West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin broke progressive hearts once again when he refused to back a refurbished version of the ill-fated “Build Back Better” bill. His reason? It’s just not “prudent” to roll out massive government spending programs on climate change, taxes and health care right now.
While the Democrats work through their stages of grief, there are fresh reasons to think that a massive government effort to reshape the economy in order to (possibly) shave a degree or so off average global average temperatures over the next century isn’t going to be as smooth, easy, beneficial or even possible, as some have long insisted it will be.
The case in point: the island nation of Sri Lanka, which is in the midst of a political crisis, on top of an economic meltdown, all thanks to an ill-considered autocratic push to go green.
Tunku Varadarajan writes that Sri Lanka’s version of a “green new deal” brought chaos and suffering:
…Mr. Rajapaksa took a step that poleaxed Sri Lanka. On April 27, 2021—with no warning, and with no attempt to teach farmers how to cope with the change—he announced a ban on all synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Henceforth, he decreed, Sri Lankan agriculture would be 100% organic. Agronomists and other scientists warned loudly of the catastrophe that would ensue, but they were ignored. This Sri Lankan Nero listened to no one.
Things quickly turned sour:
What happened next? Rice production fell by 20% in the first 180 days of the ban on synthetic fertilizer. Tea, Sri Lanka’s main cash crop, has been hit hard, with exports at their lowest level in nearly a quarter-century. Whether from indignation over the new laws or an inability to go organic, farmers left a third of all farmland fallow. Food prices soared as a result of scarcity and Sri Lanka’s people, their pockets already hit by the pandemic, began to go hungry. To add to the stench of failure, a shipload of manure from China had to be turned back after samples revealed dangerous levels of bacteria. The farmers had no synthetic fertilizer, and hardly any of the organic kind.
But there was still time to make things even worse:
So extensive was the damage done by his organic diktat that Mr. Rajapaksa had to reverse himself by November 2021. His scientific ineptitude was now matched by his economic illiteracy. Battling to salvage his political reputation, he agreed to compensate farmers for their losses, the bill for which totaled more than the money he’d ostensibly saved the country by banning imports of fertilizer in April 2021.
An isolated incident? Dutch farmers protested government plans forcing them to slash their use of chemical fertilizers and reduce their livestock herds. Belgian farmers followed suit. All in the name of controlling greenhouse gases. A cautionary tale for what can go wrong when unbridled green arrogance meets reality.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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Norman Leahy has written about national and Virginia politics for more than 30 years with outlets ranging from The Washington Post to BearingDrift.com. A consulting writer, editor, recovering think tank executive and campaign operative, Norman lives in Virginia.
Frightening stuff with Fascism breaking out all over. Canada using Nazi tactics on peaceful protesting truckers, Australia unleashing police thugs on anti-vaxxers, Dutch, Sri Lankan, and Belgian farmers confronted by armed goon squads. This is just the beginning of the Normals trying to stop the tyrants. This is like a leaking and overflowing dam during a biblical deluge. “They can’t afford fuel? Let them buy Teslas!
Idiots who use emotion rather than logic always fail. And climate change is something that happens whether the humans are involved or not. One volcanic eruption can wipe out all the efforts of humans to stem the tide of climate change, and it is really funny in a way. During the age of dinosaurs, the earth was far warmer than it is now, and yet plants and animals adapted and thrived. Human idiots do not seem to be able to adapt. That’s why they get into politics.
Green energy worshipers promote a world without hydrocarbons & use of intermittent, expensive alternatives like wind & solar. An analysis of the cost of alternatives would show that despite the protestations of the Greens, the per hour cost of unreliables are much more costly than the cost of reliable fossils. The skew of Greens begins with an almost total lack of understanding of the physics of this world, substituting fantasy for reason. Remove these people from government!
World war 3 is coming, but it won’t be country against country, it will be the people against their own country. Famine is going to kill millions if not billions because of stupid decisions like these and bedlam will be the result. It’ s even going to happen in the US.