Free Republic

Like a crazed serial killer, the liberal green groups are celebrating their “victory” of putting America’s major coal producers out of business — to say nothing of the tens of thousands of miners placed in unemployment lines. Several thousand more mining jobs were lost last month. Now to get their next homicidal high, the leftists have turned their ambitions on the oil and natural gas industries. Here is how the Sierra Club spokeswoman, Lena Moffit, explains the grand, green vision: “We have moved to a very clear and firm and vehement position of opposing gas. We oppose any new gas-fired...

An international team of scientists have found a potentially viable way to remove anthropogenic (caused or influenced by humans) carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere -- turn it into rock. The study, published in Science, has shown for the first time that the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) can be permanently and rapidly locked away from the atmosphere, by injecting it into volcanic bedrock. The CO2 reacts with the surrounding rock, forming environmentally benign minerals. Measures to tackle the problem of increasing greenhouse gas emissions and resultant climate change are numerous. One approach is Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), where...

The Paris floods, that saw extreme rainfall swell the river Seine to its highest level in decades, were made almost twice as likely because of the manmade emissions driving global warming, scientists have found. As artworks in the Louvre were moved to safety and Paris's cobbled walkways were submerged, the French president, Francois Hollande, blamed the floods on climate change. Now a preliminary analysis by a group of scientists, including the Dutch weather agency and the University of Oxford, has concluded the risk of the flooding event in Paris was almost doubled - multiplied by a factor of 1.8 -...

Building a green utopia would be so much easier if people would just shut up, stop asking questions and behave like good subjects. Don’t they know the science of climate change is settled? The debate is over. There never was one. Oh, goodness. Big Oil. The fracking people. Conservatives. Why should anyone listen to them?

In an armchair experiment where humans are thought of as no wiser than animals, scientists have found that climate change could empty some nations by 2100. A warming of 2 degrees Celsius would cause 34 percent of the world’s population to migrate more than 300 miles, to places on the fringes of the tropics where the temperatures are milder. Dramatic population declines might occur in Mexico, Central America, Africa and India. The results were published today in Scientific Reports. The scientists are cautious about the predictive power of their thought experiment, particularly as it relates to humans. People, unlike animals,...

Obama Warns of Underwater Manhattan Without Climate Change Action 1:02 PM, Jun 09, 2016 | By Chris Deaton President Obama warned of a submerged Manhattan without efforts to combat climate change during a fundraiser in New York City Wednesday night. "[T]he majority of people believe in things like science -- and scientists," an official transcript of his remarks reads. "And so when scientists tell us that the planet is getting warmer and we need to do something about it, the majority of people think that's a good idea, let's do something about that, because we don't want Manhattan to be...

President Barack Obama insists that Americans have to take climate change seriously, or else a key part of one the world’s greatest cities could end up underwater. “When scientists tell us that the planet is getting warmer and we need to do something about it, the majority of people think that’s a good idea, let’s do something about that, because we don’t want Manhattan to be underwater,” Obama said during a fundraiser in New York City. Obama observed that people are frustrated by the current presidential election campaign. “The bad news is that our politics has been a little screwed...

Karma AlertI have been following the progressive legal exploits in using racketeering statutes against Big Oil, making the analogy that gasoline producers hid climate data they collected the same way tobacco companies repressed carcinogenicity data. Of course, the eco-activists extraordinaire of Greenpeace were major cheerleaders: Greenpeace media officer Cassady Sharp called upon the Justice Department to undertake a “broad” investigation to “look into the role of [ExxonMobil and] other fossil fuel companies, trade associations, and think tanks in sowing doubt about the risks of climate change.” Greenpeace was not the first to call for RICO investigations into those who...

On the Portland School Board's decision to ax certain textbooks for their position on climate change, The Oregonian/OregonLive editorial board recently wrote, "The board's climate-change resolution is not intended to teach students to think critically, which is what schools should do. It's designed, instead, to produce acolytes." The first responsibility of any school is to teach what is known. Man's influence on climate is by now well-established, as the board notes. Climate contrarians, despite all their bluster, have never put forth an alternate scientific explanation for modern warming that explains what we see. If I were a Portland public school...

Newt Gingrich’s prospects of joining the Republican presidential ticket as Donald Trump’s running mate are expected to get a boost from mega donor Sheldon Adelson, say three conservatives with links to Gingrich or the casino billionaire. Adelson has pledged $100m to back Trump’s White House bid – and the sources familiar with Adelson and Gingrich said they think close ties between the two men who share ardent and hawkish pro-Israel views, should help the former House speaker’s chances. Adelson has long been close to Gingrich, who had a hand in convincing him to back Trump last month, and the Las...

