Anti War: Thread

[grarpamp]

Destroying The Planet To Save Ukraine?

https://www.theepochtimes.com/russian-derangement-syndrome-trumps-all_4591837.html
https://www.influencewatch.org/movement/trump-russia-collusion-claims/


Saving Ukraine from Russia has become more important to Western
leaders than saving the planet from climate change, more important
than keeping their populations from freezing in the dark, more
important than the viability of Western industries, and more important
even than avoiding the risk of an all-out nuclear war between the West
and Russia.

An early indication of the West’s loss of all perspective where Russia
is concerned - call it Russia Derangement Syndrome - occurred in the
United States after Donald Trump was elected president. Large swathes
of the public, including virtually all Democrats and the legacy media,
embraced a fantasy known as Russian Collusion, which asserted that
Russia had colluded with the Trump campaign to install him as
president.

The fantasy persisted for three years until 2019 when Russia Collusion
was confirmed to be a hoax perpetrated by Trump’s rival for the 2016
presidency, Hillary Clinton.

Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson testifies before the
House Intelligence Committee in an open hearing in the U.S. Capitol
Visitors Center in Washington on June 21, 2017. Johnson answered
questions about Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential
elections and his department’s response to the threat. (Chip
Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Earlier this year, after Russia invaded Ukraine over a territorial
dispute, Russia Derangement Syndrome went into overdrive. An
infuriated West sanctioned Russian goods and services helter-skelter
without thinking through the consequences, chiefly those involving
energy. Russia represents continental Europe’s chief energy source and
is the main reason Europeans can keep the lights on.

Only after the Europeans decided to punish Russia, and only after
Russia announced cuts to gas flows—temporarily, it said—on the Nord
Stream 1 pipeline of 60 percent, did it dawn on Europeans that Russia
could retaliate this coming winter through punitively-timed energy
curtailments, putting Europe at Russia’s mercy.

In Germany, for example, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s administration did
its sums to discover that under all scenarios, Germany lacked the
reserves needed to last the winter.

    “That was the sobering moment,” admitted Klaus Mueller, who heads
Germany’s gas network regulator.

    “If we have a very, very cold winter, if we’re careless and far
too generous with gas, then it won’t be pretty.”

The European Union, now in a panic, is scrambling to acquire fossil
fuels from any sources in a desperate attempt to stockpile energy
prior to winter. Germany is returning to coal, as are Austria, Italy,
and the Netherlands. The United Kingdom is also turning to coal and
reversing its ban on fracking and on North Sea oil production. The EU
is endorsing Norway’s latest exploitation of the North Sea and is open
to new contracts for long-term commitments of natural gas.

The United States is exporting record amounts of gas, so much so that
Europe now receives more high-priced liquefied natural gas from U.S.
tankers than inexpensive natural gas from Russian pipelines. Since
Russia invaded Ukraine, Europeans have advanced more than 20 liquefied
natural gas import projects.

In this fossil fuel free-for-all, the West has effectively abandoned
its once ironclad commitment to combat climate change, which its
leaders never tired of describing as an existential threat to the
planet. Gone is Germany’s net-zero commitment to phase out coal plants
by 2030, tenuous is the UK’s pledge to stop using coal in power
stations by 2024, and shaky is the G-7’s determination to end “direct
public support for the international unabated fossil fuel energy
sector by the end of 2022.” Instead, the G-7, noting its determination
to support Ukraine, backed increased deliveries of liquefied natural
gas and urged oil-producing nations to increase their production.

Wind turbines near a coal-fired power plant are pictured near Hamm,
western Germany, on June 8, 2022. (INA FASSBENDER/AFP via Getty
Images)

To punish Russia, the Europeans are knowingly visiting far more severe
punishments on themselves. Germany is preparing to put its population
on an emergency footing by urging a rationing of energy. Its
governments are responding by dimming street lights, switching off the
illumination of historic buildings, and shutting off hot water in
gyms, museums, and government buildings. Housing complexes are
limiting the hours that hot showers can be taken and lowering the
thermostats in centrally heated complexes. Industries are planning to
scale back, move away from Europe, or shut down operations altogether.

    “A complete halt to Russian natural gas exports would cost Germany
12.7% of economic performance in the second half of 2022,” costing
some $200 billion and affecting 5.6 million jobs, the Bavaria Industry
Association warned last month.

Denmark’s emergency plan involves shutting down gas heating during the
summer, taking shorter showers, drying clothes outside, and suspending
gas supplies to energy-intensive industries.

A greater punishment still is being voiced in the form of nuclear war.
The UK, France, and the United States have all reminded Russia that
they possess nuclear weapons in response to Russian reminders that it
has the greatest nuclear arsenal of all.

Remarkably, before the West so uniformly came to Ukraine’s defense,
Ukraine was held in low regard by Europeans, viewed as a kleptocracy
run by corrupt oligarchs with only the faintest hint of the rule of
law. That image was transformed overnight once Russia invaded, as
Ukraine became an instant darling of the West, so worthy as to warrant
the destruction of the West’s economy, environment, and possibly the
West itself.

Such is the power of the Russia Derangement Syndrome.