You have probably already known by now that Sri Lanka has totally collapsed and fell apart with the president fleeting the country. Not sure if you know the real cause of this epic fallout. Given the current US fake government is very much following the same policy, we could see something similar here as well, if the extreme left policy is not contained. Hope the mid-term election will at least stop some stupid Biden's ESG policies. Otherwise watch your wallet closely as it will collapse quickly as well!
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Almost one year ago, we featured a climate-change study that would have Americans cutting their lifestyles… to the bare bone.
The University of Leeds study was based on energy reductions required to "limit global warming to 1.5 C" per the Paris Agreement of 2015. And according to researchers…
- Americans would need to reduce total energy consumption by 90% to achieve a "low-energy society"
- The footprint of housing for a family of four: no more than 640 square feet
- "With respect to transportation and physical mobility, the average person would be limited to using the energy equivalent of 16–40 gallons of gasoline per year," said an article at Reason
- Air travel would be restricted to one flight every three years
- "In addition, food consumption per capita… would be 2,100 calories per day," Reason noted, cutting about 900 calories from the average American's daily intake
- Researchers even went so far as to set a "clothing allowance" per person, equal to nine pounds annually
- And doing laundry would be restricted to just 20 times per year. Or once every 18.25 days for non-leap years.
Easy peasy, right? Leeds' researcher Jefim Vogel confessed: "No country in the world accomplishes that — not even close," he said.
Nonetheless, "sustainability experts" are determined to push their impractical agenda.
"It's all being driven by massive policy and legal shifts from the top down," said our resident geologist and mining expert Byron King last year, with alarming prescience.
"The U.S. and governments in countries around the world are imposing future bans… without fully thinking it through.
"Meanwhile, politicians have not fully considered the total life-cycle impact of [their] decisions," he said. "They don't factor in the difficulty of sourcing… materials, nor the environmental impact of mining things like exotic metals for batteries.
"The political focus on emitting less carbon from tailpipes" — for example — "is dangerously simplistic," Byron argued. The outcome? "To reverse over 100 years of human progress in the U.S. [and] much of the rest of the world."
And over the weekend, we had a front-row seat to the fallout resulting from "dangerously simplistic" policies in Sri Lanka.
The most glaring throughline from green politics to Sri Lanka's collapse was the president's abrupt command to adopt all-organic farming. With disastrous consequences…
In April 2021: "The government banned the use of chemical fertilizers and banned their importation. The move was pitched as creating a self-reliant economy on the island nation and hailed as a great experiment in green policy-making," says an article at The National Review.
"After the fertilizer ban went into effect, rice production fell by 20% in only six months. The country had to import $450 million worth of rice to make up the difference, and rice prices still went up by 50%. Tea exports plummeted, costing the economy $425 million."
While the government by and large repealed the fertilizer ban in November 2021, the inevitable devastation was done.
Sri Lanka was well on its way to fostering a thriving middle class, according to the World Bank in 2019. "Now millions could return to poverty as gas lines, food shortages and political unrest threaten to undo all that progress."
Says The New York Times: "The economic crisis came to a head this weekend, as thousands of people stormed the official residence and office of the president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, demanding his resignation. A breakaway mob burned down the private home of the prime minister."
Both the president and prime minister have since resigned. And as we write, they are reportedly trying (unsuccessfully) to flee the country.
"The underlying reason for the fall of Sri Lanka is that its leaders… fell under the spell of Western green elites peddling organic agriculture and 'ESG,'" says author Michael Shellenberger at Common Sense.
ESG "refers to investments" in "higher Environmental, Social and Governance criteria," he adds. And get this: "Sri Lanka has a near-perfect ESG score of 98 — higher than Sweden (96) and the United States (51).
"What does having such a high ESG score mean? In short, it meant that Sri Lanka's 2 million farmers were forced to stop using fertilizers and pesticides, laying waste to its critical agricultural sector…
"To be sure, there were other factors behind Sri Lanka's fall," says Shellenberger. Yes, COVID-19 lockdowns put a huge dent in tourism… as did the war in Ukraine. (Coincidentally, many Russians and Ukrainians vacation in Sri Lanka.)
Plus, the country fell victim to China's "debt diplomacy," leaving Sri Lanka billions in debt via Belt and Road Initiative loans. Untenable inflation — near 60% — was the final nail in the coffin.
"But the biggest problem was Sri Lanka's chemical fertilizer ban, which… was central to the country's effort to comply with ESG," Shellenberger contends.
"Sri Lanka was the first developing country to come undone, but it will not be the last," says The National Review. Laos, Zambia and Lebanon might follow in short order… Not to mention Western nations too.
The Dutch resistance movement, largely ignored by the media…
"Green agricultural policies and exceptionally poor leadership drove [Sri Lanka] to collapse faster than other developing countries, but the basic global factors that affected it will affect other[s] as well."
Of course, this is a story with a long arc — and a lot of loose ends — but we'll stay on top of it…
by 5 Min. Forecast
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