without incurring devastating inflation, greater class division, the immiseration of the middle class, and the destitution of the poor.
Global policy and politics, particularly in the high-income world, have been obsessed with dreams of a green economy. Imposing ever-more rigid methods to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as the way to “save the planet” is almost unchallenged in the media, academia, and corporate boardrooms of the developed world. The results on the ground have been less convincing, as the price of everything—from energy and food to construction costs—rises to unsustainable levels and international trade slows as global recession looms. Billions now face immiseration, malnutrition, or starvation. Economist Isabel Schnabel calls this process “greenflation”—companies’ efforts to reduce emissions have driven up prices, particularly since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
This has caused tremendous price pressure on rare earths, copper, and other materials critical to the production of batteries. The green lobby and its media supporters, meanwhile, like to claim that renewable energy is now economically competitive. But in places where strict green energy policies have been introduced, people end up with skyrocketing energy costs. In California, residents pay up to 80 percent above the US national average for electricity. Reliance on wind power has made even Texas’s grid vulnerable. Rather than learn from these experiences, other states, notably New York, have decided to adopt similar policies.
The biggest losers from greenflation are predominately the largely powerless working class and the denizens of developing countries. But even energy rich and historically prosperous countries like Australia face severe price hikes and shortages, as do Canada and the US. Economies have been severely impacted, particularly the agriculture and manufacturing sectors.
– Looking backwards
– A changing political equation
Throughout the West, divergence between elite opinion and that of the vast majority is clear. Climate change activists, backed by the media, tech, and Wall Street elites, and numerous celebrities, may drive coverage and academic discourse, but Gallup notes that climate change ranks as the top priority issue for just two percent of Americans. Inflation leads economic fears with 18 percent, followed by the economy in general with 13 percent. Five percent are most concerned by gas prices. Now, nearly half of all small businesses say they fear inflation will force them into bankruptcy.
– Crisis in the developing world
– An unpalatable religion for most
One reason for this indifference, observes Joel Garreau, lies in how environmentalism has become what novelist Michael Crichton once called “the religion of choice for urban atheists.” Although many green predictions dating back to the late 1960s have turned out to be exaggerated or even plain wrong, this does not seem to trouble climate activists. Although natural resources did not run out but became more abundant, this did not shake the faithful.
Like Medieval Catholicism, the green faith foresees impending doom caused by human activity. In the Middle Ages, wrote Barbara Tuchman, “apocalypse was in the air.” The Final Judgement, brought about by human sin, was not only real but imminent. St. Norbert in the 12th century predicted that the event would occur within the lifetime of his contemporaries. Fueled by the same certainty, the greens have no more desire to debate policy than Medieval clerics.
– The need for autocracy
– Potential divisions in the green movement
– The adaptive alternative
With their eyes on the apocalypse, environmentalists often seem less concerned with adapting to climate change than waxing hysterical about it. Yet the current greenflation crisis could bring a better appreciation of the consequences of draconian and often ill-thought-out policies.
50
Immiseration is a very handy word these days.
50
This comes from the same article:
Inflation in the west has been hidden by China’s takeover of global manufacturing. The west is now seeing the direct impact of greenflation on basic energy and almost all inputs to daily living.
It is so sad to see all this waste on unsustainable energy extraction based on climate models where any notion of due diligence is treated with greatest scorn. It is a complete failure of science and will go down in history as the greatest waste of resources ever recorded. Pony poo sells for $3 per bag in these parts. That is far more precious than anything produced by climate models. Labeling climate models as poo is belittling of real poo.
51
I frequently point out to friends and family that staggering inflation has been happening for many years, hidden from view. You see, the REAL price of goods has been rising but the impact hidden because the QUALITY has been falling, ergo the manufacturing cost. because so much of it has been made in China using cheap labour and cheap money.
Just consider the price of say, a wheelbarrow. It might appear that they cost no more now than they did forty years ago. But just compare the quality, because most of them are made in China, from cheese metal and self-destructing plastic. To compare prices in a meaningful way, one has to track down a company making wheelbarrows to the same, indestructible QUALITY as that one your father had since 1954. I think you will find the equivalent quality today is a lot more expensive than the tin version sold in your local Bunnings.
