[Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] Fwd: Sri Lanka Just Fell. What Do We Have to Do With It?
Jerry Harris
jerryharri at gmail.com
Wed Jul 13 13:47:25 PDT 2022
Mostly, I see a tenuous attempt by an analyst (and amplified by Tucker) to
make a connection between the World Bank and Green Elites with difficult
and impossible decisions made in Sri Lanka and Ghana. A decision faced by
many other food-insecure countries after Covid disrupted
agricultural supply chains. The impact of Covid plus the Russian invasion
of Ukraine on food supplies around the world was predicted to be dire. The
impact of Covid lockdowns deprived many countries of revenue, forcing them
to take out loans and cut costs including subsidizing fertilizer purchases.
I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that this represents a failure of "the
greens".
Just my $0.02, but it's disturbing to see Tucker Carlson's twisted logic
echoed here.
Jerry
My reading list:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/07/world/asia/sri-lanka-organic-farming-fertilizer.html
https://www.trade.gov/market-intelligence/ghana-fertilizer-market
https://newsghana.com.gh/ghana-likely-to-face-food-shortage-hunger-in-last-quarter-of-2022-2023/
https://apps.fas.usda.gov/newgainapi/api/Report/DownloadReportByFileName?fileName=Ghana%27s%20Agricultural%20Subsidy%20Program_Accra_Ghana_GH2022-0004
https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/07/12/sri-lanka-crisis-politics-economics-rajapaksa-protest/
https://dailynews.lk/2021/06/01/local/250626/sri-lanka-import-organic-fertilizer-needed-maha-season
On Wed, Jul 13, 2022 at 8:50 AM Marvin Menzin <mmenzin at icloud.com> wrote:
> After the energy discussion here is a similar issue to do with
> fertilizers.
> think of the damage people can do with abrupt and unproven changes to a
> working system based on some theory pushed to its limits for ideological
> reasons . great leap backward for these poor Sri Lankans ..
>
>
>
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> *From:* Common Sense with Bari Weiss <bariweiss at substack.com>
> *Date:* July 12, 2022 at 6:05:23 AM EDT
> *To:* mmenzin at comcast.net
> *Subject:* *Sri Lanka Just Fell. What Do We Have to Do With It?*
> *Reply-To:* Common Sense with Bari Weiss <
> reply+11vx2o&1pweo&&029e527d10f024143248c892c6a428db42e960c3e6a7752c10f62167632c46d8 at mg1.substack.com
> >
>
>
> The anti-growth environmental movement deserves much of the blame.
>
> Open in browser
> <https://substack.com/app-link/post?publication_id=260347&post_id=63634992&utm_source=email>
> Sri Lanka Just Fell. What Do We Have to Do With It?
> <https://substack.com/redirect/2/eyJlIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuY29tbW9uc2Vuc2UubmV3cy9wL3NyaS1sYW5rYS1qdXN0LWZlbGwtd2hhdC1kby13ZS1oYXZlP3Rva2VuPWV5SjFjMlZ5WDJsa0lqb3lPRGc0TURFMkxDSndiM04wWDJsa0lqbzJNell6TkRrNU1pd2lhV0YwSWpveE5qVTNOakl3TVRVNExDSnBjM01pT2lKd2RXSXRNall3TXpRM0lpd2ljM1ZpSWpvaWNHOXpkQzF5WldGamRHbHZiaUo5LlFrSkxwNHdxZHppT2lnZ19XdHVfV3VNaUxBMXd2ZGwwLThDUUl2UTJfY1EiLCJwIjo2MzYzNDk5MiwicyI6MjYwMzQ3LCJmIjpmYWxzZSwidSI6Mjg4ODAxNiwiaWF0IjoxNjU3NjIwMTU4LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMCIsInN1YiI6ImxpbmstcmVkaXJlY3QifQ.JeL_3aipl-Hek2_Wx-MEK5dtaWBCX-r1r20UBKBnIrM?>The
> anti-growth environmental movement deserves much of the blame.
