Is the Penny Dropping Yet?

Another day, another harsh lesson for the Climate Cult – if they were capable of learning it, which they’re almost certainly not. The mental agility needed to draw the obvious link between their lunatic policies and the devastating consequences is not their strong suit.

Partly because the consequences are usually so far removed from themselves. Your average Climate Cultist, after all, is one of the most urbanised creatures in human history, safely ensconced in the innermost of the big cities, where the vast swathes of bulldozed forests razed for their beloved wind turbines and solar farms are something they never have to see.

But when the fossil fuels that underpin nearly every aspect of modern life, from fertilisers to building materials, run out – as is their dearest wish – the consequences are quick to arrive. These cultist ninnies, though, wouldn’t recognise a consequence if it belted them in the face. They’ll just whine and scream that everything is suddenly so much more expensive, without ever twigging why.

The price of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic, used for pipes and other building materials, has risen by more than 30 per cent as the war in the Middle East rages on […]

Loxton Irrigation Centre, based in South Australia’s Riverland, has been forced to scale back its operation and cancel orders.

“[My suppliers] are cancelling any quotes they’ve given for next month or the rest of this month because it’s dire straits,” co-director Tom Drakopoulos said.

“It’s not just the price increases – there are also concerns about supply.”
Master Builders SA chief executive Will Frogley said the price increases and supply issues were “definitely worrying”.

He said the industry had already dealt with steep rises in operating costs in recent years and would be forced to pass on the new prices […]

It is not just PVC that has been affected by ongoing conflict overseas. Mr Frogley said other materials such as polyethylene, concrete and steel had also been impacted.

As I keep harping on: when the price of energy goes up, the price of everything goes up. Whether the cause of the price rise is a war in the Middle East, or ‘Net Zero’, the result is the same: the price of everything goes up.

In this case, it’s not just the price of energy, it’s the fact that fossil fuels do so, so much more than simply make electricity.

“The ramifications are so much greater than just paying an annoyingly high amount for petrol at the pump,” Mr Frogley said.

“People don’t know how much it’s going to cost to build [and] we don’t know how long the conflict in Iran is going to last.

“If you can’t lay the pipes at the start of the job you can’t lay the slab, and that can really grind things to a halt, which we’re desperately trying to avoid.”

The shortage of PVC pipes isn’t just an issue for builders, it’s yet another hammer-blow to farmers who can’t get the diesel to run their machinery, or the natural gas-based fertilisers to plant next year’s crops.

Irrigators looking to transition away from struggling crops, including wine grapes, could also be slugged with thousands more in costs.

In the Riverland, Berri Irrigation and Plumbing owner Michael Jungfer said he would have no choice but to pass on the costs.

Including to the Climate Cultists of inner-city Sydney and Melbourne, who’ll scream blue murder when the costs are passed on. Without a blush of realisation that this is exactly the world they wanted.

If they think things are bad enough after just one month of war in the Middle East, just wait till they get their dearest wish and abolish fossil fuels for good. What’s a short-lived crisis now, will be a permanent crisis, with no solution.