While governments around the world seem eager to outdo each other in affirming increasingly drastic reductions of carbon dioxide emissions, similar goals have already been dropped under pressure. What sort of enforcement would be required to truly mandate such reductions in hydrocarbon use?
In the 2010s, growth in certain areas around New York City led to a growing demand for natural gas. When the local utility proposed a new pipeline to achieve this supply, Governor Cuomo and his staff put the kibosh on it. By 2019, existing pipelines reached their limits, thousands of customers had been refused natural gas hookups, and an outcry was raised. Instead of defending the policy, trucks were used to bring in compressed natural gas. Supposedly all new natural gas heating is to be banned in 2025. Will that actually occur?
Last month, the U.K. announced that there would be a ban on gas boilers for home heating by 2035, and that the tens of millions of U.K. homes using gas heat would have to convert to electric or face fines. The blowback was immediate, and within a few days the government completely backtracked on the imposition of fines.
Will global shipping actually move away from fossil fuels? Worldwide ocean shipping emits as much carbon dioxide as all U.S. power plants combined. Will these cargo ships be converted to be blown along by sails?
Will communities accept enormous solar and wind installations the size of thousands of football fields? In Nevada, environmentalists are standing up against such a giant project.
And as Exxon, Chevron, BP and Shell claim they will move in the direction demanded by the International Energy Agency, which calls for all new oil and gas production to end in 2022, Rosneft has begun work on an enormous project in the Arctic. Gizmodo reports: “The proposed project is dauntingly huge. Rosneft said that it anticipates exporting 25 million tons of oil a year by 2024 ... and 115 million tons [roughly 850 million barrels] by 2030.”
While some “climate"-related policies are more easily sneaked in — such as paying enormous subsidies to buy power from small residential roof-top solar installations — attempts to actually meet the goals set by the world’s climate gurus will run into the buzzsaw of reality.
This is why former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, former MI6 Chief Richard Dearlove and others of their imperial brood demand strong enforcement mechanisms to ensure that so-called climate goals are adhered to.
If it needs guidance, the British Empire can draw from its long history of preventing development in its colonies. Iron production was forbidden in the American colonies, as was westward settlement. India’s advanced textile and shipbuilding industries were destroyed through Britain’s rule. Opium was foisted upon China, sapping its reserves and mental abilities.
Would the people and nations of the world actually go along with such a new imperium?
