Environmental gatherings: Saving the planet?

Environmental summits are no more than grandiose talking shops for picture opportunities and empty promises and am sure that mass media loved them because they give them something to write about without much effort and surely there is a crowd worldwide eager to swallow every fib that comes out of magnificent wastes of time.

Headlines like 'tens of billions needed to save the planet' might sound impressive - am sure they sound impressive - but they are as impressive as meaningless as no country in the world will ever consider spending such amounts of money that will surely come from additional borrowing that would lead them to implement austerity policies that no one likes to implement because they usually land those who try to implement into deep water. 

Questions that are seldom asked include 'who is going to get such amount of money and what they would be suposed to do with it?'. The 'what for', 'how' and issues of accountability are non existing. As soons the the mass media circus is over, it will be business as usual until the next mass media circus. 

After the mass media circus, the real issues of everyday life will once again be on the table. Ladies and Gentlemen, we have an energy crisis. Germany is said to be in talks with United Kingdom to seek gas supplies - Germany does not have enough storage capacity for liquidified gas and even if Germany had enough storage capacity the amount of energy obtained from liquidified gas is quickly reduced by the same process of turning liquified gas into usable gas. This putting aside issues involving transportation of liquified gas done with a lot of fossil fuels. All those ships that carry liquified gas use fossil fuels and this has a cost. The cost of maritime transport has gone up considerably to the point that bringing in goods from faraway places has become extremely onerous reducing commercial margins generated by low production costs abroad. Perhaps the German move to transfer production to China was inspired by the fact that bringing factories closer to raw materials will allow them to reduce production cost a lot more. Scania made a similar move years ago when much of the operation was transferred to Brazil. Brazil needed trucks and it was easier and cheaper to produce trucks in Brazil that incidentally was going to be a major market for Swedish trucks.

The other issue that lies around is fracking. For all the talk about fracking producing earthquakes, you would need specially sensitive equipment to detect such 'earthquakes', and obviously ordinary people who don't have such equipment will hardly ever know about the said 'earthquakes'. Mass media have been very active creating an artificial monster out of gullible minds that are very willing to believe whatever horror story they are told. Although fracking will not provide immediate results in terms of increasing energy supplies, it is something to take into consideration when energy supplies are going down. Nuclear energy is a certain possibility but it takes decades for a nuclear plant to be built to produce the energy that we desperately need. We need energy now. This is one of the subjects Germany will be discussing with Britain to avoid what now look like unavoidable blackouts in the biggest manufacturing country in Europe.

Russia is winning: Sanctions against Russia are hitting hard those who applied sanctions against Russia as inflation destabilizes economies

 

Transport strikes were the most visible indication that things are going south in the United Kingdom. Now there is the threat of other sectors of the economy like health and education going on strike and no sector is safe as the legal system is now being affected and people will have to defend themselves in court, including in serious cases that can lead to lenghty jail sentences.

This is not about Labour or Conservative. Whoever is in power the consequences of the economie going the wrong way due to energy prices and sanctions against the Russian Federation. European countries that rushed to implement punitive measures had little understanding of the dramatic consequences for their economies are now seeing the error of their ways and praying for no more energy cuts.

If inflation is more than 9% and the government in some cases is only willing to give a 3% salary rise, how are workers going to be persuaded to accept what is effectively a wage reduction? But those at work are not the only ones who will suffer. Pensions are somehow pegged to inflation rises and the question is how is this going to be dealt with. If you have got a state pension, you are going to be affected. If you have got a private pension, you are going to be affected. If you pension fund consists of investments in shares the obvious thought is that if the economy performs badly then investment returns will be lower.

Some Conservative politicians are talking about reducing taxation and cutting down or simply getting rid of VAT and there are those who say that green taxes that severely affect prices should be abolished. If the whole issue is so much depending on energy costs then the green agenda will be dead in the water. We have got to use every bit of fossil fuels we can get our hands on in order to lower energy prices. This means using coal and allowing fracking. 

Ukraine Crisis or Oil and Gas Casino?

 

Ukraine Crisis or Oil and Gas Casino

While most people and the mass media seem fixed on events linked to a mythological invasion, what is happening to oil and gas shares around the world?

 

There are all kinds of headlines linked to events in Ukraine, but what is the reality of it all? Who is really making truckloads of money speculating in international markets? With the Covid pandemic and the loss of economic activity, oil and gas prices went down as demand went down. Then suddenly, economic activity started to pick up and oil and gas prices went up again. 

 

British newspapers were mentioned that should there be shortages of oil and gas, Britain would be receiving gas from.... Australia? You only have to look at mapamundi to see that there is a lot more than meets the eye. Container ships bringing American fracking gas across the Atlantic? Container ships bringing in gas all the way from Australia? As some environmental activists complain about air traffic including the use of private jets, has anybody stopped to think about the footprint of ships carrying vast amounts of gas and oil across vast oceans of the world? At what cost? Suddenly, you can forget about environmental targets because what we are listening about has nothing to do environmental targets and a lot do with geopolitical objectives and speculation in world markets.

 

India and China were a lot more honest when it comes to energy needs and energy sources. Yes, they will not phase out their production of coal - just to give an example - and they will continue building up coal energy plants. Undoubtedly, any talk about shortages and especially shortages due to geopolitical situations will benefit certain investors. War in Europe? How much money can we make out of it?

 

Recently, a very expensive jet fighter went down in Asia. There were the usual comments about the best American technology falling into Chinese hands because the jet crash on 'unfriendly waters'. How much did the aircraft cost? Who cares? There will be another aircraft to replace the one that crashed, and monies will be made by certain 'investors' that would like to have another war, another massive war, because wars are money making machines. They could not care less about human lives lost or ruined.

 

In more than one way, those who invest in wars are exactly what the drug cartels are about: quick riches regardless of the thousands upon thousands of lives lost or ruined. This is the business of war.

 

The fat cats will continue increasing their fortunes. Their helpers like the authorities of NATO will see their bank accounts grow and grow and they will continue making inflammatory speeches because the more inflammatory their speeches are a major war is ever closer.