>
>
> <https://substack.com/redirect/10fd35fa-a86a-4eac-8411-5a37dd9f6986?u=2888016>
> Michael Shellenberger
> <https://substack.com/redirect/10fd35fa-a86a-4eac-8411-5a37dd9f6986?u=2888016>
> Jul 12
> <https://substack.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.V7Tghs6VmXmLjAfJBu61qkXLE5YxyHOZxpCb_VncHG0?> [image:
> Comment]
> <https://substack.com/redirect/2/eyJlIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuY29tbW9uc2Vuc2UubmV3cy9wL3NyaS1sYW5rYS1qdXN0LWZlbGwtd2hhdC1kby13ZS1oYXZlL2NvbW1lbnRzP3Rva2VuPWV5SjFjMlZ5WDJsa0lqb3lPRGc0TURFMkxDSndiM04wWDJsa0lqbzJNell6TkRrNU1pd2lhV0YwSWpveE5qVTNOakl3TVRVNExDSnBjM01pT2lKd2RXSXRNall3TXpRM0lpd2ljM1ZpSWpvaWNHOXpkQzF5WldGamRHbHZiaUo5LlFrSkxwNHdxZHppT2lnZ19XdHVfV3VNaUxBMXd2ZGwwLThDUUl2UTJfY1EiLCJwIjo2MzYzNDk5MiwicyI6MjYwMzQ3LCJmIjpmYWxzZSwidSI6Mjg4ODAxNiwiaWF0IjoxNjU3NjIwMTU4LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMCIsInN1YiI6ImxpbmstcmVkaXJlY3QifQ.grLGozjBMHnf7LvtMPqwPtsdXgAupXbFTiV0u7yyElI?&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email> [image:
> Share]
> <https://substack.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.HTj4ItwhfAopsQEEerrmUpKUHDZugSc4oWnAP4bSFok?>
>
> <https://substack.com/redirect/8d2d5c05-ee80-4fd0-be99-21ea250c4d4d?u=2888016> An
> activist shouts slogans and holds up bread as he protests against rising
> living costs in Colombo on March 15, 2022. (Ishara S. Kodikara via Getty
> Images)
>
> Sri Lanka has fallen. On Saturday, thousands of protesters stormed the
> presidential palace. While the angry and the aggrieved swam
> <https://substack.com/redirect/0fc19f16-0717-4627-a371-06d1414ad22c?u=2888016>
> in the president’s pool, had a cookout on his lawn, lounged on his bed, and
> set fire to his residence, the president was spirited away to a naval ship
> off the Sri Lankan coast.
>
> The proximate reason for the chaos is that the nation is bankrupt,
> suffering its worst financial crisis in decades
> <https://substack.com/redirect/dae94dd7-c0d0-49ac-8be7-4d9fda0dff4f?u=2888016>.
> Millions are struggling to buy food, medicine and fuel. Between June 2021
> to June 2022, food prices rose
> <https://substack.com/redirect/c0134aa1-72f9-461b-9054-50298584d5f7?u=2888016> by
> 80 percent. Last month, annual inflation hit nearly 55 percent
> <https://substack.com/redirect/2492bc6d-b18d-48a1-9260-b1af951f36ae?u=2888016>.
> Since the start of the pandemic, half a million people have fallen
> <https://substack.com/redirect/f0f7efc4-fc20-4404-a738-885d19a03370?u=2888016> into
> poverty.
>
> If you’ve never paid attention to the island country just off India’s
> southeastern coast, you might think this is just how it goes in developing
> nations. But the truth is that Sri Lanka had been gradually rebuilding
> itself—after decades of civil war and authoritarianism—and then this
> happened. We in the West had a lot to do with it.
>
> The underlying reason for the fall of Sri Lanka is that its
> leaders—starting with former President Maithripala Sirisena and continuing
> with his successor, the recently deposed Gotabaya Rajapaksa—fell under the
> spell of Western green elites peddling organic agriculture and “ESG,” which
> refers to investments made following supposedly higher Environmental,
> Social, and Governance criteria. Sri Lanka has a near-perfect ESG score
> <https://substack.com/redirect/77864164-c2bc-495b-8e02-053ac999c019?u=2888016> of
> 98—higher than Sweden (96) and the United States (51).
>
> What does having such a high ESG score mean? In short, it meant that Sri
> Lanka’s two million farmers were forced to stop using fertilizers and
> pesticides, laying waste to its critical agricultural sector. (Never mind
> that Tesla has been booted
> <https://substack.com/redirect/f9eedfc9-de34-40d1-9316-a98fe9dc97b1?u=2888016>
> from the ESG S&P Index, while Exxon Mobil is in the top ten. None of it
> makes much sense.)
