Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumHigh fossil fuel prices are good for the planet--here's how to keep it that way
In the UK, it now costs more than 100 pounds to fill up a typical family car with petrol, and oil prices could rise even further. But are such high prices for fossil fuels a bad thing? While attention is focused on measures to tackle the global cost of living crisis, there has been much less focus on a very uncomfortable truththat solving the climate crisis requires fossil fuel prices for consumers to stay high forever.
Saying such a thing may seem tone-deaf. Millions of households in rich countries are facing a choice between heating and eating. In poorer countries, the situation is immeasurably worse. Rising prices for gas have dramatically increased the cost of fertilizer, while the war in Ukraine is hampering the export of its wheat.
Together these are leading to spiraling food prices globally, triggering a surge in inflation and worsening the already dire food security situation in places such as Yemen, the Horn of Africa, and Madagascar. We are already witnessing widespread foot riots just like those between 2008 and 2011, when citizens around the world protested the failure of their states to deliver their most basic rightthe right to eat.
To mitigate the impact of high prices, we have seen a screeching reversal of energy policies around the world. In November 2021, governments at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow pledged to tax carbon and eliminate fossil fuel subsidies. But faced with dramatic increases in the cost of fuel and electricity, those same governments have scrambled to slash taxes on energy, put in place price caps, and introduce new subsidies.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/06/high-fossil-fuel-prices-are-good-for-the-planet-heres-how-to-keep-it-that-way/
bucolic_frolic
(43,045 posts)but price is not the only way of rationing energy. Recall 1970s gas lines.
MontanaMama
(23,295 posts)but this country will blame Joe Biden, unfairly, but they will.
rubbersole
(6,660 posts)Most Americans won't change their fossil fuel habits until economically forced to. Electric cars alone won't stop the climate disaster headed our way. If gas was $10 a gallon everyone would want an electric car. It's only 20 years too late.
MichMan
(11,868 posts)muriel_volestrangler
(101,268 posts)and petrol cars are still a significant amount of new sales. You need a proper recharging network as well; and tech for quicker-still recharging, if people still have the choice of fossil fuel cars.