The Main Stream Media (MSM) has been strongly hinting that I got the story wrong on Sri Lanka. My article analyzed the Sri Lankan crisis based upon MSM's take on events. But let's dig deeper.
Sri Lanka was short on foreign currency, and, being a socialist economy, they told their farmers not to use the nitrogen based fertilizers that the rest of the world uses. They were too expensive. Instead, use old fashioned organic fertilizer, such as manure and plant waste.
This was touted under the umbrella of climate change. While it is of a similar mindset, it is something completely different. Saying that it helped climate change was the spin that this was all good and proper, helping humanity.
At second pass. it was to help prevent acid rain. Sulfur in the air forms the strongly acidic sulfuric acid. This is the acid in your traditional car battery. CO2, the left's villain in climate change, forms carbonic acid, a very weak acid. Strong or weak, over time, a chemical imbalance can wreak havoc on the world, such as the infamous acid rain.
Modern fertilizers are nitrogen based, forming a surplus of ammonia. The goal of Sri Lanka was to keep this ammonia out of the atmosphere. At first pass, this was to prevent climate change. On second pass, it was to prevent acid rain.
Chemistry time. Ammonia is a base, which neutralizes acids. Ammonia neutralizes the acids in acid rain, turning it into normal rain. It is the cure for acid rain.
Right now, The Netherlands is on the verge of civil war.
https://theinteldrop.com/2022/07/03/the-nitrate-revolution-in-the-netherlands-will-start-on-july-4/
The country is one of the most agriculturally intense nations in the world. And they not only need their modern fertilizers, but they also need their manure. Their government, and the EU as a whole, is paranoid about ammonia. (NEXIT time?) And, when it isn't being promoted as part of climate change, acid rain gets invoked.
Sri Lanka couldn't produce sufficient food without importing modern fertilizers. And when they couldn't eat, they had to spend their foreign exchange money importing food instead of fertilizer. And food was costlier than fertilizer.
Sri Lanka's foreign exchange dried up, so they couldn't import much of anything, particularly gasoline. Without gasoline, their economy ground to a halt. Their people rebelled. Their President fled their country, along with dozens of his corrupt relatives. (Sort of like an extended Biden family. Hunter, Russia offers citizenship.)
This has also been partially blamed on Sri Lanka's borrowing of Chinese money for infrastructure projects which didn't make economic strength. Instead of repayment, China got Hong Kong-style leases on Sri Lankan port facilities in the Indian Ocean, one of the most strategic areas of the world for China.
Sri Lanka is screwed. Their mismanagement will be remembered for millennia. Sort of like the Roman Empire going into the Dark Ages. Hey, but wasn't it worth it, to help the environment?