THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
You can do it. You can hit the Russians where it hurts - in their pockets.
Russian oil and gas is still flowing westward. This is because a strict embargo would hurt Europeans as much, if not more, than the Russians. Europe has to keep producing and trading to become Ukraine’s arsenal for democracy.
So the East-West energy trade has been compartmentalised - for now and the money being paid for Russian fossil fuels is being used to buy artillery shells that kill Ukrainians.
The continued energy trade smacks of political and economic common sense. But that does not mean that individuals - YOU - cannot use your own initiative to reduce Russia’s income from oil and gas sales.
Cut your energy consumption. Turn down the thermostat.
Wear an extra jumper and maybe even wear a heavy woollen scarf indoors. Ask Aunt Agatha to quickly knit you a sweater in the bright sky blue and yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag. Then wear it and turn down your thermostat.
But there is more.
Stop baths and have showers. Even better, shower with a friend or reduce the number of your showers and increase the usage of deodorant. You can be certain that a million-plus Ukrainian refugees are not showering twice a day, and they won’t be seeing a bath tub for the foreseeable future.
Check the insulation around doors and windows. Use draft excluders and hang curtain doors. Don’t chat to people in the doorway. Be friendly. Invite them in for a cold cup of tea and offer to drape a blanket around their shoulders while you discuss the latest war bulletins.
Shut interior doors so that the heat is retained in the rooms you use.
Don’t heat the bedroom. Dust off the hot water bottles that granny gave you and use them.
Drive your car as little as possible. Ride a bike whenever you can. It is fun and healthy and, believe it or not, quite often quicker as you zoom around congested city streets. If you don’t have a car, walk. It is always fun and you can smell the roses and rubberneck at the same time. If walking or cycling is not possible, then use public transport. If you have to use your car, drive slowly.
Replace the gas guzzler. If you have been thinking of getting an electric or hybrid car - well now is the patriotic time.
Use your fireplace and pull the comfy armchairs a bit closer to it. Avoid coal. It may have come from Russia. If the bags say "Made in Poland” buy them. The Poles are in the front line and helping the refugees. Gas fires are zapretny (Russian for verboten). Try home-grown kiln-fired logs which are climate change friendly.
Avoid air travel. Jets are just about the biggest consumers of fossil fuels. Cruise ships are right up there as well. A stay at home holiday is a holiday for Ukraine, democracy and our values.
The good thing about the above suggestions are that they provide Western individuals with a win/win scenario and Vladimir Putin and his cronies with a lose/lose disaster. Gas and oil prices have been soaring for several months as a result of the pandemic and political uncertainty in Eastern Europe. The price of natural gas has risen 180 percent in two years and since the 2020 US presidential elections it has soared 75 percent.
Fossil fuels have become a luxury item for Western consumers. Reducing consumption helps your bank balance as well as Ukraine. Acting in a financially selfish manner becomes a selfless charitable action.
But back to the details of Russia’s lose/lose scenario. As a result of high prices, in 2021 Russia earned $100 billion from fossil fuel exports. Most of the exports went to NATO countries plus Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea. Those countries comprise a quarter of the world’s population - just over two billion. They are also the biggest spending bloc of countries.
If everyone in those countries spent $20 less per month on fossil fuel energy then Russian revenues could drop as much as twenty percent. That is $20 billion that is not being spent on Russian cruise missiles and tanks.
And here’s another win for the individual. Using less oil and gas will also - according to the basic laws of supply and demand - reduce your energy bills at the same time as putting even more pressure on Russia.
Climate change activists and deniers will point to other alternatives. The home-grown fossil fuel lobby will demand an increase in fracking and shale oil, American pipelines and more Norwegian North Sea Oil. The Green lobby will push for governments to build nuclear power stations, wind turbines and other green technology.
All of these are possibilities in the medium and long term. But Ukraine needs our help NOW. And all the above suggestions are something that every individual can start as soon as they finish this article. Start knitting.
Tom Arms has spent half a century writing about world affairs. He is the foreign editor of Liberal Democrat Voice, and the author of The Encyclopedia of the Cold War and the recently published America Made in Britain.