>
> To be sure, there were other factors behind Sri Lanka’s fall. Covid
> lockdowns and a 2019 bombing hurt tourism—an industry that usually
> generates between $3 billion
> <https://substack.com/redirect/54c8454b-1d59-42eb-960c-2ea6b1b08b27?u=2888016> and
> $5 billion
> <https://substack.com/redirect/1a693711-57cc-42fe-9b69-46ce823d8f5c?u=2888016>
> a year. Sri Lanka racked up huge foreign debt, with China lending the
> country billions of dollars as part of its Belt and Road initiative.
> Transportation costs have rocketed 128 percent since May due to rising oil
> prices. And overall trends have not helped: Since 2012, growth has been
> declining
> <https://substack.com/redirect/d6bc6231-7503-47ff-b390-2b9d954a2050?u=2888016>
> .
>
> But the biggest problem was Sri Lanka’s chemical fertilizer ban, which
> passed last year and was central to the country’s effort to comply with ESG.
>
> The numbers are shocking.
>
> One-third of Sri Lanka’s farm lands were dormant
> <https://substack.com/redirect/d0574c31-3487-4c9d-8637-038da3d8fe02?u=2888016> in
> 2021 due to the fertilizer ban. Over 90 percent of Sri Lanka’s farmers had
> used chemical fertilizers before they were banned. After they were banned,
> an astonishing 85 percent experienced
> <https://substack.com/redirect/54c8454b-1d59-42eb-960c-2ea6b1b08b27?u=2888016> crop
> losses. Rice production fell 20 percent and prices skyrocketed 50 percent
> <https://substack.com/redirect/3f943e27-79ad-4b8a-8c12-90be9d7c7b56?u=2888016> in
> just six months. Sri Lanka had to import $450 million worth of rice despite
> having been self-sufficient just months earlier. The price of carrots and
> tomatoes rose
> <https://substack.com/redirect/1a693711-57cc-42fe-9b69-46ce823d8f5c?u=2888016> fivefold.
> All this had a dramatic impact
> <https://substack.com/redirect/c0134aa1-72f9-461b-9054-50298584d5f7?u=2888016>
> on the more than 15 million people of the country’s 22 million people
> <https://substack.com/redirect/c0134aa1-72f9-461b-9054-50298584d5f7?u=2888016>
> who are directly or indirectly dependent on farming.
>
> Things were worse for smaller farmers. In the Rajanganaya region, where
> the majority of farmers operate two-and-a-half-acre lots, families reported
> 50 percent to 60 percent reductions in their harvest. “Before the ban, this
> was one of the biggest markets in the country, with tons and tons of rice
> and vegetables,” one farmer said
> <https://substack.com/redirect/d53fc5cf-b4ae-47b3-9663-65b9ea8826ae?u=2888016>
> earlier this year. “But after the ban, it became almost zero. If you talk
> to the rice mills, they don’t have any stock because people’s harvest
> dropped so much. The income of this whole community has dropped to an
> extremely low level.”
>
> But the damage to tea was the key to Sri Lanka’s ruin. Before 2021, tea
> production generated $1.3 billion in exports annually. Tea exports paid
> <https://substack.com/redirect/b8af5a48-2094-4906-a198-2cc120b25561?u=2888016> for
> 71 percent of the nation’s food imports before 2021.
>
> The fertilizer ban, starting in April 2021, changed everything. Four
> months after the ban took effect, the president, realizing that things were
> not going according to plan, lifted
> <https://substack.com/redirect/088f2a78-eb36-4d53-8ee7-5abc602a9f14?u=2888016>
> the ban on the import of chemical fertilizers—and then, two days later,
> reinstated it.
>
> The results have been devastating and widely predicted by tea farmers,
> with exports crashing
> <https://substack.com/redirect/723dcf20-dd73-45bc-9d8e-9a14c5273bba?u=2888016>
> 18 percent between November 2021 and February 2022—reaching
> <https://substack.com/redirect/61cfd65b-1cea-4809-902a-02764f9c91ef?u=2888016>
> their lowest level in more than two decades.
