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Comment by ArkanExplorer | Hacker News Reader

This is the perfect cycle for global interests.

Spark conflict in a country, where you can profit from increased military spending and activity.

Young male migrants from that wartorn country are then driven into Europe, where you can profit from security and anti-terrorism spending.

Rinse and repeat.

Why are we constantly invading and destabilising countries around Europe and the Middle East? Why do we still have troops in Syria, Iraq, when oil is now an irrelevant commodity, when we should be rapidly decarbonizing our economies?

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So your hypothesis is: Countries like the Netherlands or Austria are bombing say Iraq so they can reap the profits by staffing their military with refugees? Can it get any weirder?

Oil is not irrelevant. Energy is a substantial cost in the production of many products (also in getting products to customers). Rising oil prices do matter for normal people. And while we may decarbonize eventually, politicians have to balance that with feeding their populations and providing them an adequate quality of life.

We are still churning out fossil-fueled cars in Volkswagen, Renault, Peugeot, Mercedes, BMW factories all across Europe.

These brands are deliberately delaying their rollouts because with so few moving parts, EVs need much less maintenance and thus the aftermarket sales and dealer service profits are lower.

Rejigging those factories and supply chains to make EVs also requires investment and effort.

For the sake of the profits of a few companies we are jeopardizing the security and habitability of the planet.

If all new cars being made in Europe were EVs, oil would absolutely be irrelevant. The Middle East could blow up and we could easily change to alternative suppliers. We are already seeing this to an extent now, where Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabian oil infrastructure elicit little price response.

Oil is used for a lot more than just cars: petrochemicals are a massive industry. Everything plastic is a petroleum product. Fertilizer is a natural gas product. About 1/3 of fossil fuel electricity generation is oil (other 2/3s are coal and natural gas). There is no way to stop producing oil while maintaining living standards in the near to moderate future.

The turbine blades on wind farms are composites made from petroleum products. PV arrays are encapsulated in petroleum products. Tires are made from petroleum products. You can make these from renewable sources but it is much more expensive and the supply chains to do so don't exist yet at scale.

Oil is far from irrelevant. The entire world economy depends on oil being as cheap as it is today -- even $4 gas is an incredible deal for just how much work you can get done with it. If OPEC goes crazy, the whole world can grind to a halt due to ripple effects.

Oh yeah, because migrants are so popular in Europe.

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