Free Republic

** not to be republished without donation to FR and appropriate credit to author ** The author is in fact a climate scientist of a sort, although not of the modern variety or persuasion. I graduated in 1971 with a degree in geography specializing in climatology. That's what it took back then to enter the field of climate science. As it happens, I have taken a strong interest in meteorology and forecasting and have become a recognized forecaster over the many years since that education, but almost everything I learned about forecasting was among actual meteorologists at private weather companies....

President Barack Obama probably needed his gown to keep him warm as he delivered a commencement speech at Rutgers University amid historically cold temperatures in New Jersey. But as he touted global warming, Obama denied that colder than usual temperatures meant that climate change didn’t exist. “Now, I recognize it doesn’t feel like the planet is warmer right now. I understand,” he said, acknowledging that there was hail when he landed on Air Force One in Newark. But Obama insisted that it was still a reality, citing “overwhelming consensus” from the scientific community to back his claim. He also mocked...

Two thousand environmental protesters blockaded a coal mine in Germany on Friday as part of an international campaign against the use of fossil fuels. The activists, dressed in white overalls and equipped with breathing masks, blocked access to the open cast Proschim mine close to the Polish border, according to an AFP journalist at the scene. The group unfurled banners on excavation machinery, with slogans including “Keep it in the ground” and “Climate crime scene” as organizers said that the action would last all weekend. […] The “Break Free” campaign was the brainchild of several environmental lobby groups including Greenpeace...

The Swedish government is taking an extremely bizarre commitment to fighting climate change by spending large sums of taxpayer money to develop 'meat' made from mealworms and crickets. Vinnova, the Swedish government agency that distributes money for research and development, is spending some 2.7 billion kronor ($261 million) to replace conventional meat with 'climate-friendly' insect 'meat' and other strange alternatives. Yum… Breitbart News reports: Green activists and the United Nations are behind such political initiatives as 'Meat Free Mondays' — a gateway to full vegetarianism — which are based on the premise that meat consumption is driving man-made climate change....

Employing his college degree in fiction writing, White House communications strategist Ben Rhodes wrote deceitful talking points on the Benghazi attack and one-sided Iran nuclear deal – and later bragged about manipulating “clueless reporters.” Perhaps he’s also orchestrating administration climate spin. Rising ocean tides will bring “waves of climate refugees” to America and Europe, President Obama has declared. “Environmental migrants” are already fleeing shrinking islands in the Pacific, and it is a “dereliction of duty” for military officers to “deny the reality” of dangerous manmade climate change. Even if we act in accord with the Paris climate “accords” (none dare...

Republican presidential contender Donald Trump has asked one of America's most ardent drilling advocates and climate change skeptics to help him draft his energy policy. U.S. Republican Congressman Kevin Cramer of North Dakota - a major oil drilling state - is writing a white paper on energy policy for the New York billionaire, Cramer and sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Cramer was also among a group of Trump advisers who recently met with lawmakers from western energy states, who hope Trump will open more federal land for drilling, a lawmaker who took part in the meeting said. Cramer...

Hijacking the Environmental Movement What makes 350 so devious, is that they hijack public emotions (and ignorance) using phony “divestment” as a disorganizing tool to redirect activism away from effective work.—Jay Taber A coalition of environmental activist groups, led by 350.org, is promoting a series of “Break Free From Fossil Fuels” training sessions and protests during May 4-15, 2016, at locations involved in fossil fuel production or transportation. The protests will occur at key sites related to production and transport of fossil fuels, including rail lines and yards, in the United States and Canada. The problem? 350.org only cares about...

Bill Nye Is A Huckster The Science Guy diminishes his nickname by resorting to scaremonger-y nuggets of easily dismissible ideologically-motivated nonsense May 12, 2016 By David Harsanyi Bill Nye fashions himself a voice of rational thought and scientific inquiry. His shtick has gotten him into classrooms and on an endless loop of evangelizing TV appearances. Yet nearly every time he speaks these days, Nye diminishes genuine science by resorting to scaremonger-y nuggets of easily dismissible ideologically-motivated nonsense.Take this tweet he sent out to his nearly three million followers: More severe weather. More suffering. More expense. Let’s all take climate change...

I am so sorry I am only finding out about this now, a day late. I would have flown across the country to attend. Imagine the acrobatics Ghassan Hage had to perform in order to make this even remotely plausible, even with the audience so eager to be fooled that he undoubtedly had. On the other hand, if the dim-bulb “Islamophobia”-fearmonger Haroon Moghul (that’s right, “Dwayne”) could sell Time Magazine on the idea that “Islamophobia” is responsible for America’s crumbling infrastructure, academic audiences these days may be even stupider than I thought. “Is ISLAMOPHOBIA accelerating global warming?,” MIT Global Studies...

In the 1950s, it was: “Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party?” Today, it’s: “Are you now, or have you ever been, a climate-change denier?” I’m not referring simply to the fact that it’s politically incorrect to question assertions of man-made global warming. That’s bad enough, but no -- I mean that if some powerful individuals get their way, it could soon be a federal crime to do so. “The bottom line is simple,” New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said at a recent press conference. “Climate change is real.” He was joined...

