BlackRock CEO Larry Fink (below) and company flew to Davos on these private jets, but they want you to accept that driving your car when you please is causing “climate change”.

By TONY MOBILIFONITIS
THOSE of us who live in the regional towns need not worry too much – you’ve got your easy-to-access shopping centre in or near the city centre, probably only a few minutes from home.

But the thousands of dupes attending the annual World Economic Forum gathering in Davos, Switzerland, are beating the drum for a big plan for the majority of us who live in cities.

That plan, which has already gained a foothold in Australian city council bureaucracies, is the so-called 15-minute city or “20-minute neighbourhood”, as Dan Andrews’ bureaucrats are calling it. Bastien Girod, a fresh-faced young member of the Swiss National Council, was caught on video keenly advocating for 15-minute “smart neighbourhoods” or “sustainable districts”.

Dr Girod (a PhD) is also affiliated with the aptly-named SusTech, the Group for Sustainability and Technology, that makes whizzbang “net zero” technology to make sure you don’t fall for the temptation of sticking with your evil old fossil fuel car or gas stove.

And why has Girod got such a warm inner glow about 15-minute cities? Because a 15-minute city means you won’t have to own a car. It might even mean you won’t be allowed to own a car or severely restricted as to where you can drive it. But don’t worry, “everything you need” will be within walking distance! Wow and whoopee! Imagine all that fossil fuel CO2 that won’t be driving the climate crisis – again the big theme for the Davos crowd!

Of course Girod didn’t mention the more than 1000 private jets parked around airports in Switzerland that brought delegates to the conference. Nor did he mention the lines of fossil-fueld private cars winding through the mountains bringing them into Davos.

Neither did Girod mention that Larry Fink, a prominent WEF board member and coincidentally CEO and chairman of BlackRock, the biggest fund manager in the world, has a big stake in PetroChina, the CCP’s state oil company that is developing the industry in China in a very big way. Mr Fink’s BlackRock also blacklists those dirty little oil and coal companies that don’t comply with his and the WEF’s ESG (Environment, Sustainability, Governance) rules.

But Girod really believes what he is touting. He’s just another of the naive and ambitious corporate/political pawns having a nice winter holiday in Davos, all the while banging his “sustainable living” drum as the other dupes around him would expect. Delegates’ heads nod in agreement as Girod drones on. Girod also knows that making the stage at Davos could bode well for his political future – environment minister perhaps?

Girod became so swept up in his plug for sustainability he actually endorsed Joe Biden’s plan to blackmail and bribe US companies into supporting the net-zero game plan. “I think for instance that Biden’s suggestion that governments only buy from companies that commit to Paris (Climate Accord), who commit to science-based targets, I think that’s a smart policy.”

Regardless of what people like Girod say, people in the UK, for instance, are not buying the 15-minute plans already being rolled out for trial in Oxford. There a group of savvy locals called Not Our Future discovered that 15-minute cities actually depend on “traffic filtering”, which is a system of traffic monitoring and banning of vehicles from certain areas at certain times. Go where you’re not allowed to and bingo the camera on the corner sends you a fine.

As explained by one Oxford local, the idea is being run out everywhere worldwide and the basic motivation is to “basically tie down people into areas where they can go and can’t go, and later on that will mean biometric tracking for all of us, like in China”.

The group has carried out an excellent exercise in public action and needs to be replicated here in Australia. How it all pans out is yet to be seen.