Tim Blair: Australia still has a chance to dodge a European-style disaster
Scouring forests for fuel, paying $95,000 for power, restrictions on heating and cooling – welcome to life in nations that followed the holy word of Greta Thunberg, writes Tim Blair.
Opinion
Don't miss out on the headlines from Opinion. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Remember when climate activists worried that Australia would be left behind in the holy quest for emissions elimination?
Back in late-2021, it was their single biggest concern.
“A commitment to net zero by 2050 would still leave Australia dead last, unless accompanied by a much stronger commitment to cutting emissions this decade,” Climate Council Head of Research Dr Simon Bradshaw whined in October.
“This is a defining moment in the world’s response to climate change, and Australia remains the villain, and an outlier in the international community.”
We produce only about 1.2 per cent of global emissions. Feel the shame, you villainous outliers.
“Australia is being ‘left behind’ in a race with like-minded nations, which could lead the country to be worse off economically,” news.com.au’s Benedict Brooke complained, also in October. “At stake is Australia’s reputation on the world stage.”
But according to leftists, our global reputation was already in the toilet due to Australia’s border protection policies. So no great loss there.
Last September, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that then-treasurer Josh Frydenberg supported slashing emissions to net zero by 2050 because otherwise we’d be “left behind in a mammoth economic shift that will impose sweeping costs on countries that do not act on climate change”.
Sweeping costs, you say? Well, let’s take a look at just how brilliantly things are going for nations that outsourced their energy policies to Greta Thunberg.
In Germany, skyrocketing power prices are forcing citizens to scavenge woodlands in the manner of common cave dwellers. “Demand for firewood in Germany has risen so fast that there is none left to buy,” Fox’s Tucker Carlson reported last week.
“You can’t get it, so desperate Germans are now cutting their own wood, scouring the forests like their ancestors for sources of heat.”
In Belgium and Spain, governments have imposed restrictions on heating, airconditioning and lighting.
France, fearful of looming two-hour rolling blackouts, is rushing to fire up 32 of the nation’s 56 nuclear reactors that are currently closed for maintenance.
But they still crave climate credibility. Aiming to host the “greenest games”, organisers of the 2024 Paris Olympics want to remove airconditioning from its athletes’ village. That’s progress for you.
All of this energy madness is causing understandable unrest.
In Naples, The London Economic reports, residents last week “publicly burned their energy bills and laid the town hall under siege in a protest over spiralling costs”.
And an estimated 70,000 people gathered in Prague’s Wenceslas Square on Saturday to protest about the same thing.
“The aim of our demonstration is to demand change,” an organiser told Czech media, “mainly in solving the issue of energy prices, especially electricity and gas, which will destroy our economy this autumn.”
Climate activists blame all of this on Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, but the real fault lies with Greta-obedient governments that slashed their own energy production in the name of climate activism and became dependent on Russian gas.
“People think Europe depends on Russia for energy because it lacks its own, but 15 years ago, Europe exported more natural gas than Russia does today,” notes Michael Shellenberger, author of Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All.
“Now, Russia exports three times more gas than Europe produces. Why? Because climate activists, partly funded by Russia, blocked fracking.”
That’s about the size of it. And nowhere has been hit harder than Britain. “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has hurt,” the Wall Street Journal summarised last week, “but the UK’s policies made its citizens vulnerable to such a global shock.”
They sure did. James Allcock, who runs the little Pig & Whistle restaurant in Beverley, Yorkshire, last year paid £2928 (about $5000) for electricity. This year he’s looking at a bill for £22,516 – more than $38,000.
“Unsure what to actually do next but as a business that cost would now be more than I pay in rent and more than I take some months,” Allcock wrote on social media.
“I simply don’t have the money for this … it’s going to cost £125 a day to turn the heating on in winter.”
After Allcock posted that message, he received a reply from nearby cafe owner Robert Chapman. “My contracts renew in December but face the same prospect,” Chapman wrote.
“For us it is a £42k increase to over £56k per year.” That’s nearly $95,000.
“Can’t possibly absorb this cost,” Chapman continued. “Can’t see how any of the independents in Beverley can survive.”
It’s a similar deal in Ireland. “I got this electricity bill today,” Geraldine Dolan wrote online last week, presenting a $14,500 bill covering the period from June 8 to August 19.
“How in the name of God is this possible? We’re a small coffee shop in Westmeath.”
Everything’s possible when you follow the climate teachings of a sacred Swedish teen.
Now let’s hear again from those climate worriers who so desperately wanted Australia to heed Greta Thunberg’s warnings.
Let’s hear again about how Australia would be “worse off economically” if we didn’t follow the alarmist path.
Let’s hear again how we’d be “left behind in a mammoth economic shift that will impose sweeping costs on countries that do not act on climate change”.
As things stand, Australia still has a chance to dodge a European-style disaster.
We’ll be outliers, of course. Outliers who can afford electricity.
If you want to save democracy, then God save the King
A constitutional monarchy such as ours is ideally placed to make sure that power ultimately resides with the people, not the powerful, writes Susan Carter.
McDonald Trump has his foes in panic mode
Serving fries at McDonald’s and poking fun at Kamala Harris’s claims to have worked there is just one of the many ways Donald Trump continues to connect with regular people and defy his delusional critics, writes Tim Blair.