>
> “We don’t have enough chemical fertilizers,” Rajapaksa admitted
> <https://substack.com/redirect/1a693711-57cc-42fe-9b69-46ce823d8f5c?u=2888016>
> in December 2021, “because we didn’t import them. There is a shortage.”
>
> In May 2022, Sri Lanka failed to pay
> <https://substack.com/redirect/ee813afa-8bd8-485f-90cc-1b2e30650b53?u=2888016> $77
> million on its foreign debt repayments. That may seem like a small sum in
> the bigger scheme of things, but the default made it hard for Sri Lanka to
> borrow money. So, it devalued its currency, inflation rose 30 percent, and
> the government ran out of the cash it needed to import fuel, food and
> medicines.
> ------------------------------
>
> <https://substack.com/redirect/41ebd5dd-9318-432c-8f4c-383e50d3e750?u=2888016> Protestors
> swim in a pool inside the compound of Sri Lanka's Presidential Palace on
> July 9, 2022. (AFP via Getty Images)
> ------------------------------
>
> What, exactly, were Rajapaksa and other Sri Lankan leaders thinking? Why
> did they engage in such a radical experiment with the most important
> industry in their country?
>
> After World War II, Sri Lanka, like many poor nations, subsidized
> <https://substack.com/redirect/5abdba60-6677-4ff4-a4b9-099af591dbb8?u=2888016> farmers
> to transition from biofertilizers, like manure, to chemical fertilizers in
> what is known as the Green Revolution. (This was popularized by Norman
> Borlaug
> <https://substack.com/redirect/fb36eb74-65ad-4759-b083-9e777c425a68?u=2888016>,
> the Nobel Prize-winning agronomist.) Rice yields rose quickly, and the
> nation overcame chronic food shortages
> <https://substack.com/redirect/fb2bbac6-11b8-4940-80e6-12a384060f7e?u=2888016>
> and started earning foreign revenue through the export of rubber and tea
> <https://substack.com/redirect/723f2a77-ea21-4b5f-bb5b-7239e5f3c091?u=2888016>
> .
>
> As yields rose, young people were able to get jobs in cities. Salaries
> increased
> <https://substack.com/redirect/404cb128-a52a-464f-89ff-53f1152ebf31?u=2888016>—so
> much so that Sri Lanka became a middle-income nation.
>
> But what looked like a dream to most Sri Lankans looked like a nightmare
> to many environmentalists in the West. In the 1970s, Stanford biologist
> Paul Ehrlich and other activists raged against the Green Revolution. They
> claimed that overpopulation would cause mass death and suffering and that
> humankind needed to play “triage.” In other words, we had to let some
> people die so the rest of us could live.
>
> In their 1977 book, *Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment*,
> Ehrlich and his co-authors, Anne Ehrlich, his wife, and John Holdren, who
> would go on to become Barack Obama’s science adviser, argued that the world
> did not have enough energy to support the economic aspirations of the
> world’s poor. “Most plans for modernizing agriculture in less-developed
> nations call for introducing energy-intensive practices similar to those
> used in North America and western Europe—greatly increased use of
> fertilizers and other farm chemicals, tractors and other machinery,
> irrigation, and supporting transportation networks—all of which require
> large inputs of fossil fuels,” they wrote. The better strategy, they
> argued, was “much greater use of human labor and relatively less dependence
> on heavy machinery and manufactured fertilizers and pesticides.”
>
> In other words, they were calling for poor nations to do what Sri Lanka
> did *before* the Green Revolution. Such labor-intensive farming “causes
> far less environmental damage than does energy-intensive Western
> agriculture,” they claimed
> <https://substack.com/redirect/fec80e4e-dab3-4feb-b60f-13a681ea2eec?u=2888016>.
> The “secret” to “alternative farming methods” was for poor, small farmers
> to remain poor and small.
>
> The Ehrlichs and Holdren were followers of the late 18th-century British
> economist Robert Thomas Malthus, who thought human beings were doomed to
> overpopulate and starve. Malthus professed
> <https://substack.com/redirect/fec80e4e-dab3-4feb-b60f-13a681ea2eec?u=2888016> concern
> for the poor while advocating for policies that would keep them poor. He
> urged governments to prop up the old aristocratic system by prioritizing
> agriculture over manufacturing, and pointed to the superiority of the
> country life that he, as an aristocrat, enjoyed.
