In nature, carnivores dominate herbivores – and so it is with big power politics. A Net Zero world means the end of Western hegemony. Australia risks becoming a herbivore in a world of carnivores if it cannot secure the mind-boggling scale of critical minerals and energy in all forms.
While Australia is unlikely to send troops to defend Taiwan, the task would be impossible powered by wind, solar, and batteries. At the same time, deep interventions into personal freedoms are being softly rolled out as Western institutions build CCP-style mechanisms to incentivise Net Zero behaviours. A Net Zero world will impact regional, national, and personal security in ways many take for granted. That said, Covid was a perfect test for how easily the majority can be controlled in the largest psyops in living memory. As Soviet defector Yuri Bezmenov explains, only when a jackboot crunches their goolies will the ‘establishment’ admit to the biggest destruction of our capacity to deliver power and security since prior to the second world war; by then it will be too late.
Energy is critical to a nation’s ability to ensure power and security. Security relies on strong defence, utilising all available sources of energy, means of production and supply, secure borders, and a confident population. Power and security ensures a nation is in a better position to survive on its own terms. A strategic objective made almost impossible without reliable energy… This problem is even more consequential given we are involved in a non-military protracted contest of Ermattungsstrategie, or exhaustion. Whereas Niederwerfungsstrategie, or annihilation, requires a knock-out blow, exhaustion involves multiple means of achieving the political ends of war. This includes co-opting, coercing, and colluding with investors, multilateral institutions such as the WHO and the UNFCCC, mainstream media, universities, and supply chains.
In Diplomatic Stories: Lessons from Yesterday for Today’s World, former French ambassador to Israel, the US, and the United Nations, Gérard Araud, argues the age of Western domination is ending. Araud argues diplomacy since 1945 is the exception and we are heading back to how it was conducted for 2,000 years. Only power matters. Except, because of the complexity of global integration, the costs of miscalculation would be unprecedented. Modern-day Athenian academic Theodoros Tsakiris explains that history changes according to each era and to the idiosyncratic political, technological, military, and economic characteristics that define it. Yet, like every other contest for power, at its core Net Zero is driven by fear, interest, and honour, or ‘that human thing’. These greatest of human motives are being used to weaken and divide us and have become the new field of active measures. Exposure to true information no longer matters when one is demoralised through fear. If you think this has nothing to do with security, name a single morally weak society, riddled with fear, that successfully defended itself against the strong.
The scale of mineral resources needed to replace all fossil fuels with solar, wind, and batteries is soul-destroying. In his address to the Australian Critical Minerals Summit, Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers said:
‘At the rate we are going and are expected to proceed at, over the next 30 years the world will need to mine more minerals than what has been extracted during the 70,000 years previous.’
Given the anti-mining agenda embedded within all sides of politics, just try opening a mine in Australia to supply the copper needed. The scale of global activism by people using smartphones and other tools of the modern era (thanks to mining) will jeopardise the Treasurer’s ambitions. Australia should seek energy from all sources.
In a Net Zero world, forget defending Taiwan in a direct military confrontation with China. During the war in Afghanistan no battleships, aircraft, submarines, or tanks were lost. Our sea lanes, manufacturing capability, food supplies, cyber security, and energy systems were never in doubt. Our nation was not mobilised and our resilience and self-reliance were never tested. In this context, America and Australia are positioning joint military capabilities to establish an Indo-Pacific web of protection securing our own backyard. This will require an all-sources energy mix to drive an economy to pay for it all. As British military theorist Liddell Hart (1895-1970) explained, grand strategy is inextricably connected with the economy of power.
A Net Zero world will also impact personal freedoms in Orwellian ways. In the future, it may not be missiles we fear but the deep reach of global institutions and corporations by-passing sovereignty and the rights of citizens.
Not even five minutes into the job last year and British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, produced a video promoting Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). Under the UK as the Chair, G7 countries are developing the policy framework for CBDCs. During the 2022 IMF and World Bank Group annual meeting, IMF deputy managing director, Bo Li, suggested institutions follow the model of the Chinese Communist Party where ‘non-traditional data can be very useful for financial service providers to give me a credit score’. Considerations are being given to how CBDCs can be ‘programmable’. Chilling stuff. Whether Thucydides or Orwell, both recognised the natural laws of power where the strong (establishment) will always seek to control the weak.
Last year, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau froze the bank accounts of truck protesters involved in the Freedom Movement, including their digital accounts. Then again, he loves China’s authoritarianism.
One way Net Zero is going to be achieved is through a kind of climate track and trace system built within CBDCs and other electronic payment systems. Maintaining internal stability, as in China, may require a greater level of incentivising citizens. It’s the psychological tool of subtly tweaking positive or negative reinforcements. Woolworths and Coles could soon be warning you of your carbon footprint while paying for a steak with your credit card. Australia’s Climate Change Act 2022 requires regular advice on the social, employment, and economic benefits of any new or adjusted targets. This opens the way for all kinds of interventions. If you’re finding this far-fetched then see Oxfordshire in the UK with the introduction of Covid-like measures under the 15-minunte city agenda. The soft pilot campaign has already begun in Melbourne. Remember, the Western countries are doing this to themselves. No tanks, missiles, or little green men were required. It’s Ancient Athenian hubris on a grand scale.
The point is, if we want Net Zero, and our electorates are telling governments they do, we need to confront brutal realities about the impacts for defending ourselves within our own backyard. The world as it really will be in terms of power, human nature, and the complexities of war and stability. A Net Zero world is one in which Taiwan may be reunified with China without a shot being fired. And the strong will be in an even better position to do what they want. While those responsible will no longer be around to be held accountable.
