Despite America building up large amounts of military hardware in the middle east since January, most countries didn't seem to predict that America would actually attack Iran or the closure of the strait that would follow, not even America itself. This is despite it being a known issue for decades, the previous year's 12 day war between Iran/Israel or America already attacking Venezuela previously. As a result, only a handful of country seem prepared, namely China, who made sure to stock up on record amount of oil ever since 2025, when tensions really started rising in the region, and who has spend trillions building out their renewables and EVs a decade ago.

Even America didn't fill out it's oil stockpile before they started the war. So fucking stupid man. We could have avoided a lot of pain if countries had some basic foresight and every country made sure to stock up on oil before the war started, there were plenty of people that knew a major attack was coming since January.

Also, the general pushback against renewables and EVs was so short sighted in light of this crisis. Even beyond the climate, energy security should be a priority for any country, especially when one buys a shit ton of oil/gas from the dumpster fire that is the middle east. But nope, other than a handful of countries like Norway and China, countries seem to actively shun renewable energy and EVs. Same thing, if the world had just made a concentrated effort to go green years ago, any oil shock would be greatly blunted. What did the world do? Spread FUD and complain about Chinese overcapacity and started putting tariffs on EVs and solar panels and blocking Chinese wind turbines.

This crisis really made me realize that politicians are really really fucking stupid. And it's not just politicians, all the academics/experts/think tanks and whatnot also seem blind. Due to the war, I got into the habit of reading a lot bunch of material and listening to podcasts of geopolitics and stuff, I'm into long distance cycling, so I plenty of time to listen to podcast.

And guess what? They can talk for dozens upon dozens of hours on demographics and supply chains, debt levels, economical, security issues, and potential crisis like a war over Taiwan, but they more or less never ever mention climate change or any of the potential climate and ecological crisis that dominates this subreddit.

I have read dozens of white papers, articles and watched almost a hundred hours of discussions with the people with degrees and PhDs that are supposed to give advice to world leaders, and not once have I heard stuff like how we're a mere handful of years away from regular heatwaves that will render large parts of South Asia uninhabitable. Or the coming droughts and increased floods. Or the immense level of water stress that most of the world will face in the next decade. Or sea level rise. Or potential mass crop failures due to heat. They never bring it up, not even once. The most that they bring up is how the Arctic warming up will open new shipping routes, and that's purely due to all the Greenland drama that's ongoing.

If you're talking about the future of India/Pakistan or south asia, and you don't even mention the heat wave/temperature issue or the water scarcity that this two countries face, you don't deserve your job. It's probably the most dangerous flashpoint for conflict between two unstable nuclear powers, and it's a crisis that might suddenly escalate really quickly, countries really need to start planning for it NOW, but instead I hear dozens of hours on the same boring slop about how China might invade Taiwan any day now.

It's also scary to see how little this kind people think of renewables. They barely talk about solar or wind, despite the fact that it really should be a hot topic with the current oil shock. But nope, it barely comes up and they still somehow envision a future in 20 years where 99% of the power generation is fossil fuel based. This people with real powers, with real influence, it's like they cannot comprehend a world without oil/gas dominating the world. No wonder real changes never come. If anything, I hear a concerning about of "energy experts" who spend a insane amount of time shitting on solar/wind and how they will never work.

The one country that does seem to take existential risk seriously is China. Not just energy but food security too, and the coming climate risks too. But even they don't seem prepared for what is likely coming.