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German petrochemical group BASF announced the closure of several factories in Germany as part of a campaign to save money. In particular, one ammonia plant will be closed. This is bad for the German industry, but good for the energy transition process, which needs to create a sustainable reserve of power and energy resources.
Apparently, the prerequisites for a new relocation of production are emerging: if earlier they migrated to countries with cheap labor, now they will flow to territories with dirty and cheaper energy. In general, this fits well with the logic of the “new normal”, although the previous extreme version, which was promoted during the pandemic, seems to be recognized as inoperative and excessively violent.
The liberation of the territories of developed countries from part of the industry is a non-linear process, since as part of the “decarbonization” strategy, companies will have to pay an additional fee for production in which the “carbon” footprint will be higher. But the new balance sheets are created in such a way that the higher payment for “dirty production” will still be lower than the payment for expensive renewable energy.
The result is clear – developed countries will continue to maintain a technological gap, but at the same time they will create zones of a more comfortable ecological state on their territory. If so far technology does not allow the creation of Elysium outside the planet, it is created on its surface. Getting into it from the outside will be more and more difficult, and only people admitted through the selection systems (the same “health passports” and other algorithms) will use the entire list of benefits. But even within those admitted, stratification will inevitably take place.
The new normality, which is gradually being built by the West, is seen as a very complex system. Extreme conditions in it are formed outside the Elysium zone and at the locations bordering it, the outer contour of such a “paradise” will strongly resemble a concentration camp with the obligatory execution of a huge list of mandatory protocols that are not very compatible with the concepts of “freedom” and “rights”, but here are the inner contours – this is a different matter.
As a result, the “golden billion” will, firstly, be much more strictly separated from the rest of the planet’s population, getting into the “golden billion” from outside will become more difficult, and this “billion” itself will also be highly fragmented and stratified into different fractions, where most of – rather, even more than 90% – will be residents of the outer circuit of this Elysium, and only a very small number will be admitted to the inner.
This is no longer feudalism due to the rather high complexity of the structure of such a society, but certainly not democracy in its previous version.
Anatoly Nesmiyanblogger, analyst