Western Europe continues to shut down its energy production, now totally dependent on...Russia

A military tactic used for at least three-thousand years is for an army to surround a city or fortress, and simply wait.  If the surrounding enemy can keep the target sealed off, eventually the people in the beseiged city will run out of food--and as starvation sets in, surrender soon follows.

Western Europe is about to learn this lesson (although communist leaders like Merkel have planned it for years): having fully adopted the religion of "anthropogenic climate change" (warmies claim human activity releasing CO2 is fatally warming the planet), and infected with what seems to be an irrational self-hate, the ruling politicians of Europe have either shut down or banned many traditional sources of energy in favor of wind and solar.  (Wait, what about nuclear--which doesn't emit CO2?  We'll get to that in a minute.)

Unfortunately northern Europe, like northern U.S. states, has cold winters, so it needs reliable sources of energy to keep citizens from freezing.  For young Americans who have no idea, wind and solar are notoriously unreliable in northern climates.  So by banning reliable sources of energy the pols ruling western Europe have made their nations dependent on imported energy--specifically natural gas and coal.

And where do you think Europe will find those crucial, lifesaving supplies of  gas and coal, eh?

If you don't follow geopolitics (don't feel bad, not one American in ten-thousand does) just take a wild-ass guess.

Sure: Russia.  (See, that wasn't hard, eh?)

What's funny is that communist leaders like Merkel who used the bullshit threat of global warming "climate change" to con their citizens into banning fracking and drilling (don't want no nasty oil or gas) in favor of dat faaabulous wind and solar also used that same cult religion to shut down existing nuclear powerplants--which, again, don't produce CO2, so what's the logic?  (Answer: LOOK, SQUIRREL!)

Just 10 years ago Germany got almost a quarter of its electricity from nuclear, but on the last day of 2021 Merkel ordered three of Germany's remaining six plants closed.  And she's ordered the last three closed by the end of this year.

Last year Russia supplied almost a third of all gas consumed in Europe--a figure that will increase as Europe's domestic production falls off due to depletion.

Ironically, with windmills and solar “unexpectedly” failing to produce enough energy, Germany is increasingly having to use coal to avoid blackouts, even before shutting down half their nuclear power at the end of last year.  

Say, guess what country is Germany’s largest supplier of coal?

If you guessed Russia, congratulations.

So how bad are things getting in Europe?  Even back in September, long before winter cold hit, some factories were having to close due to lack of energy.
    
Because it takes years to increase domestic oil and gas production, Europe's only hope is that Russia will sell EU nations more natural gas.   "Fortunately" the new Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Germany offers the energy rescue Europe needs:  It has the capacity to double the volume of Russian gas sold to Germany (and other northern EU nations).  But although the pipeline is complete, as financial publications diplomatically put it, "it’s unclear when gas will start to flow."

Now that we've set the stage, can readers predict what will happen next?

Sure you can:  The pols running European nations know they're totally dependent on Russia to keep crucial energy flowing.  So do ya think that might cause those totally dependent nations to do whatever Russia demands, to keep their own citizens from freezing?

Hmmm...dat's a real poser, eh?  I'm not sure anyone can figure out the answer!

So because Europeans bought into the bullshit cult of "global warming," Europe is now totally dependent on Russia for energy--which means no European nation can defy Russian demands unless it's prepared to have its citizens freeze.

Neat, huh?  And totally predictable. 

(adapted from an excellent piece by Buck Throckmorton at Ace of Spades) 

http://acecomments.mu.nu/?post=397183)