Michael Shellenberger is the quintessential liberal who was mugged by reality. A progressive for much of his life, Shellenberger has in recent years found himself drifting rightward, and with good reason.
One issue that’s had a major impact on his ideological shift has been environmentalism and climate alarmism.
And as he explained in a thread today, climate change alarmists have played a huge role in the current energy crisis, including how Russia factors into it:
People think Europe depends on Russia for energy because it lacks its own, but 15 years ago Europe exported more natural gas than Russia does today. Now, Russia exports 3x more gas than Europe produces. Why? Because climate activists, partly funded by Russia, blocked fracking. pic.twitter.com/m9ifRLs0ku
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) March 3, 2022
In 2014, NATO's secretary general revealed Russia was funding climate activists, saying, “Russia… engaged actively with so-called nongovernmental organizations working against shale gas to maintain dependence on imported Russian gas"
Nobody listened.https://t.co/JJtn2hLNjB
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) March 3, 2022
Climate activists weren't the only ones to blame
"BP acquired a 19.75% stake in Rosneft in 2013… Shell and Exxon Mobil developed joint ventures with Gazprom and Rosneft"
But the big Western oil & gas companies only did so because climate activists blocked fracking in Europe
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) March 3, 2022
Climate activists pressured governments to block oil & gas development
"Even as Gazprom slowed deliveries to Europe last fall, a British regulator nixed Shell’s plans to develop an enormous gas field in the North Sea."
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) March 3, 2022
Last fall, I was one of the first journalists to document how climate activists had effectively reduced private and public investment in oil and gas production, through a propaganda effort called "ESG," directly contributing to the global energy crisis.https://t.co/Dmye5OFJ6Y
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) March 3, 2022
And you won’t believe what happened next!
The numbers speak for themselves
"Europe produces 3.6M bls of oil a day & uses 15M. Europe produces 230B cubic meters of gas/year & uses 560B. Russia produces 11M barrels of oil/day & uses 3.4M. Russia produces 700B cubic meters of gas/year & uses 400Bhttps://t.co/pbvl9wEdpA
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) March 3, 2022
It literally paid to be Russia. It paid big.
Greens opposed oil & gas fracking because, they said, climate change threatened civilization
But natural disasters, deaths from disasters, and the cost of natural disasters are all declining
Deaths from natural disasters were lower last year than any other year on record pic.twitter.com/ArGVtc3wOF
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) March 3, 2022
Despite the suppression of natural gas production, it was still produced, just not as much as could have been.
Cheaper gas replaced coal and reduced carbon emissions
As a result, carbon emissions in the US & globally declined over the last decade pic.twitter.com/nGy1vowyUg
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) March 3, 2022
Russia's invasion of Ukraine could have been deterred had Putin feared that Europe would stop buying his oil, gas & coal
But Putin knew that Europe and the US couldn't stop buying Russia's fuel without suffering severe shortages & triggering recessionhttps://t.co/CDwRh3jmqu
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) March 3, 2022
Should we be surprised that the people who falsely claimed that Western civilization was "unsustainable" are making it so?
Anti-fracking "climate activists" are, in reality, pro-scarcity Malthusians who hate modern life & Western civilization
Proof herehttps://t.co/sVKlFIw1Ld
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) March 3, 2022
It’s all part of their plan. They couch their words and actions in concern for the environment, but it’s all about control.
Why do the people who claim to care so much about climate change violently oppose nuclear energy, which is the *only* way to reduce carbon emissions from energy to near-zero?
Because nuclear energy creates abundance, wealth, and prosperityhttps://t.co/eBK2bcsMrL
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) March 3, 2022
And so many modern-day environmentalists are just raging leftist activists.
"Europe had… enough natural gas to supply the EU for some 60 years. Much of this is located in Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria, but France, U.K., the Netherlands and Germany are also sitting on shale deposits"https://t.co/JJtn2hLNjB
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) March 3, 2022
"A decade ago, Chevron, Exxon, & Shell were exploring Europe’s gas deposits with ambitions to repeat the U.S. shale boom. Then protests against fracking erupted, and one by one European governments surrendered to Russian energy dominance"https://t.co/JJtn2hLNjB
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) March 3, 2022
The European Commission confirms all of this on its web site:
"Unconventional hydrocarbons can contribute to the EU's security of supply and competitiveness. There are however public concerns over their extraction…"https://t.co/fWtPbyyRBf
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) March 3, 2022
The U.S. government's Energy Information Administration in 2013 published data showing that Europe had significant shale gas potentialhttps://t.co/KefEDqQRVm
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) March 3, 2022
"Britain has one of the richest and thickest seams of shale: the Bowland shale across Lancashire and Yorkshire contains many decades of supply….But the Russian government invested $95 million in NGOs campaigning against shale gas." @mattwridley https://t.co/4SfrNJcaJv
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) March 3, 2022
Shale potential: Europe vs US pic.twitter.com/11gkHryad8
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) March 3, 2022
NATO official 2014: "Russia has been using… a campaign of disinformation on many issues, including energy…. Russia could try to obstruct possible projects on shale gas exploration in Europe in order to maintain Europe’s reliance on Russian gas."https://t.co/LOTjjZSk4o
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) March 3, 2022
"Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton complained in a speech to a private audience in 2016, 'We were even up against phony environmental groups, and I’m a big environmentalist, but these were funded by the Russians …'"https://t.co/zduHC2baKc
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) March 3, 2022
What is our global energy crisis if not a direct product of Russian collusion?
Funny how the Russia Collusion junkies never want to talk about Russian (and Chinese) collusion with the climate change movement. https://t.co/KIFhkSb2wr
— John Hayward (@Doc_0) March 3, 2022