>
> Some defend Malthus by claiming that he wrote his famous 1798 book, *An
> Essay on the Principle of Population*, when it was still too early to
> know that the Industrial Revolution would radically increase food
> production. But that didn’t stop his ideas from leading subsequent
> generations of environmentalists to obsess over population—and oppose
> economic growth.
>
> In the 1960s and 1970s, neo-Malthusians like Paul Ehrlich and Holdren
> justified their opposition to the extension of cheap energy and
> agricultural modernization to poor nations by using the left-wing language
> of redistribution. It wasn’t that poor nations needed to develop. It was
> that rich nations needed to consume less.
>
> Over the years, this language was picked up by the United Nations and
> influential environmentalists, from Greta Thunberg
> <https://substack.com/redirect/de1d0296-c410-4798-a607-a59ee2be16c7?u=2888016>
> and Michael Pollan
> <https://substack.com/redirect/30223c78-7c29-450b-812b-d649192a1ed4?u=2888016> to
> Vandana Shiva, the Indian ecofeminist, and Frances Moore Lappé, the author
> of the bestselling book *Diet For a Small Planet*. Organic farming, they
> said, would reduce environmental harm.
>
> They had a deep impact on Sri Lankan intellectuals and policymakers.
>
> Dr. Ranil Senanayake, for example, was one of the first students to study
> organic agriculture at the University of California, Berkeley, in the early
> 1970s. He received a grant
> <https://substack.com/redirect/6437ebcb-9c12-4307-833a-bd4e39109a32?u=2888016> from
> the Ashoka Foundation and was an advisor to the U.N. Environment Program,
> and, since the early 1980s, he has spearheaded Sri Lanka’s organic-farming
> movement.
>
> Where in 1977, the Ehrlichs and Holdren proposed international control of
> the “development, administration, conservation and distribution of all
> natural resources,” many green NGOs and U.N. agencies today similarly seek
> control over energy and food policies in developing nations. Only they do
> so in the name of climate change and biodiversity. The Ashoka Foundation,
> for example, is funded by MasterCard, Disney, and J.P. Morgan, among other
> multinational firms. There’s no evidence these corporations have any
> interest in organic farming per se. But the cause of organic farming in
> places like Sri Lanka has become a signal that one is on the right side of
> history.
>
> Progressive economists, along with the World Bank, the World Economic
> Forum, and other globalizing institutions, have since promoted
> “sustainable” agriculture and tourism for poor and developing nations like
> Sri Lanka. “Given its education levels,” wrote
> <https://substack.com/redirect/bafd5fd5-325b-4bea-99b3-ce1b12d9cae3?u=2888016> progressive
> economist Joseph Stiglitz for the World Economic Forum in 2016, “Sri Lanka
> may be able to move directly into more technologically advanced sectors,
> high-productivity organic farming, and higher-end tourism.”
>
> It was into this context that Sri Lanka went organic.
>
> In 2015, then-President Sirisena announced plans for a “toxin-free
> nation.” President Rajapaksa, who came to power in 2019, built on this
> theme. He called for a return to the pre-Green Revolution days—demanding
> the use of biofertilizer
> <https://substack.com/redirect/1f7e2d9c-a97a-43de-997f-1ffac7f2252c?u=2888016>s
> and drawing on superstitious claims
> <https://substack.com/redirect/f82de401-bc71-44dd-b4c6-6e5dd51a13ae?u=2888016>
> that farm chemicals caused kidney
> <https://substack.com/redirect/e85b57d9-2b0a-4f8e-8e34-fd966669141d?u=2888016>
> disease
> <https://substack.com/redirect/4231014d-53b8-4691-8578-27cdd77fc29f?u=2888016>
> .
>
> Rajapaksa was elected on a platform to transition
> <https://substack.com/redirect/54c8454b-1d59-42eb-960c-2ea6b1b08b27?u=2888016>
> the nation to organic agriculture over a 10-year
> <https://substack.com/redirect/54c8454b-1d59-42eb-960c-2ea6b1b08b27?u=2888016> year
> period. “Sustainable food systems are part of Sri Lanka’s rich
> sociocultural and economic heritage,” he told a U.N.
