England says goodbye to all that, forever

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Just Stop Oil Just Stopped Oil in Great Britain

David Strom

Political violence wins again. Just Stop Oil just stopped oil in the UK. 

“In just two years, the zealots at Just Stop Oil won their fight to stop new oil and gas drilling in the UK. Admittedly, they had a head start on achieving that goal due to decades of propaganda doing their work, but the group is rightly proud of their role in stopping new oil and gas production. They made the final push, and the final push was apparently enough.”

“Just Stop Oil’s initial demand to end new oil and gas is now government policy, making us one of the most successful civil resistance campaigns in recent history. We’ve kept over 4.4 billion barrels of oil in the ground and the courts have ruled new oil and gas licences unlawful.

…. “This is not the end of civil resistance. Governments everywhere are retreating from doing what is needed to protect us from the consequences of unchecked fossil fuel burning. As we head towards 2°C of global heating by the 2030s, the science is clear: billions of people will have to move or die and the global economy is going to collapse. This is unavoidable. We have been betrayed by a morally bankrupt political class.

“As corporations and billionaires corrupt political systems across the world, we need a different approach. We are creating a new strategy, to face this reality and to carry our responsibilities at this time. Nothing short of a revolution is going to protect us from the coming storms.

“Of course, any sane person would be repelled by Britain's decision to destroy its economic health for absolutely zero gains. Great Britain's contributions to greenhouse gas accumulations are minuscule--far less than 1% of the world's production, and even if the world were hurtling towards global collapse due to rapid warming, this decision would have precisely zero impact. China will just build another few coal plants, positioning itself to adapt to changing environmental circumstances, while Britons become poorer, freeze to death, and swelter in their homes and workplaces.”

Just Stop Oil originally pushed for the government to end new oil and gas exploration in Britain. The Labour government shared that policy goal and implemented it after they won the election last year. The group on Thursday claimed this made it "one of the most successful civil resistance campaigns in recent history."

Strom:

…. Europeans and all NetZeroans have a long history of making choices the opposite of what is wise. They follow the John Kerry rule of farming: unless you eliminate it, people will starve! 

The Europeans have followed Kerry's advice and are rapidly shutting down agricultural production in their countries. 

Really. They are buying up farms using coercion and permanently taking the land out of food production. Soylent Green, anyone?

I don't know how much the climate is changing, and the reality is that nobody else does either. I don't know whether and to what extent human beings are changing it, and neither does anybody else. We can't even figure out basic nutrition with any certainty, and we can experiment on human bodies all we want with control groups, tiny changes in consumption, supplements, and all sorts of experiments. The idea that we have a grasp on something as complicated as the Earth's climate is absurd, especially with no control groups. 

What we can figure out is the trajectory of emissions because the trends are clear, and that trend is upward, and no amount of tweaks by Western governments can change that fact because China, India, and the developing world are pumping out the CO2. Marginally changing the UK's emission will have zero impact on climate, and a massive impact on Britain's ability to adapt to whatever changes are coming. Poor countries do not spend money on the environment. Ever. 

Less than 1%.

The success of Just Stop Oil and NetZero is yet another example of feez over facts. Great Britain just shut down all steel production because it is no longer economical. So it will import steel from less efficient countries, ship it to their shores, increase carbon emissions, and become poorer. 

That is Just Stop Oil's success. That is NetZero--increasing carbon emissions but sending it overseas and out of sight. Is it any wonder that our adversaries and oil-producing countries funnel money into this scam? 

…. In the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire was the "sick man of Europe"--a declining civilization that collapsed, leaving a mess we are still dealing with more than a century later. Pretty much every problem we face in the the Middle East is a result of that collapse. 

What will the collapse of Europe leave behind? Nothing pretty. 

Also by Strom — he’s having a busy day:

Western Governments Choosing Between Two Paths: Suicide or Renewal

British Steel has announced plans to close its two blast furnaces in Scunthorpe, making Britain the only G7 country unable to manufacture its own steel.

Britain used to be an industrial powerhouse. It is no exaggeration to say that there might not have been an industrial revolution without the leadership of that country, and it certainly is true that the technological revolution would have been slower without Britain leading the way. 

World War I led to the transfer of industrial leadership from Britain to the United States, and World War II cemented our lead over the rest of the world, although other countries like Japan and now China have become dominant players as well. Germany, until recently and because of NetZero policies, was a major competitor as well. 

Britain, and to a great extent Europe, are now also-rans. 

Strom:

Blame it all on Donald Trump, you want, but steel production has been on a long decline because, well, the British government wanted it to be. It was a policy choice they made. Steel, concrete, and all the major building blocks of an industrial society require inexpensive, abundant, and reliable energy, and the current regime that dominates the transnational elite hates cheap, reliable, and abundant energy. Even high-tech industries require massive amounts of energy, which is why Europe will continue to fall behind in computer services, network technology, and artificial intelligence. 

The NetZero/transnational elite future is one of stagnation and eventual societal suicide. Not only will the economy continue to decline, but the mass influx of undereducated, undersocialized, and over-ideological migrants is destabilizing once-great nations. ….