Free Republic

In the mountains of western Iran, the province of Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari is known for mile-high lagoons, flowing rivers and wetlands that attract thousands of species of migratory birds. But years of diminishing rainfall have shriveled water sources. Conditions worsened, residents say, after Iranian authorities began funneling water 60 miles away to the lowland city of Esfahan, sparking protests as far back as 2014. The uprising — in which at least 21 people died and thousands were arrested before authorities reimposed order — had many sparks: rising prices, persistent unemployment, bank collapses, a wide wealth gap, corruption in the theocracy. But an...

Manmade climate change is now dwarfing the influence of natural trends on the climate, scientists say. The acting director of the UK Met Office, Prof Peter Stott, told BBC News: "It's extraordinary that temperatures in 2017 have been so high when there's no El Niño. In fact, we’ve been going into cooler La Niña conditions. "Last year was substantially warmer than 1998 which had a very big El Niño. "It shows clearly that the biggest natural influence on the climate is being dwarfed by human activities – predominantly CO2; emissions." “The record temperature should focus the minds of world leaders,...

MOSCOW: Temperatures reached -67 degrees Celsius in the remote Yakutia region in Russia on Tuesday, the Associated Press reported. Pictures circulating on social media showed people posing with frozen eyelashes as temperatures reportedly fell to -50 degrees Celsius. Temperatures reached -67 degrees Celsius in Yakutia on Tuesday (Jan 16). A video posted on Twitter also showed a cup of boiling water solidifying after being poured out of a window. Blasting boiled water at -46.5C 😄 #Yakutsk pic.twitter.com/G6OdsSiIZ0 — Bolot Bochkarev (@yakutia) January 13, 2018 Residents in Yakutia are normally used to the freezing conditions, with students routinely going to school...

MOSCOW - Even thermometers can't keep up with the plunging temperatures in Russia's remote Yakutia region, which hit minus 67 degrees Celsius (minus 88.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in some areas Tuesday. In Yakutia - a region of 1 million people about 3,300 miles (5,300 kilometers) east of Moscow - students routinely go to school even in minus 40 degrees. But school was canceled Tuesday throughout the region and police ordered parents to keep their children inside. Over the weekend, two men froze to death when they tried to walk to a nearby farm after their car broke down. Three other men...

There could be no starker illustration of the profound differences that exist between Washington and London -- despite alignment on many other issues -- than comments this week by our two leaders on climate change and the environment. For President Trump, the Paris Agreement is a bad deal that will close US businesses -- perhaps even has closed some already. Meanwhile, in London last week, Prime Minister Theresa May was launching the UK's 25-year Plan for Nature. Its flagship pledge is to "leave the environment in a better state than we found it". The evidence is entirely against the world...

California is poised to meet its goal to reduce greenhouse gases 33 percent, to 1990 levels, by the year 2020. Its targets for use of more renewable energy by that date are, in some cases, already exceeded. ...hold on tight for what comes next. The state’s overarching plan was intended to ease industry and consumers into a carbon-free future bit by bit; ten years in, the training wheels are off. Emissions-reduction must hit 40 percent by 2030 and twice that by 2050. In 12 years, half the state’s energy must come from renewable sources. 14 million buildings must operate twice...

This Siberian village's thermometer broke last night because of how cold it was. Oymyakon, in the Siberian region of Yakutia, is the coldest inhabited village on Earth. Each winter, it records some of the world's lowest temperatures and the town seems frozen in time. On 14 January, Oymyakon got so cold, its brand new thermometer broke after reaching a mind numbing -62C, reports the Siberian Times. In comparison, the only other places to get this cold or colder are unpopulated areas of Antarctica. But locals have reported temperatures far colder than the official -62C on their properties, thanks to their...

Some strange booms have shaken residents in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin. The series of explosion-like sounds rattled residents from Waupun, Campbellsport and elsewhere Tuesday and sent Fond du Lac County sheriff's deputies out looking for a cause. Geologists say the booms were likely a phenomenon commonly known as an ice quake.

As record lows gripped many parts of the U.S. and Canada, the global warming elitists scrambled to announce to the world that climate change was the driving force behind the freezing weather. Inevitably, their claims have exposed the hypocrisy of the global warming cult that has instilled fear among the public. Temperatures in many parts of the Atlantic U.S. went down drastically last week. Canada was not an exception, with record lows registered in many provinces since November last year. While some forecasts in December predicted a colder than usual winter due to the polar vortex inversion, the drop in...

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — On Tuesday morning, half an inch of water fell in nearby Montecito — half an inch in five minutes. Even in the best of conditions, this pace could cause flooding. But it wasn’t the best of conditions. Last month, we endured the largest wildfire in California history. We say the extreme rain caused this disaster. We say it was the fire. And we say that multiple years of drought didn’t help. But what caused the rain, the fire and the drought? There is a clear climate signature in the disaster in Santa Barbara. We know that...