(CNSNews.com) – Former Vice President Al Gore said on Thursday that the news reports of extreme weather, which he believes is caused by climate change, is like the end days described in the Bible’s New Testament’s Book of Revelation.“The climate-related extreme weather events – and I won’t go through all of them – but every night on the television news now is like a nature hike through the Book of Revelation,” Gore said at the Climate Action 2016 summit in Washington, D.C.

The attorney general of the U.S. Virgin Islands is targeting dozens of conservative and libertarian organizations in a racketeering lawsuit against climate change skeptics that has been widely described as an effort to silence political opponents. In a subpoena issued in March, the office of USVI attorney general Claude Walker demanded from Exxon Mobil copies of communications between the oil company and 90 different political and policy organizations “and any other organizations engaged in research or advocacy concerning Climate Change or policies.” The subpoena was part of a national, coordinated legal campaign by state attorneys general and left-wing advocacy groups...

It’s been nearly one decade since former Vice President Al Gore released his film “An Inconvenient Truth.” It sent shockwaves through American politics and emboldened environmental activists to push for more regulations on American businesses. Gore warned increasing carbon dioxide emissions would spur catastrophic global warming that would cause more extreme weather, wipe out cities and cause ecological collapse. To stop global warming, humans needed to ditch fossil fuels and basically change every aspect of their lives. Watching “An Inconvenient Truth” is sort of like going back in time. Back to a world where flip phones were cool and “Futurama”...

(CNSNews.com) – Former Vice President Al Gore said on Thursday that solving what he called the “climate crisis” would not only help the U.S. and global economy but could save civilization itself. Speaking at the Climate Action 2016 summit in Washington, D.C., Gore said the “Number One threat to the global economy is the climate crisis,” which also threatens the U.S. economy, and that turning that around requires investment in the right kind of infrastructure here and abroad. In the United States, Gore called for “physical stimulus in a coordinated way aimed at infrastructure that the country needs, which means...

Sen. Ted Cruz dropped out of the presidential race on Tuesday, making it almost certain that Donald Trump will win the GOP nomination and face Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders in November. For those who've been in denial that this day could ever come, we figured a refresher course on the real estate developer's musings about climate and energy might be in order. On the basic science: "I am not a great believer in man-made climate change," Trump told the Washington Post editorial board in March. "If you look, they had global cooling in the 1920s and now they have...

ISLE DE JEAN CHARLES, La. - A $48 million grant for Isle de Jean Charles, La., is the first allocation of federal tax dollars to move an entire community struggling with the effects of climate change. With a first-of-its-kind "climate resilience" grant to resettle the island's native residents, Washington is ready to help. "Yes, this is our grandpa's land," Ms. Bourg said. "But it's going under one way or another." In January, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced grants totaling $1 billion in 13 states to help communities adapt to climate change, by building stronger levees, dams and...

"Think about the impact of the coming U.S. presidential elections. If a climate change denier was to be elected, it would threaten dramatically global action against climate disruption. We must not think that everything is settled." That's what former French foreign minister Laurent Fabius, creator of the landmark Paris climate change agreement, said indirectly about a potential President Donald Trump. Now that Trump, who has expressed doubt about manmade climate change, is the presumptive Republican nominee, world leaders are surely thinking even more critically about what a Trump administration would entail. RP

The attorney general of the U.S. Virgin Islands is targeting dozens of conservative and libertarian organizations in a racketeering lawsuit against climate change skeptics that has been widely described as an effort to silence political opponents. In a subpoena issued in March, the office of USVI attorney general Claude Walker demanded from Exxon Mobil copies of communications between the oil company and 90 different political and policy organizations “and any other organizations engaged in research or advocacy concerning Climate Change or policies.” The subpoena was part of a national, coordinated legal campaign by state attorneys general and left-wing advocacy groups...

The Navajo residents of Page, Ariz., have gotten to the point where they openly worry their modest rush hour may end altogether. The rush hour consists of only a few hundred cars carrying 520 people out to the Navajo Generating Station (NGS), heading down a windy road to the coal-fired power plant, which is dramatically positioned on a ridge a mile from the shores of Lake Powell, the second largest man-made reservoir in the United States. The Navajo coal plant’s lease is set to expire in 2019, pending complex negotiations aimed at extending operations until 2044. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)...

Subpoena demands Exxon correspondence with Heritage, Cato, Mercatus, Hoover, and Reason, among others The attorney general of the U.S. Virgin Islands is targeting dozens of conservative and libertarian organizations in a racketeering lawsuit against climate change skeptics that has been widely described as an effort to silence political opponents. In a subpoena issued in March, the office of USVI attorney general Claude Walker demanded from Exxon Mobil copies of communications between the oil company and 90 different political and policy organizations “and any other organizations engaged in research or advocacy concerning Climate Change or policies.”