NOW IS THE TIME! Blog #9
Putin’s Merciless War on the Ukrainian People Changes Everything!
Advanced Release April 14, 2022
Putin’s Merciless War on Ukraine
Now as we move into the second month of the unprovoked war in Ukraine it is clear that the Russian army advance on the capital city of Kyiv has failed; but not before leaving images from Bucha and other small cities and villages near the capital of the barbaric nature of the Russian military and the Putin Regime.
The outcry in the West for Putin and Russia to be held accountable for War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity and even Genocide are growing every day.
Hundreds and perhaps thousands of Ukrainian women and children have been raped and abused and killed by Russian soldiers. Many of these same soldiers who left in fast retreat from around Kyiv have lived to fight again in the south eastern part of Ukraine. The clear objective is to build a Russian occupied land bridge between the Donbas region and Crimea, currently occupied and annexed by Russia…in defiance of international order and law.
Putin has ordered his newly assigned General Alexander Dvornikov known as the “Butcher of Syria” to accomplish this by May 9th to celebrate this victory along with the annual second world war Victory Day celebration that takes place in Moscow on that date.
Most of the Western Nations and certainly NATO know by now that it is no longer about Russia losing the war but rather about the West including principally the NATO Alliance countries supporting the Ukrainians to win the war to save democracy for the West.
Here are the musts for the Western Alliance…led by the United States of America
• Provide the offensive weapons to Ukraine and shut down the Russian fossil fuel revenue stream from the West that finances Russian aggression, allowing the Ukrainians to Win the war and drive Russians out of both the Donbas and the Crimea and save the port city of Odessa.
• Pour massive Humanitarian Aid into Ukraine during the war and massive funding to re-build the country after the war. Ukraine has already signalled desire to join the European Union. That could transpire before any thought of NATO membership.
• Hold Putin and General Dvornikov personally responsible for War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity and even Genocide.
We have ignored Ukraine far too long!
*Before this war how many of us understood that with the fall of the Soviet Union, Ukraine was the third largest nuclear power in the world after the USA and Russia. And, as brokered by the US and Russia, Ukraine gave up all of their nuclear arsenal for guaranteed sovereignty of its own territory. After such a concession wouldn’t you be willing to defend the sovereignty of your country!
*How many of us knew that the Chernobyl Nuclear disaster was within the borders of Ukraine at the same nuclear power generation site with other operational nuclear reactors supplying power in the Ukraine today including the capital city of Kyiv.
*Who among us realized that the Ukraine along with Russia have been the bread basket for much of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East; and if Ukraine doesn’t have the oil for fertilizer and to run farm equipment to grow huge quantities of grains, let alone access to the Black Sea port of Odessa the result will most certainly be a huge food security crisis in Mediterranean Africa. It’s too risky, and seasonally too late to contemplate any 2022 grain harvest to scale in Ukraine ..leading to limited supply, rising prices and immediate and heightened global food security issues.
*We all have heard of semiconductors. They are in everything these days and over a hundred in every new car or truck be it electric or gas fired. The Ford Motor Company has shipped trucks to its dealers without all the semiconductors because of shortages….just to move them off their lot to keep the production lines running.
Who ever heard that a rare gas called Neon is used in the manufacture of semiconductors …and that until the war began Ukraine supplied 50% of the world’s supply of Neon to manufacture them …and for good measure, where do you think the feed stock for Ukraine to produce Neon is sourced …that’s right,
it’s Russia from steel mills fired by coal!
*On Oil… Russia is principally a Petro State with an underdeveloped consumer economy by western standards, supported by the export of oil, natural gas and coal. But it’s Oil that is monetized globally in US dollars at global prices that provides the Russian government funding for the war effort against the
Ukrainians who are supported by all the NATO countries with the USA far in the lead. In real terms it’s US dollars fighting against US dollars over the sovereign territorial rights of the people of Ukraine!
*The world needs to shut down the purchase of oil from Russia in order to shut down Russian aggression..next could be Georgia and then the three NATO Baltic states, and then on to Poland, Hungary and Romania.
* In direct reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine both Sweden and Finland are positioning to join the NATO Alliance that already includes fellow Nordic nations Norway, Denmark and Iceland.
The War in Ukraine has pushed Global Climate Crisis Action to the Back Burner
*Even before the War in Ukraine, the Net Zero IPCC target by 2050 was pushed to 2060 and 2070 by major GHG polluters including China, Russia, and India. India and China are now the major candidates for the sale of Russian oil… free of any IPCC commitment constraint.
*Biden’s Build Back Better Plan to reduce GHG emissions failed to be passed by the US Congress and is no longer a part of the legislative agenda. The US IPCC net zero by 2050 commitment seems to be a distant memory now. The US is ramping up production of oil and natural gas from shale to replace as much of the Russian oil and natural gas as possible required by European NATO countries.
*In Canada, provincial Carbon Taxes to fight the Climate Crisis are being blown away by politicians seeking re-election. At the federal level, economic growth is now planned and tied directly to investment in the oil sector in support of unproven carbon capture technology avoiding the issue of increasing emissions resulting from the actual burning of the oil. And for good measure, to finally turn
Canada into a Petro State, the Canadian federal government has recently authorized the opening of new off shore wells in the Atlantic waters off the coast of Newfoundland.
*Even before the war in Ukraine UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres Post COP 26, Glasgow 2021 asserted that a temperature rise of 2.5-2.7 C is near certain by mid century if we do not take much more aggressive action globally.
*The unanswered question was …what will that much more aggressive action look like? Now we have the answer …there simply is no chance that the aggressive action will engage all the nations in the world coming together and following an IPCC Net Zero regime to 2050.
*The stark reality and new anxiety, well noted by Greta Thunberg is that the Global IPCC diplomatic process designed to hold global temperature rise to 1.5 C has been twisted into a process of protecting global economic interests …primarily of rich countries that are the major source of the GHG emissions that continue to warm the planet at an alarming rate!
*COP 26 is in the rear view mirror now and the only winners are the elite 1% that get to keep the untarnished capitalistic system, control the world, and continue to pursue increasingly risky Hi-Tech solutions that consume more and more energy, not less, while wind & solar only account for about 3% of the world’s annual energy requirement.
Building Community Resilience in response to the Climate Crisis
The only viable global GHG reduction strategy now after the failure of COP 26 and the on-going war in Ukraine is to focus all action on building more resilient communities everywhere on earth.
This is the strategy long advocated by the International Transition Movement and the International Alliance for Localization.
The big city dominance of the world’s population is now the major issue. For smaller communities where I live, the possibilities for much greater resilience at human scale are much more plausible. This resiliency imperative demands that every community focus on the secure provision of its own life essentials including food, water, energy, culture and wellness.
In Canada and in Peterborough, Ontario Canada specifically the only constraint in implementation of this resiliency imperative seems to be that local politicians consistently think, among the life essentials, that food, energy and wellness are not a municipal responsibility for funding.
We welcome municipal officials and their citizens everywhere to check out the Peterborough Climate Emergency Activist Group Climate Crisis Response to the City and County of Peterborough and First Nations as presented on my website in the Proposals Section.
Feedback through my web site is appreciated
www.fredirwinauthor.com