Following the recent record-setting low temperatures, the importance of reliable, abundant, and inexpensive energy is now more obvious than ever. It was certainly appropriate that the 2017 National Security Strategy (NSS), released on December 18, three days before the start of winter, emphasized energy security. To “Promote American prosperity” and “Advance American influence,” two of the four vital national interests identified in the NSS, the Trump administration asserts that “our Nation must take advantage of our wealth in domestic resources.” And one of the most important of its domestic resources, one America is no longer taking full advantage of, are...

To scientists who study lakes and rivers, it seems humans have embarked on a huge unplanned experiment. By burning fossil fuels, we have already raised the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by 40 percent, and we’re on track to increase it by much more. Some of that gas may mix into the world’s inland waters, and recent studies hint that this may have profound effects on the species that live in them. “We’re monkeying with the very chemical foundation of these ecosystems,” said Emily H. Stanley, a limnologist (freshwater ecologist) at the University of Wisconsin — Madison. “But...

A broad survey of climate change literature for 2017 reveals that the alleged “consensus” behind the dangers of anthropogenic global warming is not nearly as settled among climate scientists as people imagine. Author Kenneth Richard found that during the course of the year 2017, at least 485 scientific papers were published that in some way questioned the supposed consensus regarding the perils of human CO2 emissions or the efficacy of climate models to predict the future.

One of Iran's biggest economic challenges has been a cycle of extreme droughts that began in the 1990sThe impacts of climate change are among the environmental challenges facing Iran that helped spark protests in dozens of cities across the Islamic republic. At least 20 people have died in the uprising, driven by the sudden collapse of financial institutions, low wages and mistrust of national leaders. Rising temperatures are seen by some experts as an underlying condition for the economic hardships that led to the unrest. A severe drought, mismanaged water resources and dust storms diminished Iran's economy in recent years,...

A broad survey of climate change literature for 2017 reveals that the alleged “consensus” behind the dangers of anthropogenic global warming is not nearly as settled among climate scientists as people imagine. Author Kenneth Richard found that during the course of the year 2017, at least 485 scientific papers were published that in some way questioned the supposed consensus regarding the perils of human CO2 emissions or the efficacy of climate models to predict the future. According to Richard’s analysis, the 485 new papers underscore the “significant limitations and uncertainties inherent in our understanding of climate and climate changes,” which...

Perceptive conservatives will have noticed by now that the self-righteousness of the left increasingly knows no bounds. To put it another way, there are very few people, companies, institutions, bureaucracies, or governments left that liberals have not excoriated, picketed, boycotted, or sued, all in an effort to extirpate from this planet whomever and whatever has the audacity to contradict them. Amusingly, this tendency towards perfectionism/sanctimony often pits leftists against one another. In the end, though, the damage that this epidemic of intolerance does to the fabric of American society is serious and lasting. Recently, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo unveiled...

A picture of dark sunspots and bright diffuse faculae (best seen around the edges). The study shows how the larger mix of heavy elements leave the spots unchanged, while increasing the contrast of the bright diffuse faculae. Credit: NASA/SDO ============================================================================================================================ The spots on the surface on the sun come and go with an 11-year periodicity known as the solar cycle. The solar cycle is driven by the solar dynamo, which is an interplay between magnetic fields, convection and rotation. However, our understanding of the physics underlying the solar dynamo is far from complete. One example is the so-called Maunder Minimum,...

We hear a lot about “vested interests” in America these days. Here in California – it is the cry of Global Warming alarmists who are opposed to proposition 23 that is to be voted on in the November election. Prop 23 will suspend a “Global Warming solutions” act that will push up energy prices and drive even more jobs out of the state during one the biggest recessions in living memory. Understandably there is a lot of opposition to the Global Warming Act and Prop 23 is proving surprisingly popular in a state that practically invented the Green movement. Two...

WASHINGTON — Tom Steyer, the billionaire environmentalist and Democratic political donor, announced Monday that his advocacy group, NextGen America, will spend $30 million to help Democrats retake the House in 2018, with the aim of eventually impeaching President Trump. Mr. Steyer also announced that he would not run for Senate or governor in California, as had been speculated. Mr. Steyer, who was a major donor to President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign, emerged as the largest single political donor of the 2014 midterm election. His group spent $74 million to back Democrats that year, and $87 million in the 2016 elections....

Scientists in the Netherlands have found a new excuse as to why sea levels are stubbornly refusing to rise in line with Al Gore’s doomsday predictions: “ocean bottom deformation.” Apparently, they claim in a study by Thomas Frederikse et al, the weight of the extra water caused by all those melting glaciers and icecaps is so great that it is causing the sea bed to sink. Their paper – titled ‘Ocean Bottom Deformation Due To Present-Day Mass Redistribution and Its Impact on Sea Level Observations’ – is published in Geophysical Research Letters.Here is the abstract: