Global Warming Activists Speechless In Katowice As Yellow Vest Protests Spread Europe-Wide With Unexpected Intensity

The Swiss online Basel BAZ news site reported yesterday how the Yellow Vest fossil fuel tax protests have spread across Belgium and into the Netherlands, and so threaten to become a European phenomenon.

Previously it was thought that a move away from fossil fuels and higher taxes on them were the will of the people in Europe, and so citizens would readily accept higher taxes on them in order to get society to adopt the lean green energy diet. However that has suddenly turned out to be a gross misinterpretation by policymakers and activists.

Climate activists speechless – devastating signal

As the Yellow Vest protests intensify and spread, activists and delegates in Poland find themselves speechless as the begin to realize that a comprehensive transitioning over to green energies is not going to happen any time soon because their proposals are unmistakably generating anger. The signal to the world from France could not be more devastating to the climate protection movement.

The French have sent a loud and clear message.

The BAZ writes that the European governments are so spooked by the anger that in Brussels institutions such as the EU Commission, the EU Counsel and the EU Parliament had to be completely sealed off because of the demonstration. Police arrested some 100 protesters early as a preventive measure to keep the protest from escalating out of control.

Fuel taxes hurt the poor

Also police in the Netherlands sealed off Den Haag against protesters. The BAZ reported:

Several hundred people on Saturday also protested at the Yellow Vest demonstrations in the Netherlands against what they saw as the growing gap between rich and poor.”

Egregious arrogance, hypocrisy

One reason for the elevated level of anger is the arrogance and hypocrisy EU policymakers exhibit as they rush to impose green energies onto their population. While Eurocrats jet-set from one rescue-conference to another and lead the life of luxury on the taxpayers’ dime, they demand citizens tighten their energy and financial belts and go without.

One egregious example of such arrogance comes from the United States.  The Washington Examiner here reports how Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders spent $300,000 on private jet flights (in a single month!)while demanding citizens refrain from using fossil fuels and forgo their already modest lifestyles. The Examiner writes:

While private jets are a common tool for political campaigners, the same day the massive check was written to a private jet company, Sanders issued a call to arms to take on greenhouse gas emissions.”

Meanwhile President Donald Trump wondered if it was not time “to end the ridiculous and extremely expensive Paris Agreement.”

Since the protests began, France has decided to put off the high taxes on diesel and gasoline fuel for the time being. Expect other European countries to crank down their fuel tax rhetoric as a result.

21 responses to “Global Warming Activists Speechless In Katowice As Yellow Vest Protests Spread Europe-Wide With Unexpected Intensity”

  1. Patrick healy

    ‘Expect other European countries to crank down their fuel (fool) tax rhetoric as a result’
    Yes we can hope but don’t expect sanity any time soon.

  2. rah

    It’s gone beyond the carbon tax and into over taxation in general. A lot of people are saying in the only way that will be listened to that they will NOT stand for a transition of their status back into the vassals and serfs of a new type of feudal society.

    I noticed that in Brussels some of the APCs brought out to try and control the demonstrations/riots had an EU flag on them. Now think about that the next time an EU Army or Police force is brought up.

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  4. Yonason

    But, in the “progressive” UK, we find some people protesting because they aren’t sufficiently oppressed …yet.
    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/12/thousands-of-leftist-protesters-march-in-london-chanting-tear-down-the-fences-open-the-borders-video/

    Or, maybe they just like to protest?

    1. Yonason

      UPDATE

      EU army sent to suppress French protests.
      https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/12/globalist-army-armored-vehicles-with-eu-flag-storm-paris-to-quash-protests-video/

      Something tells me Europeans have allowed the European Union too much freedom, and now they are all at risk of losing what little they have left.

      1. William Astley

        People are waking up, country by country.

        One government per country is more than enough. The EU super government is a super waste, ineffective, elitist puppet government.

        It is interesting that the New York times recently ran an editorial which acknowledges that spending money on ‘green’ energy (wind and solar) does not work (has absolute engineering limits as to reducing CO2 emissions as per the German example.

  5. Kurt.V

    They wanted a united Europe,well it’s time for Europe to unite against the evil that is the EU,and all who wants to send us back to the dark ages.
    They should give all these activists the minimum wage.See if they still want to promote this farce when they can’t stuff their pockets and fly around the world in their private jets.

  6. RickWill

    Australia is so far ahead on this that it deserves recognition. Australia invented the RET (Renewable Energy Target). It is not a tax. It is a massive transfer payment from the financially disadvantaged consumers of electricity to the owners of ambient grid generators and rooftop solar.

    Every MWh of grid power from grid-scale wind or solar gets a bonus payment called LGC (Large-scale Generating Certificate) currently worth AUD62. The capital cost of rooftop solar is partially funded by electricity consumers through the sale of STCs (Small-scale Trading Certificates) calculated on the estimated MWh production of the rooftop system from installation till 2030. STCs currently valued at AUD36 and results in system subsidy averaging about AUD2000 depending on system size. Rooftop systems also get paid for electricity exported at the average wholesale price of AUD80/MWh. I got in early and my FIT (Feed in Tarrif) is AUD660/MWh so I pay nothing for energy as electricity sales covers gas cost.

    Very few Australians appreciate this little publicised scheme transfers their hard earned from poor households (predominantly renters without rooftop solar) to wealthy households (owners of shares in wind/solar farms and their own rooftop solar) in excess of AUD2bn in 2017 and increasing each year.

    Macron should suffer for being silly enough to call it a tax. He could have achieved a much more effective and subtle arrangement of screwing the poor by introducing a Fossil Free Certificate, priced at EURxyz/Tco2, that rich people generate when they buy an electric car but are paid for by the poor when they buy fossil fuel. Taxes are viewed as a grab by greedy governments while certificates based on some link to CO2 reduction are saving the planet. It is an easy way to get brain-washed millennials and modern socialists to part with their money and willingly hand it over to the wealthy.

  7. Penelope

    I’ve long thought that we err when we assume that what the media tells us is true. The media has beat us up with the idea that a large segment of the population is onboard w AGW. Not so. Like most of media, it’s theatre, so we’ll blame each other for what our govts are doing– instead of TPTB.

    Those who make their living by publishing, even the scientists among them, have been directly debased by having their income tied to the propaganda.

    In the US there’s not a whisper of protest against AGW, but there IS protest when someone’s ox is gored– notably the depopulation of our rural counties.

    Don’t put your faith in Trump. If he were against AGW, he’d be against its consequences– Agenda 21.

  8. Reasonable Skeptic

    “However that has suddenly turned out to be a gross misinterpretation by policymakers and activists.”

    You have to be a moron to have misunderstood this. People are people. They will go along with the crowd until it hurts. Once it hurts, they choose a different crowd.

    Activists think that people like pain.

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  12. Chris Kurowski

    Rick Will has hit the nail on the head in terms of his assessment of the electrical poverty tax, applied to the poor on behalf of the rich in Australia. We have exactly the same scheme going in Canada in terms of poor consumers paying rich households for overpriced green energy. We could put up more hydro, here in Ontario, but that would imply greening up through progressive taxation.

    Here in Canada, carbon taxation is the battle hymn of the Liberals,so I was curious about how they expected this to work. According to Liberal party documents, the tax will trigger a virtuous cycle of carbon use reduction. That sounds a bit more like religious faith than science to me, so let me spell things out. Approximately 90% of the wealth in any western nation is owned by 10% of the population. That 10% either works for a corporation that has located its energy consuming industry offshore or owns the corporation. These offshore locations most typically burn coal, the cheapest but worst creator of CO2 per BTU that there is. They are assisted by the Liberal government that turns a blind eye to coal export to these countries. There is no mention by the Liberals of coal surcharges. The point is that the top 10% aren’t particularly injured by the tax, are sheltered, and have the option of invoking the sort of poor to rich money pump that you alluded too. There are a great many more such money pumps in Canada, believe me. That means that the 90% of the population, with their paltry 10% of the wealth are being asked to save the planet, even as the climate profiteers fasten their fangs on their throats. Is it any wonder there are riots in France. Is it any wonder that the magazine L’Humanite is reported to have warned Macron that he will not save the world on the backs of the poor.

    Just imagine: saving the planet while getting filthy rich. Great work if you can get it, not so good for everybody else. The planet will not be saved while the climate profiteers continue to dominate the debate.

  13. Yonason

    POOR TAX

    More like taxing everyone into poverty.

