GWYNNE DYER: How the chilling threat of ‘General Winter’ proved the right motivation for Europe, even though Russia’s cold hand never played out | SaltWire

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'In the end, there was no significant popular pressure to get the Russian gas back because the EU has done a remarkably effective job of getting more gas from elsewhere and cutting its own use of gas,' writes Gwynne Dyer.

FILE PHOTO: Security walks in front of the landfall facility of the Baltic Sea gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 in Lubmin, Germany, September 19, 2022. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch Security walks in front of the landfall facility of the Baltic Sea gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 in Lubmin, Germany on Sept. 19, 2022. Ukraine flatly denies any involvement an attack on the pipeline last September, but Ukrainians certainly had a more plausible motive to do it than anybody else, writes columnist Gwynne Dyer.

“If we can’t guarantee that people will be warm enough, then society is on edge ... Putin is using all the means he has to create strife in our societies, so we have to brace ourselves for a very difficult period.”Indeed, fear of popular pressure to turn the Russian gas back on could explain why explosions destroyed the Nord Stream gas pipelines last September. They were built to carry Russian gas under the Baltic Sea to western Europe, and anonymous “U.S.

There is an element of luck in that outcome. This winter has been quite mild in Europe, which cut the demand for gas to heat European homes, but home-heating was the easiest part of the problem to solve. If you have to turn the thermometer down, you can always just put on more clothes.GWYNNE DYER: Return of the strategic alliances could also head the world into another great war

The right motivation, unfortunately, is usually an immediate threat to their security, not a longer-term threat to their very survival. The same European countries have known for decades that their future depends critically on cutting greenhouse gas emissions and yet they chose to go on relying on Russian gas, despite both the climate impacts and the blackmail risk.

 

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‘General Winter’ missed the busA former Russian president's prediction that European Union citizens, deprived of the Russian gas that normally supplied about 40 per cent of their energy, would be freezing in their homes did not come to pass. When countries are faced with genuine emergencies, they are capable of moving fast and radical actions.
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