Is Data the New Gas?

1. In Brussels on May 1, 2019, Rick Perry, then-US energy secretary, announced that “seventy-five years after liberating Europe from Nazi Germany occupation, the United States was again delivering a form of freedom to the European continent.” And, in the twenty-first century, he 01/13 added, “rather than in the form of young American soldiers, it’s in the form of liquefied natural gas.”1 Perry was referring to a deal that would double the size of US gas exports to Europe. But from what, exactly, would Perry’s “freedom gas” liberate Europe? ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊPerry’s colorful statement came as an explicit snub to the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, a Oleksiy Radynski project that Russia and Germany have been pursuing since the 2010s to link the two countries directly via the Baltic seabed. The Is Data the New pipeline’s route bypasses intermediary countries like Ukraine, whose state budget depends Gas? heavily on gas transit revenues. Nord Stream 2 is expected to double the capacity of the already existing Nord Stream pipeline, increasing the volume of transmitted gas up to 110 billion cubic meters a year. Into 2020, Merkel’s government continues to defend this massive gas infrastructure project that’s been mired in controversy from the start. ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊStrangely enough, most of the criticism facing the Nord Stream 2 project comes from a geopolitical, rather than an ecological, perspective.2 Its critics say that this pipeline would disproportionately increase the EU’s dependence on Russian fossil fuel exports.3 It’s also quite clear that the actual political rationale i for this project is to render obsolete the k s n subterranean, Soviet-era natural gas arteries y d a that run through large parts of the European R y i continent that are no longer under Russia’s s k control. Following Russia’s invasion and e l O Ê annexation of Ukrainian territories in 2014, 0 2 Merkel’s government’s adherence to the Nord 0 2 Stream 2 project did not cease to raise h c 4 r eyebrows. After the downing of a passenger a m plane over the Donbass in July 2014 by pro- ? — s Russian proxies, the ensuing sanctions against 7 a 0 G 1 Russia did not affect the project in any way. In # w l e German public debate, the fact that the a N n r e completion of Nord Stream 2 would likely cause u h t o j a the economy of Ukraine to collapse, a country at x t a u l D f war with Russia, has been constantly referenced - s e I – but to little avail.5 ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊThe intricacies of the ongoing Nord Stream 2 debate, however, miss a rather large elephant in the room. Without questioning the importance of countering Russia’s neocolonial wars in Ukraine and elsewhere, it is easy to see why the biggest problem with the new pipeline is not at all the fact that it will deprive Russia’s neighbors of their transit revenues. Such revenues, in fact, 12.21.20 / 21:31:41 EST 02/13 Smiley-face graffiti on a gas pipe at the Nord Stream 2 construction site in Lubmin, Germany. Copyright:ÊNordÊStreamÊ2 / Axel Schmidt. 12.21.20 / 21:31:41 EST 03/13 Gerhard Schrder, ex-chancellor of Germany and chairman of the board of directors of NordÊStreamÊ2, and Matthias Warnig, former member of the Stasi and CEO of NordÊStreamÊ2. Copyright:ÊNordÊStreamÊ2 / Wolfram Scheible. 12.21.20 / 21:31:41 EST fuel gross corruption schemes, like those that the Russian Federation, one of the world’s define Ukraine’s political process, and guarantee largest exporters of fossil fuels and, according to the concentration of exorbitant wealth in the most estimates, the owner of the largest stock of hands of oligarchs.6 Nor is the biggest problem reserves of natural gas on Earth. This particular the fact that Nord Stream 2 will provide the list of “threats and challenges” also happens to Russian autocratic elite with another powerful coincide more or less with a number of actions tool to subvert European politics. The real that are necessary to undertake if humanity is problem is that this tool, just like its countless 04/13 serious about its survival on the planet. As it counterparts, undermines the future of planet becomes increasingly evident that the future of Earth by bringing the irreversibility of climate humankind depends on its ability to switch to a change one large step closer. And this time, global economic model that would make the placing the blame squarely on Russia is clearly industrial burning of fossil fuels obsolete, the not an option. mere hope of such a switch – however distant it ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊWith Germany’s ex-chancellor Gerhard might seem at the moment – is now officially Schroeder as a manager, and Mathias Warnig (an recognized as a threat to the regime that governs ex-Stasi officer with a long-standing connection