Volodymyr Zelensky has shown what impact one brave man can have on history
No one can know what the situation in the Ukraine will be when this piece first appears on doorsteps and newsstands. So let’s focus on what we have learned so far.
Nothing better captures the profound lack of seriousness of the United States today than climate envoy John Kerry fretting in the lead-up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine that Putin might forget his climate change undertakings. As if Putin, whose whole economy depends on fossil fuels, ever cared about climate change.
Indeed, the West’s obsession with eliminating fossil fuels set the stage for Putin. When Joe Biden was sworn in as president, the United States was on the verge of energy self-sufficiency. His first day in office, he nixed the Keystone Pipeline and banned oil exploration and fracking on federal lands. Those actions were symbolic of what environmentalist Michael Shellenberger labels a “delusional ideology” that the need for fossil fuels (and perfectly clean nuclear energy as well) can be simply wished away, and “green” replacements will magically appear, despite all the well-known limitations of renewables: unreliability; high prices; lack of storage batteries to retain the energy generated; the environmental damage cause by wind turbines; and the huge land use requirements of solar.
The ridiculousness of that approach became clear when, in the face of rising oil prices, President Biden was left imploring OPEC countries to ramp up production. How are oil and natural gas extracted by other countries somehow less injurious, except that they cost Americans more?
Create a free account to keep reading.
