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A comment on 4.6B Years On, the Sun Is Having a Moment. Parent comment

Re:4.6B Years On, the Sun Is Having a Moment by kragen on Thursday July 10, 2025 @03:28PM (#44524636)
This is currently more or less true, but historically speaking, sovereign default has often been used as a casus belli for invasion; that's where the Monroe doctrine comes from, after all. The collapsing Pax Americana is arguably the reason we haven't seen it happen in decades, so it would be unsurprising to see it start to happen again.

And of course financial considerations are often a first-order consideration in military conflict even today.

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Re:4.6B Years On, the Sun Is Having a Moment by Gibbon1 on Thursday July 10, 2025 @04:44PM (#44525380)
That most counties need to import oil and gas to keep the lights on and industry functioning means you don't need to send gunboats of yore. See Smedley Butler's rant. Now when they get in a pickle they need foreign currency. And that's how they get ya.

Renewables however flips things back.

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Re:4.6B Years On, the Sun Is Having a Moment by kragen on Thursday July 10, 2025 @08:25PM (#44527208)
That's an excellent point, and one I hadn't really internalized. Thank you.
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Re:4.6B Years On, the Sun Is Having a Moment by Gibbon1 on Friday July 11, 2025 @12:02AM (#44528284)
Instructive to read up on the 2022 Sri Lanka protests.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Sri_Lankan_protests

Debt crisis and sharp spikes in fuel and oil costs resulted in shortages of both. Also shortages of fertilizer. Which resulted in shortages of food.

If I was a Sri Lankan politician I wouldn't want a repeat of that.

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Re:4.6B Years On, the Sun Is Having a Moment by nradov on Friday July 11, 2025 @04:21AM (#44529594)
The Sri Lankan politicians like "Mr. 10%" were largely in it for the gift. The debt crisis could have been prevented if they followed IMF recommendations in the first place.
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