> <https://substack.com/redirect/304daefb-be11-444c-8de8-34cc9be052ca?u=2888016>
> summit.
>
> In December 2020, Sri Lanka’s environment minister announced
> <https://substack.com/redirect/1873fd96-be6e-4431-8919-3323378e26dd?u=2888016> a
> government program to save the planet from “our own geoengineering misuse,
> greed and selfishness” before a conference on cutting nitrogen fertilizer
> waste. It was part of a broader effort by the Sri Lanka government to seek
> the blessing of Western banks and the UN under so-called ESG goals.
>
> Then, in April 2021, the government made good on its pledge by banning
> chemical fertilizers.
>
> The move enjoyed support in Washington, D.C., and Brussels. One month
> after Sri Lanka announced the fertilizer ban, in May 2021, the World Bank
> rewarded
> <https://substack.com/redirect/ad8fd092-77b6-4be5-b94c-c0ad3418fd2e?u=2888016> Sri
> Lanka a $125 million grant for small farmers on top of $2 billion in other
> grants targeting transportation, agriculture, education and healthcare. The
> EU provided
> <https://substack.com/redirect/ad8fd092-77b6-4be5-b94c-c0ad3418fd2e?u=2888016> a
> $1 billion grant to reduce poverty, among other things.
>
> But at the very same moment, Sri Lanka’s agricultural scientists and
> economists were warning
> <https://substack.com/redirect/2277c2ba-b2b6-43ec-b17f-43890091268d?u=2888016>
> Rajapaksa that the fertilizer ban would be disastrous—leading to dramatic
> reductions in rice paddy yields. They also warned of the impact on tea,
> predicting a loss of nearly $233 million.
>
> Organic agriculture around the world is fueled by the appeal-to-nature
> fallacy, which holds that “natural” things—wild fish, manure, wood fuel—are
> better for the environment than “artificial” things like farmed fish,
> chemical fertilizers, and fossil fuels. This ignores the fact that the
> so-called artificial things are as natural as the “natural” things. They’re
> simply newer.
>
> What the proponents of organic agriculture really want, like the
> Malthusians of yesteryear, is to stop economic growth, which they believe
> drives overpopulation, which they insist is the real basis for
> environmental disaster. They believe that by targeting innovations like
> chemical fertilizers, they get to the root of the problem: They cut off the
> growth at its knees.
>
> Nonsense. Humankind needs chemical fertilizers to produce sufficient food
> and use land efficiently. Around three or four billion acres of
> *additional* farm land would be required
> <https://substack.com/redirect/fff3bd9b-b73d-47f6-b035-f08bf5bbe4e8?u=2888016> to
> meet today’s food demand without chemical fertilizers.
> ------------------------------
>
> <https://substack.com/redirect/71668453-1b91-4c56-9c94-ed438f6a48fe?u=2888016> Sri
> Lankans occupy the president's official residence on July 10, 2022.
> (Tharaka Basnayaka/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
> ------------------------------
>
> So what, exactly, were Sri Lanka’s leaders thinking? They weren’t. They
> were following a rigid, pro-scarcity dogma, which was developed in the 18th
> century and has been recycled and greenwashed through the centuries by
> global elites who use nature as cover for their anti-human,
> anti-civilization worldview and policy agenda.
>
> Not everybody got Sri Lanka wrong. The United States Department of
> Agriculture warned against it. “The lack of organic fertilizer productive
> capacity, coupled with the absence of a formalized plan to import organic
> fertilizers in lieu of chemical fertilizers, raises the potential for an
> adverse impact on food security,” it warned in 2021, around the same time
> the World Bank announced its grant in support of Sri Lanka’s efforts.
> “There has been no mention by the government yet as to how it would tackle
> a food security crisis brought about by drops in crop yields.”
>
> The Green Revolution, fossil fuels, and chemical fertilizers were—and
> remain—more good than bad. High-yield farming produces far less nitrogen
> pollution run-off than low-yield farming. While rich nations produce 70
> percent higher yields than poor nations, they use just 54 percent more
> nitrogen. Nations get better at using nitrogen fertilizer over time. Since
> the early 1960s, the Netherlands has doubled its yields while using the
> same amount of fertilizer.
