You will be cold, have nothing, and you will be happy
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The EastMed Pipeline was designed to bring natural gas from the offshore fields of Israel and Cyprus across Greece to Italy and Bulgaria. In 2013, the European Commission designated the pipeline a "Project of Common Interest" and invested tens of millions of dollars in technical, economic and environmental studies. It was estimatedthat the pipeline could send as much as 20 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe annually. In 2019, the energy ministers of Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority created the East Mediterranean Gas Forum.
Turkey,which claims all the gas in the territory, and Russia, which desires to maitain its monopoly on gas sales to Europe, oppose the project. Biden’s gang claims it’s cancellation is due to a desire to keep Turkey happy and not offend Putin, gives the other, controling reason:
Amos Hochstein, now Biden's senior advisor for energy security, has said he would be "extremely uncomfortable with the U.S. supporting" EastMed because of its environmental implications. "Why would we build a fossil fuel pipeline between the EastMed and Europe when our entire policy is to support new technology...and new investments in going green and in going clean?" Hochstein said, as reported in The Jerusalem Post. "By the time this pipeline is built we will have spent billions of taxpayer money on something that is obsolete—not only obsolete but against our collective interest."
More Collateral Damage:
Farms Fail as fertilizer Costs Soar
Soaring fertilizer prices across the globe have impacted farmers making it more expensive to produce food and forcing them to cut back on production, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Diammonium phosphate, or DAP, a common component of fertilizer, cost $745 per metric ton in December 2021, more than double its average 2020 price, the WSJ reported.
Higher fertilizer costs could translate into increased food prices in the next year, worsening global hunger after the pandemic caused massive job losses and further growing inflation, the WSJ reported.
U.S. farmers have felt the impact of the rising fertilizer prices, causing some to alter their planting schedules, the WSJ reported. The high costs significantly impact developing countries with limited access to bank loans and therefore cannot afford the fertilizer.
Fertilizer demand in sub-Saharan Africa is projected to dip 30% in 2022 for this reason, resulting in a reduction of 30 million metric tons of food produced, or enough to feed 100 million people, according to the International Fertilizer Development Center.
“Lower fertilizer use will inevitably weigh on food production and quality, affecting food availability, rural incomes and the livelihoods of the poor,” Josef Schmidhuber, deputy director of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s trade and markets division, told the WSJ.
The surging prices also result from growing energy costs, with sky-high European natural gas prices in 2021 compared to in 2020, according to data obtained by the WSJ.
Nitrogen production factories rely on natural gas to turn chemicals into finished products, leading to increased fertilizer prices, the WSJ reported.
This is all as planned.