THAT is a much better measure of inflation.
80
And sometimes the price of a product remains the sane but the size is reduced. Esoecially as regard to various packaged groceries and confections.
40
They call it Shrink-flation.
50
Many purchased items are replaced because they get superseded. My 20 year old LED TV is still working but it is only 32″. The 55″ that we put into a larger room is a decade old now and cost half the price. New 65″ TVs are half that again.
Most power tools now use batteries rather than extension cords. I have a few different size battery chainsaws that have impressive performance. My battery larn mower is now about 12 years but the lead acid batteries were replaced with lithium about 10 years ago.
Or 30yo fridge is in dated technology and would make sense to replace but the latest fridges are mostly taller and do not fit the space so we will stick with the 32yo one until it eventually fails.
I believe tyres are better value now than they were 30 years ago and figure most come out of China.
Hybrid cars make economic sense. I do not know how much of them come out of China. A Toyota mechanic told me in 2019 that he was still servicing a 1998 Prius with original batteries – probably mostly made in Japan rather than China in those days.
I only ever use stainless fixings these days. Most are made in China and show next to no deterioration after decades of use. Stainless hinges are very good value for example.
The current round of inflation is driven by the demonising of CO2 and the push for unsustainable intermittent weather energy extractors. Current solar panels need to last 83 years to recover the energy value of the coal that went into their manufacture, transport and installation.
72
Twenty years ago, with a long weekly commute, I had a pair of Michelin tyres last more than 100,000 km. The shop was beginning to get worried about the tyre casing…..
The model was discontinued.
30
But remember, you’ll be in front of the curve after that 83 years has transpired.
That’s what sustainability is all about.
I’m surprised that you, Rick, don’t know that. 🙂
10
Australian made refrigerator lasts 30 years, Chinese made refrigerator last 6 years, unrepairable.
30
I think Kelso is still making wheel barrows. We.ve got one from about 1950 still in use. I’m not sure if they still do any old style quality made here though.
10
Goes with that
https://au.ames.com/kelso/
“Today, we continue to produce some of the best quality wheelbarrows, garden tools and hand trolleys available in Australasia.”
20
The Real Nett Zero.
https://joannenova.com.au/2022/07/uk-lights-out-for-winter-warning-12m-people-will-be-in-energy-poverty/#comment-2571235
Humanity has gained nothing out of Nett Zero.
60
Think that is what is actually meant by “net zero”.
50
So Europe, coal, the steam engine and the genius philosophers of The Enlightenment and the geniuses behind the Industrial Revolution liberated you from serfdom.
President Trump warned you and the whole world where all this was heading and that your way was the Road to Serfdom.
And you all laughed at him.
Enjoy your immiseration.
51
Here we go again. Last week Atlassian tech billionaire Scott Farquhar (don’t say that too fast or it sounds like another word) and his wife Kim Jackson have made a bid for the only renewables player still listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, Genex Power Limited. It looks like the software tycoon wants to speed up the transition to a green utopia for Australia. It’s all happening too slowly. The shares jumped 70% overnight on news of the bid, from 13¢ to 22¢. The offer is a princely 23¢.
The original IPO was at 20¢.
Before the bid Ms Jackson already owned 10% of Genex, according to the Financial Review. Ah.
Astute investor David Paradice of Paradice Investments was
also on the register. That guy always seems to get the hottest stock tips:).
Genex is rather a minnow, though. It’s market capitalization is now $300 million, but its only real assets are a 50MW solar farm or two in NSW and a planned 250MW pumped hydro project in an abandoned gold mine. Some noise about a future battery storage operation in central Qld has been made.
A Loy Yang this thing is not.
But if billionaires want to spend their own money chasing a green rainbow, why not. It makes a change from taxpayers’ cash being wasted.
30
I’m really hoping Mr Farker and that other clown with the double barrelled name do their money in a big way.
There’s no way I’ll ever buy any power from them, I can generate my own.
