The growing consequences of having our country run by people who prioritize feelings over reality.
I don’t have to tell you that no matter what Canada does when it comes to ‘climate policy,’ what Canada does or doesn’t do has virtually zero impact on the planet.
Canada’s share of global emissions is about 1.5%.
And – in contrast to what many would claim – that share has in fact declined.
Amazingly, even the federal government concedes this point:
“In 2018, Canada ranked as the 10th GHG emitting country/region. Canada’s share of global emissions decreased from 1.8% in 2005 to 1.5% in 2018. Like that of other developed countries, its share is anticipated to continue to decline with the expected rapid increase in emissions from developing and emerging countries, particularly China (+71.7%), India (+71.3%), Brazil (+16.2%) and Indonesia (+37.9%).”
Additionally, due to technological advancements, countries like Canada and the United States have experienced relatively stagnant or even lower emissions over the past decade.
Emissions have fallen far faster in the US than in Canada, even as Canada imposed an ever-increasing carbon tax while the US did not.
And, look again at what the Canadian government itself says.
The surge in global emissions is due to countries like China, not Canada.
Funny how this is rarely ever mentioned or explained when our ‘leaders’ call on Canadians to accept a lower standard of living because of carbon taxes that will ‘save the planet.’
It’s all theatre
Clearly, based on the facts, any talk of Canada ‘taking climate action’ is all theatre.
It won’t change anything in the world.
What it will do however is make Canada poorer, crush our energy sector, deprive our nation of wealth, and deepen political divisions.
This is what happens when we elect people who put feelings & virtue-signaling ahead of logic, and when those who should know better (the Conservative Party for example) go along with that naïve and foolish approach.
A huge strategic error
Military power is downstream of economic power.
The world’s greatest military powers are almost always the greatest economic power.
And when a country that isn’t the top economy becomes the greatest military power (Germany in the late 1930’s), the greatest economic power will quickly ramp up and surpass them (as the United States did, ultimately exceeding Axis military production by a mind-boggling amount).
The lesson here is that if you value freedom, and if you want freer nations to remain the most powerful, then you must also want freer nations to be the strongest economically.
Unfortunately, the rising number of naïve virtue-signalers in office in the Western World (including in Canada, the United States, the UK, New Zealand, Australia, and much of Europe), are imposing policies that will severely weaken and damage their national economies, while countries like China and Russia do not.
For example, many nations in Europe are experiencing severe energy shortages, and are desperately trying to secure coal and natural gas supplies ahead of winter. Notably, many of those same countries have been trying to eliminate their domestic coal industries, and have joined in the demonization of the oil & gas sector.
Yet, since their ’embrace of renewables’ hasn’t even come close to meeting demand, those nations find themselves trying to procure the energy sources they previously demonized. Further, they are increasingly dependent on Russia, giving Russia more power and leverage.
Here in Canada, gas prices and home heating costs are surging, at a time when inflation is already hitting everything else.
Combined with the continued devaluation of our money, Canadians are quickly losing purchasing power as basic staples of life get more and more expensive.
We are supposed to put up with this, because (or so our leaders tell us), we “must do our part to save the planet.”
Except, as I noted above, imposing economic suffering on Canadians does nothing for the planet.
We are hurting ourselves, without helping anyone else.
China’s coal surge
To get a real sense of how absurd it is that many Canadians continue to fall for the “we’re doing our part” excuse for our government-imposed declining standard of living, consider what China is doing when it comes to coal production:
“The Chinese government has ordered the country’s coal mines to “produce as much coal as possible” as it tries to increase production as winter approaches, and ease an ongoing energy crunch.
The announcement from China’s National Development and Reform Commission comes after weeks of power shortages across many provinces, forcing the government to ration electricity during peak hours and some factories to suspend production. The problem has weighed on economic growth as industrial output drops.”
As if that’s not enough, China is planning to approve new coal mines:
“In a separate statement, the NDRC said it would ensure coal mines operate at full capacity and aim to achieve at least 12 million tonnes per day of output.
It put the production rate at a 2021 high of over 11.6 million tonnes as of Oct. 18, up more than 1.2 million tonnes from late September after an all-out effort to boost supply that has included approvals for new coal mines.
In a third statement, the NDRC said the Zhengzhou exchange should pay close attention to coal price fluctuations and said it would step up supervision of prices, while cracking down on speculation – something the Chinese authorities have repeatedly blamed for high commodity prices this year.”
Let’s be completely honest about what this will mean.
Any and all ‘climate action’ Canada has taken will be completely offset (by many orders of magnitude), by China’s renewed coal production surge.
This renders the carbon tax, the restrictions on our energy sector & the decimation of our coal industry completely meaningless when it comes to global emissions. China’s actions will easily cancel it out.
But it’s not meaningless to those who have lost jobs and those who can’t afford the basics.
As I said above, we are hurting ourselves without helping ourselves.
This is where we get to the strategic problem.
China has serious economic challenges.
Not only do they face a demographic crisis, but they emerging from the ‘easy’ era of economic growth, when people moving from rural agriculture into industrial jobs generates a large degree of GDP growth.
In light of those challenges, China will increasingly seek to wring out every last ounce of economic growth, hoping that they will become rich and powerful enough to supersede the United States.
If China succeeds, they will then also become the dominant military power.
When countries like Canada, the US, and other democratic states restrict our own economies, make our own citizens poorer, and put naïve feelings ahead of logic, we make it easier for China to become the world’s dominant power.
Will Canadians wake up?
For sometime, most Canadians have felt that ‘climate action’ was a way to feel good without suffering any consequences.
Now, the consequences are going to start piling up.
Will Canadians see their standard of living go down and wake up to the political theatre that is being put on, or will they continue to be tricked by the politicians who spread all the comforting lies?
Time will tell.
Spencer Fernando
Photo – YouTube
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