>
> To be sure, we should continue the trend away from dirtier to cleaner
> fuels, or what is known as “up the energy ladder,” from wood to coal to
> natural gas to nuclear. But the way to do that is gradually, not abruptly,
> and with greater scientific, technological, and economic progress, not
> less. Such a process will allow us to use less fertilizer more precisely
> over time.
>
> Environmentalists, Norman Borlaug once observed
> <https://substack.com/redirect/f08d34be-a44f-4e99-89be-0e6862eee887?u=2888016>,
> “have never experienced the physical sensation of hunger. They do their
> lobbying from comfortable office suites in Washington or Brussels. If they
> lived just one month amid the misery of the developing world, as I have for
> fifty years, they would be crying out for tractors and fertilizers and
> irrigation canals, and be outraged that fashionable elitists back home were
> trying to deny them these things.”
>
> Sri Lanka must deal with other factors beyond its immediate agriculture
> policy, including the willingness of its people and elites to fall for such
> obviously wrong dogmas, including around Covid, and the country’s deference
> to China
> <https://substack.com/redirect/b8779dce-776e-44ae-abcc-ef7943452160?u=2888016>. But
> at bottom, Sri Lanka will fix itself when its people understand that they
> must move from a biological economy to a chemical one if it is to sustain
> its population and return to middle-income status.
>
> Sri Lanka’s deposed president was right that organic farming and wood fuel
> use were part of Sri Lanka’s rich sociocultural and economic past. But he
> was wrong that it was a past worth returning to.
> Like
> <https://substack.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.V7Tghs6VmXmLjAfJBu61qkXLE5YxyHOZxpCb_VncHG0?> [image:
> Comment]Comment
> <https://substack.com/redirect/2/eyJlIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuY29tbW9uc2Vuc2UubmV3cy9wL3NyaS1sYW5rYS1qdXN0LWZlbGwtd2hhdC1kby13ZS1oYXZlL2NvbW1lbnRzP3Rva2VuPWV5SjFjMlZ5WDJsa0lqb3lPRGc0TURFMkxDSndiM04wWDJsa0lqbzJNell6TkRrNU1pd2lhV0YwSWpveE5qVTNOakl3TVRVNExDSnBjM01pT2lKd2RXSXRNall3TXpRM0lpd2ljM1ZpSWpvaWNHOXpkQzF5WldGamRHbHZiaUo5LlFrSkxwNHdxZHppT2lnZ19XdHVfV3VNaUxBMXd2ZGwwLThDUUl2UTJfY1EiLCJwIjo2MzYzNDk5MiwicyI6MjYwMzQ3LCJmIjpmYWxzZSwidSI6Mjg4ODAxNiwiaWF0IjoxNjU3NjIwMTU4LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMCIsInN1YiI6ImxpbmstcmVkaXJlY3QifQ.grLGozjBMHnf7LvtMPqwPtsdXgAupXbFTiV0u7yyElI?&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email> [image:
> Share]Share
> <https://substack.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.HTj4ItwhfAopsQEEerrmUpKUHDZugSc4oWnAP4bSFok?>
>
> <https://substack.com/redirect/10fd35fa-a86a-4eac-8411-5a37dd9f6986?u=2888016>
> A guest post by
> Michael Shellenberger
> <https://substack.com/redirect/5d5f08a4-1afe-4a7d-9c73-ba4903a46f35?u=2888016>
> Best-selling author of "Apocalypse Never" and "San Fransicko"
> (HarperCollins 2020/2021) :: Time Magazine, “Hero of Environment” :: Green
> Book Award Winner :: Founder, Environmental Progress :: Forbes
> Subscribe to Michael
> <https://substack.com/redirect/75ec8714-a50e-4eaa-ab89-6289ef39375b?u=2888016>
>
> This post is only for paid subscribers of Common Sense
> <https://substack.com/redirect/76cb307a-2db4-43ef-9334-da967c227d9c?u=2888016>
> .
>
> Like & Comment
> <https://substack.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.V7Tghs6VmXmLjAfJBu61qkXLE5YxyHOZxpCb_VncHG0?>
>
> © 2022 Bari Weiss
> 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104
> Unsubscribe
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