James Taylor: Expensive Climate Policies Sparked Chile Riots

Climate activists and the United Nations are suffering a major black eye this week as protests and riots resulting from high energy prices have erupted in Santiago, Chile.

Chile, which will host a major U.N. climate conference in December, earned praise from climate activists for recently imposing a carbon dioxide tax on conventional energy sources and switching the Santiago Metro system to renewable power. Now, the people of Chile are rising up and firing a shot across the bow of other nations considering similar energy taxes and expensive renewable energy programs.

Barend Vlaardingerbroek: What the ‘yellow vests’ tell us about today’s Western liberal democracies

Mostly ‘ordinary’ people on ‘ordinary’ incomes who can’t make ends meet. Their problem is that they’re too ‘ordinary’ to matter to today’s socioeconomic elite who are preoccupied with trendy social causes like getting more women and fashionable ethnics into high-salaried positions.

The ‘yellow vest’ movement caught many by surprise. They were even more surprised when it became clear that this spontaneous uprising was no flash in the pan – despite lacking any central control and coordination, it went on and on.