Thread by @GeorgeMonbiot

Europe now has until October - when major heating demand kicks in again - to do what it should have done years ago, and free itself from Russian gas. That means a comprehensive energy transition in 7 months.
Can it be done?
Yes!
My column:
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

In researching this column, I became aware of the almost unbelievable compound idiocy of successive generations of German politicians, across the political spectrum. If they had set out to ensure that Germany was completely kippered by Putin, they couldn't have done a better job.

It's one spectacular act of self-harm after another. But allowing Gazprom to take control of a major part of Germany's strategic gas storage facilities – and then empty them! – has to be the crowning achievement.
What blithering idiots!

It's almost reassuring to discover that Germany's politicians, whom I used to see as among the grown-ups of Europe, can be just as short-sighted and feckless as ours.
Almost. But actually pretty depressing.

It takes two kinds of people to destroy the prospects of humanity: the bastards with a plan, and the fools who enable them.

Here's another way in which German governments have happily been played for fools by Putin. It's a sorry saga, to put it mildly.
transparency.org/en/press/germa…