Truth from down under, but no one listens there, either

Peter Smith, Quadrant: Scaling up the prospect of tyranny

Excerpts:

….Enough (over-built) redundant wind farms and long transmission lines from where the wind is blowing to where it isn’t will fix it, won’t it? Maybe, unless a wind drought is extensive and, maybe, if sufficient wind farms can ever be built and, maybe, if 13,200 kms of high-voltage transmission lines can be built as envisaged by AEMO. Good luck with all of that. In reality, somehow or other, 100 percent firming, i.e., backup power, will be required to keep the lights on. Two adjacent power systems to replace one reliable and low-cost coal-power system. Doesn’t sound cheap does it? More wind and solar inevitably means higher per kWh costs. Diseconomies of scale prevail.

…. How about electric cars? Scale is not their friend either. They will need increasingly expensive and scarce green power to run. Millions of charging points in homes and thousands on highways. Electricians and power required; apply within. And millions upon millions of batteries dependent on materials that are increasingly costly to mine. Never mind those awful crashes of two-tonne cars and the resulting unputoutable fires. My guess is that EVs will prove to be bridge too far even for the great and good. Petroleum is just too obviously (densely) efficient. Harder to get rid of than is coal. Nevertheless, much damage is on the way before reality clashes with pipedreams.

Where will it end? Nowhere good. I need to segue into the woke corporate world.

Woke is an old word with a new meaning. It has lexiconic company. To wit, micro-aggressions, trigger warnings, safe-spaces, critical race theory, intersectionality, DEI (diversity equity and inclusion), ESG (environment social and governance), LGBTQ+, transphobia, non-binary pronouns, etc. Sorry, I might be behind the eight ball, but a new one only recently came to my attention. Namely, Scope 3 emissions. Call them busybody emissions.

Scope 3 emissions are those not directly under the control of corporate giants but about which they are now deeply, deeply concerned. These are the emissions of their suppliers, their customers and their employees. A report (roadmap) on this matter was issued by the Climate Leaders Coalition (all the major woke Australian companies you can think of) on 22 November.

What do you think of when government and big corporations share the same agenda? An unholy alliance? Indeed, let there be no doubt. Tyranny is in the wings. Not just because of the unholy alliance. Critically, also, because the make-believe plans of governments and corporations to cut emissions to net zero will not work; cannot work. Think of communist regimes. Their plans don’t deliver the goods and, thus, they inevitably resort to force to keep their populations in check.

When energy prices soar and blackouts ensue, as they will, forced rationing will become a fact of everyday life. Teals, and well-to-do others, will live in energy-secure gated communities. Worry not for their coiffured heads.

Smart meters will control the electricity usage of the hoi polloi. The days of cosy warm rooms in winter or cool rooms in summer will end. Traveling will be restricted. Verboten for those breaching public order; like protesting. Corporates, in league with governments, will monitor the energy usage of their suppliers, customers and employees. Penalties and cancellations await the recalcitrant. Apropos, just read in my morning paper (26 November) that ANZ has threatened to reduce exposure to customers “who have not improved [their] carbon-reduction plans.”

Those who doubt that this tumbling into tyranny will happen, don’t understand the knife edge of Western civilisation on which we teeter. Christianity and capitalism brought us our prosperity and freedoms – a very rare condition in the history of mankind. Christianity is under constant attack and is almost undone. Capitalism is a derivative of Christian values and cheap abundant energy. Capitalism can’t be reset as Klaus Schwab and his elite WEF mates maintain. However, it can be replaced with a new version of fascism.  

From the comments:

“As Admiral Rickover said back in 1957, ‘A reduction in per-capita energy consumption has always in the past led to a decline in civilisation and a reversion to a more primitive way of life.’”