30
My understanding is that, while crop yields have risen recently in response to raised CO2 levels and warmer, wetter weather, food production in various parts of the world are being artificially reduced by environmental legislation and increased energy costs limiting the use of nitrogen fertiliser.
However, in their usual fashion, Their ABC explains falling food production rather differently this morning:
“A brutal invasion in Eastern Europe, a chemical industry facing an unprecedented crisis and climate change threatening to slash crop yields across the globe.”
71
Engineered reduction of crop yields is all part of the plan.
61
That has to be the post of the day!
25
Elevated CO2 and Temperature Enhance the Grain Yield and Quality of Rice. (Roy et al. (2015)). …..team of five Indian scientists set out “to determine the effect of elevated CO2 and night time temperature on (1) biomass production, (2) grain yield and quality and (3) C [carbon], N [nitrogen] allocations in different parts of the rice crop in tropical dry season.”. Conclusion – “As the CO2 concentration of the air rises, yields will increase. And if the temperature rises as models project, yields will still increase, though by not quite as much. These findings, coupled with the fact that the grain nutritional quality (as defined by an increase in amylose content) was enhanced by elevated CO2, suggest there is a bright future in store for rice in a carbon dioxide-enhanced atmosphere.”. Yep, those higher CO2 levels are going to do incredibly bad things to one of the more important cereal crops – NOT!!!!!
40
“Their ABC explains falling food production rather differently this morning:’
“A brutal invasion in Eastern Europe, a chemical industry facing an unprecedented crisis and climate change threatening to slash crop yields across the globe.”
At least with their abc, we get the foul leftist version of things all in the one place.
51
We as individuals should prepare for the debates now. At the dinner party this will be the narrative, that climate change has caused food shortages. What will your answer be ? You have 5 seconds only to answer before interest is lost.
21
Where is the discussion on what really matters in the Net Zero equation?
https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/data-browser?country=WORLD&fuel=Energy%20supply&indicator=TESbySource
C’mon Man, as Biden would say>
10
Here in EU we are heading to interesting times. Price of energy will climb ever higher. But what I’m curious to see is the coming wave of propaganda and censorship. The elite and their puppets must know that people starts to ask questions and they can even start rioting.
I think we are going to see headlines like ‘Far-right on the rise in Europe’. Far-right meaning ordinary people asking for lower energy prices and above all, asking if this green stuff really is necessary.
The level of propanganda in matters related to ‘global warming/ climate change’ is high already. Six months from now people have more important things to worry about than state of climate. If I’m correct politicians will be worried that people’s believe in climate change has decreased. What politicians will do then? They turn volume up.
Here in Finland our situation is fairly good. Gazprom demanded rubles for natural gas, we refused. Gazprom cut deliverings but I think authorities may have had a plan for this scenario. Those who used natural gas did not notice change. That went surprisingly well.
51
And a massive decline in energy = a decline in the civilization.
41
The hapless in the UK may be a sizeable bunch who never wanted renewables in the first place. Since we were never specifically asked by referendum to vote for either renewables and higher energy prices or a more acceptable mix of nuclear, gas, oil, coal and hydro with acceptable energy prices, it has been imposed upon us by those who need no sympathy from anyone for being hopelessly dumb, gullible, or cowardly because of the huge amounts of money thrown at their indoctrination into stupidity. These people have swallowed the climate change crisis fantasy whole and their effluence is harming all of us much more so than a few degrees Fahrenheit rise in temperature ever could.
The UK is divided just as it was on EU/Brexit and the problem is we do not have a major political party prepared to demolish a structure built wholly upon lies and half truths because they fear for their careers. What they do not get is that the future dystopia they are walking into is far, far worse than anything nature could throw at them when she is being a bit hot headed. I suspect that this coming winter may provide a glimpse of the coming dystopia and perhaps turn some heads but we need people to start exposing the liars at the BBC etc and not losing their jobs over it. We really do need a tough and uncompromising leader who is prepared to debate openly on all issues of concern but I just don’t see one anywhere.
21
The energy crisis is totally political…no science or common sense involved. As I tell my friends, when we eventually go back to living in caves, the first to complain will be the Green/Teal/ALP trash.
00