Russia. Clearly, the Russian political model to Vladimir Putin) serving as the CEO of the values the future of fossil fuel and capital flows project, it is not surprising that the German over the future of the innumerable species government values its Nord Stream 2 (including humans) whose existence is commitment more than its widely anticipated threatened by climate change. A question worth green transition. In a truly Orwellian move, Nord asking, then: Is the Russian government actually Stream 2 presents itself as an environmentally being, perversely, more straightforward than friendly initiative that will help decrease carbon most other governments about the fact that they emissions from oil and coal, fossil fuels that are, are ultimately accountable to entities such as it is claimed, much dirtier than natural gas. This gas, oil, and their derivative petrocurrencies, argument is refuted by ecologists who assert rather than to the members of human society that, despite being relatively “cleaner” than who voted them into power? much of the existing carbon infrastructure, ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊWell before Trump came to power, it was projects like Nord Stream 2 would increase the abundantly clear that the global carbon-based structural, long-term dependency on fossil fuels capitalist model is incompatible with the futures to such an extent that a transition to a carbon- of democracy and of the environment. Despite free economy – something that the Earth’s the broad scientific consensus on the grave biosphere needs much earlier than we plan to effects of the fossilized economy on the institute – might actually never occur. planetary climate, and despite the cautious ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊAt the time of this writing, the construction intergovernmental half-measures to prevent a of Nord Stream 2 has been halted due to US i catastrophic scenario (like the nonbinding Paris k s sanctions against the project, which will most n Accord of 2015, which the US government has y d likely merely delay the pipeline’s completion by a already opted out of anyway), “extreme” fossil R 8 y about a year. But why is it that the only real form i fuels investments continue to surge. Of all the s of opposition to Nord Stream 2 comes from the k fringe ideologies and discarded ideas that the e l O power that would simply prefer to cook the Ê Trump presidency has brought into the 0 planet with its own “freedom gas”? 2 mainstream, climate change denialism could 0 2 probably have the most lasting and damaging h c 2. r impact on the future of humankind. Of course, a m In May 2017, Russian president Vladimir Putin Donald Trump’s “climate skepticism” is far more ? — signed an executive order titled “On the Strategy s publicized than that of his Russian counterpart 7 a 0 G of Economic Security of the Russian Federation 1 and political patron – even though the effect of # w l until 2030.” This order includes a list of ongoing e the latter could be more fundamental, given a N n r “challenges and threats to the economic e Putin’s global support of fossil fuel kleptocrats u h t o j security” of Russia identified at that time. High a and right-wing conspiracists, Trump included. x t a u l D on the list – number six of twenty-five points – is f Like Trump, Putin has repeatedly questioned the - s a threat formulated as follows: “Changes in the e I human-made nature of climate change, and went structure of global demand for energy resources as far as to ridicule the use of alternative energy and their consumption patterns; development of sources like wind turbines for the alleged harm energy-saving technologies and reduction of their vibration may cause to worms, urging them material consumption; development of ‘green to “come out of the ground.” (The US president, technologies.’”7 meanwhile, focuses on turbines’ apparently ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊThis statement warrants closer attention. murderous effect on birds). Again, this It’s not difficult to see why the “development of unprecedented (and scientifically baseless), ‘green technologies’” is an existential threat to disproportionate concern for subterranean, 12.21.20 / 21:31:41 EST 05/13 Participants in the Baltic Sea Day Environmental Forum 2017 couldn’t care less about the ecological aspects of Nord Stream 2. Copyright:ÊNordÊStreamÊ2 / Anatolij Medved. 12.21.20 / 21:31:41 EST nonhuman entities – inanimate, like oil and gas, problem afflicting oil-producing states to other or animate, like worms – provides clues as to the limits of carbon democracy?”11 As natural gas actual allegiance of a certain public servant overtakes oil’s previous status as the most named Vladimir Putin. important fossil fuel of the current century, this ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊMost commonly, the Russian political model inquiry should be extended.

Load more