China and India will allow the West — led
by the United States and the European Union — to destroy themselves
through dysfunctional domestic and continent-wide
politics. This isn't a Donald Trump or E.U. issue, but electorates
having a vague
understanding of how societies function, particularly when it comes to
energy.
The "Green New Deal" is evident of that
fact. The plan has no
chance of ever working under current technology and the taxpayer
monies available — not to mention that the first "New Deal" was
a failure. China
and India will allow the
U.S., the E.U., NATO, and their Asian allies to "[m]uddle through endemic
crises menacing to [their] very existence (e.g., economic stagnation,
demographic decline, rising unassimilated Islamic populations in many EU
democracies, high taxes, mounting debt and the fiscal unsustainability of
Western European social democracy)."
Without energy, you have nothing. China and India
understand this better than the West, since their citizenries and leaders view energy
through the lens of what will help over two billion combined citizens: join the
prosperous, consumer-driven Western world. Most Western,
environmentally sensitive nations believe that fossil fuels are
evil. Instead, Western countries strive for renewable energy and to
be carbon-free. Even if the U.S. were to cut its
CO2 emissions "100 percent[,] it would not make a difference in abating
global warming."
China and India have never bought into that notion of energy, or
economiesbased
on supposedly carbon-free renewables that inspire their nations toward
a cleaner world. I wish they would, but that isn't
reality. Both
countries will continue importing, exporting, and excavating tankers
full of coal, oil, and natural gas from countries that are authoritarian human
rights–abusers such as Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, Iraq, Nigeria,
Angola, and Algeria.
Furthermore, Chinese and Indian politicians, and increasingly
African politicians, will never
allow lack of pipelines, domestic politics, or sensitivity to Western
environmentalists keep them from first-world status enjoyed by the U.S., the
E.U., and Asian nations like South Korea and Japan.
Naïve thinking, bordering on Western suicide, reflects that China
and India will stop using fossil fuels, led
by coal. Each country understands that coal isplentiful ("estimated
1.1 trillion tonnes of proven coal reserves worldwide that at current rates of
production will last 150 years"), and it is scalable, reliable, and
cost-effective to the end user, with the best energy density of all fossil
fuels or renewables available.
China is currently building hundreds
of new coal-fired power plants. To counterChina,
"India has 589 coal-fired power plants, [and it is] building 446 more,
bringing [the] total to 1,036." These figures are after both
governments signed the Paris Climate Accord and touted their
green credentials.
Since the U.S., Russia, China and India have the largest global
coal reserves, and each country is vying for geopolitical dominance, they will
continue using coal in record amounts. Energy is then a geopolitical
weapon. Europe does not understand this fact.
Only Donald Trump seems
to have gained clarity on this issue, with the U.S. using its newfound shale
oil and natural gas power to its geopolitical and global
advantage. Daily global media onslaughts, U.S. Democrats, and
NeverTrump Republicans constrain Trump at every turn and facilitate the U.S.'s
waning power. China and India sit back and do nothing, knowing that
the West is tooweak to
come to the U.S.'s or Trump's rescue.
Renewable energy advocates can speak, write, and publicly lobby
claiming that solar- and wind-produced electricity is the same cost or dropping
compared to oil, natural gas, coal, and nuclear. This claim is
false. Renewables cost
more to ratepayers and nations compared to fossil fuels or nuclear.
Without having a basic
understanding that every single wind turbine and solar panel is
intermittent and has to be continually backed -up by fossil fuels, the West is
committing environmental degradation and putting itself at risk against China,
Russia, Iran, and North Korea. Based on self-interest rightly
understood, India will then choose aligning with countries hostile to Western
interests over environmental concerns.
A great power struggle has broken out between the world's largest
democracy —India —
and the world's largest authoritarian state — China — and whichever country
uses the most energy will win Asia for the rest of this
century. National security and the competition between them over
Asia are at the crux of why they will watch the West destroy its own economies
over bad energy policies.
Sure, India and China will use natural gas, nuclear, and oil, but
coal is where each economy finds its basic energy resource. Horrible
for world emissions, air pollution, and global health, but how do Westerners,
the United Nations, and environmental organizations tell both growing countries
they cannot have access to the same energy opportunities and growth the West
has now had for over seventy years?
It simply won't happen: world health organizations, research
universities, think-tanks, and multinational corporations interested in global
longevity and clean air should begin working toward clean
coal technology.
All great nations, including China and India, view energy as
a domain
of power. The West already has its power but no longer knows how
to use it the way it did during the Cold War. Global warming,
abortion, marriage, and renewables versus fossil fuels have overtaken realism
in all facets of government, military strategy, and economics, as well as
countering the global threats from China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela and North
Korea.
Raw, amoral geopolitics that will grow economies, engage realist
strategies, house militaries, and feed energy-hungry populations is the new
Cold War. Social issues are important, but unless you are talking
about the unintended
consequences of abortion in
the U.S. and China, these issues have no valid correlation within energy
geopolitics. Energy and electricity are at the forefront of which
ideological viewpoint will win the 21st century.
Accessible energy becomes more important than ever as the competition between
China and India heats up. Unless something drastically changes, the
West will diminish significantly — ushering in the "Asian
century," with China and India biding their time to take over the
U.S.-led liberal order that was created after World War II ended.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/06/china_and_india_will_watch_the_west_destroy_itself.html