The world's historic effort to reduce carbon emissions is likely to be a costly if not quixotic endeavor, according to one expert, whose recently published research warns that decarbonizing the globe could have devastating consequences on the world's way of life. In a report published this week, the International Energy Agency issued a call for "concrete action" to match the ambitions of last year's landmark climate change agreement, which was recently ratified by nearly 200 countries. The energy watchdog said the transition to a low-carbon future would require "massive changes in the energy system" to prevent the globe's temperature from...

Every man wishes to pursue his occupation and to enjoy the fruits of his labors and the produce of his property in peace and safety, and with the least possible expense. When these things are accomplished, all the objects for which government ought to be established are answered. -Thomas JeffersonThis week I experienced first hand another example of how the anthropogenic global warming (AGW) deception and the policies it engenders is negatively impacting people’s lives. A small group of private land wood-lot operators were facing challenges to their survival created by false climate science and unnecessary and misguided government reactions. I...

How did we not think of this before? You can almost smell the excitement in the air around the green energy warrior community. The Washington Post ran an op-ed this week from “environmental attorney” Stephen Kass in which he puts forth a bold plan for dealing with climate change and the nation’s stubborn refusal to let go of proven, reliable energy generation via fossil fuels. The big target in Kass’ sights is the coal industry and the nation’s remaining coal fired power plants. With resistance growing to the Obama administration’s deceptively named Clean Power Plan, the author comes up...

The world's historic effort to reduce carbon emissions is likely to be a costly if not quixotic endeavor, according to one expert, whose recently published research warns that decarbonizing the globe could have devastating consequences on the world's way of life. In a report published this week, the International Energy Agency issued a call for "concrete action" to match the ambitions of last year's landmark climate change agreement, which was recently ratified by nearly 200 countries. The energy watchdog said the transition to a low-carbon future would require "massive changes in the energy system" to prevent the globe's temperature from...

The scientific enterprise is something of a paradox. Contrary to conventional wisdom, scientists are extremely conservative (just not in a political sense). Science moves incrementally, and the status quo is preferred to radical new ideas. Yet, simultaneously, creativity is encouraged. However, scientists who become too creative can become outcasts. Consider Alfred Wegener, the father of plate tectonics. In his day, he was mocked and ignored. Today, his theory forms the foundation of geology, but it took more than 30 years for that revolution to occur. Surely, there are other scientists in the world today whose ideas are scorned but may...

Despite being approved by two committees, a bill that would have criminalized opposition to climate change died in the California senate. The bill would have targeted fossil fuel companies, think tanks, and individuals who, in the eyes of prosecutors, “deceived or misled the public on the risks of climate change.”Washington Times: The measure, which cleared two Senate committees, provided a four-year window in the statute of limitations on violations of the state’s Unfair Competition Law, allowing legal action to be brought until Jan. 1 on charges of climate change “fraud” extending back indefinitely. “This bill explicitly authorizes district attorneys and...

PARIS (AP) -- The Latest on the flooding that has affected parts of Europe (all times local): 5:40 p.m. Scientists say extreme rainfall, such as that hitting France, has increased worldwide and especially in Europe because of man-made climate change.

Truncated title. Full title:Letter by climate change scientists urging prosecution of skeptics deemed a 'mistake' and 'withdrawn' You would think the group of 20 or so climate change scientists who sent a letter to President Obama urging him to prosecute climate skeptics under the RICO statute would have consulted a PR firm before they made asses of themselves to the whole country. But now, the learned men of science have hired Climate Nexus, a PR firm specializing in spinning global warming news. The letter - a move the PR firm called a "big mistake" - has been "withdrawn" and a...

A landmark California bill gaining steam would make it illegal to engage in climate-change dissent, clearing the way for lawsuits against fossil-fuel companies, think-tanks and others that have “deceived or misled the public on the risks of climate change.” The first-of-its-kind legislation — Senate Bill 1161, or the California Climate Science Truth and Accountability Act of 2016 — is scheduled for floor action Thursday after clearing Senate committees in April and May. The measure would allow state and local prosecutors to pursue claims against climate-change skepticism as a violation of the state’s Unfair Competition Law [UCL], as well as extend...

A forestry company filed a civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) lawsuit against Greenpeace Tuesday for misrepresenting the company’s environmental record to raise funds and promote its agenda. Greenpeace knowingly and deliberately made false claims about the company while fundraising, and fabricated evidence of Resolute’s alleged environmental malfeasance, according to the forestry and paper company Resolute Forest Products. RICO is an anti-mafia law designed to combat organized crime. Greenpeace’ is a global fraud,” states the 124-page legal complaint. “For years, this international network of environmental groups collectively calling themselves ‘Greenpeace’ has fraudulently induced people throughout the United States and...