    “For this time, it is not demagogic to say that there is money to take: according to IFRAP accounts published on November 22, 2018, France will take in 2019 the bagatelle of 62 billion euros for “the climate”.”
    https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Flouyehi.wordpress.com%2F2018%2F12%2F14%2Fgilets-jaunes-ne-vous-laissez-pas-voler-votre-revolte%2F

  14. Yonason

    What the “Yellow Vest” means.

    Most Europeans may already know this, so apologies in advance to them, and anyone else who’s more on top of these things than I am. But for those of you who, like me, are out of that loop….

    I was astounded that so soon after announcement of the gas tax, so many French protesters had yellow vests. Where did they get them so fast, I wondered. A friend who listens to more conservative talk radio than I do told me that on it he heard that the significance of the yellow vests is that everyone has them because it was mandated by law. They must have one in their car at all times, and put it on when say changing a tire or some other auto emergency when they are out of their car. So, it perfectly symbolizes government over-reach, mandating what citizens must do, at their own expense.

    ASIDE – Every car must also be equipped with a breathalyzer, at the drivers’ expense of course. …because the French government doesn’t have enough of the citizens’ money already to buy them for the police? And what percentage of them are ever needed??? (Wait! Yeah, It’s France, they drink a lot of wine. OK, I get it mon ami.)

    Seroiusly, I can’t believe the French have put up with their fascist leaders as long as they have. What have they been doing all this time? Maybe busy sharpening their guillotines?

    1. Yonason

      I stand corrected. The breathalyzers are allegedly free. But the rest of the kit isn’t.
      https://www.drive-france.com/products/all-one-kit/

      Source of that link was an advert here.
      https://www.drive-france.com/faqs/france-breathalyzer-law/

  15. Michael Cunningham

    One of the reasons I argued for Brexit at the time was that it was better to leave the EU before it collapsed. That collapse comes ever closer, and the global warming scare will disappear with it.

  16. Yonason

    AGENDA 21

    It’s just a conspiracy theory, …right?

    WRONG! (from where that begins thru 22:26)

    Why would a prominent Democrat be advocating for supporting a “sense of the Congress” in support of “Agenda 21?” Her words, not mine. Yes, it is real, and it is a danger to freedom everywhere.

    The rest of that video is worth watching, as is this one…
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8JRCoSgsUU

    Even if they are mistaken about some details, they appear to be correct about the main thrust of the self appointed elite, which is a Fascist unaccountable EU style government of the entire world.

    They are certifiably NUTS!
    https://www.theelders.org/

    That latter is a collection of like minded lunatics who desire world domination, a whose who of the most delusional megalomaniacs, who see themselves as the planet’s saviors.

    If they or those they support get their paws on the power they seek, it won’t be a utopia they create, but the exact opposite.

    Global warming is just the current vehicle they are using to move their agenda forward. Other than as a means to the end they desire, it is of no importance whatever to them, nor should it be to us.

  17. Ed

    The Netherland government has just introduced a climate agreement, in which it is stated that

    – companies that cause more than 10 ton p.a. of CO2 bu 2021 have to come with a reduction planning. No reduction planning, not enough reduction planned or stated goal not reached is heavily fined.

    – in order to compensate for the extra cost for these companies, the government will subsidise them with 500 million Euros, paid from the tax income.

    – From 2030 onwards it is forbidden to sell fossil fuel cars. As it is worded, this is applicable not only for new but also for second hand cars; this means an enormous destruction of capital for the lower income classes that can not afford to buy the very expensive electrical cars.

    – the purchase of electrical cars that cost more than 40,000 Euro will as per immediate be subsidised by the government from the tax income. To obtain sufficient funding for that, taxes on traditional energy will be heavily increased.

    – Although other countries in Europe are switching from oil to gas for heating and industrial uses, the Dutch government is closing down the gas supply and wants to be completely gas-free in by 2030. heating has to be done by heat pumps, the investment of which (15,000 to 30,000 Euro) has to be borne by the house owners. If the owner can not pay that amount or borrow it, he might sell the ground under his house to the government, who then will ask a high lease price each year. The ground can not be bought back, once sold.

    – all energy taxes will be increased with a double-digit percentage, without any exception.

    1. Yonason

      WOW! That’s diabolical. I’ll bet the 20th century fascists would be “green” with envy.

      There are some things so wrong that only a leftist could come up with them.

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