Free Republic

Is it possible the environmentalists have been praying at the wrong altar? Is it possible that corn – as a fuel - is a worse pollutant than (gasp!) oil?  Well, yes, apparently: Despite their purported advantages, biofuels — created from crops such as corn or soybeans — cause more emissions of climate change-causing carbon dioxide than gasoline, according to the study from U-M Energy Institute research professor John DeCicco. The multi-billion-dollar U.S. biofuels industry — promoted and expanded for more than a decade by the federal government — [ed. read “subsidies”] may be built on a false assumption, according to...

Antarctica has confounded scientists, defying the dire predictions of scientists the South Pole would shrink and exacerbate sea level rise in the coming decades. Climate models predicted Antarctic sea ice would shrink as the world warmed, and that warming would boost snowfall over the southern continent. Neither of those predictions have panned out, and now scientists say “natural variability” is overwhelming human-induced warming. “Truth is, the science is complex, and that in most places and with most events, natural variability still plays a dominant role, and undoubtedly will continue to do so,” Chip Knappenberger, a climate scientist with the libertarian...

Continents and oceans in the northern hemisphere began to warm with industrial-era fossil fuel emissions nearly 200 years ago, pushing back the origins of human-induced climate change to the mid-19th century. The first signs of warming from the rise in greenhouse gases which came hand-in-hand with the Industrial Revolution appear as early as 1830 in the tropical oceans and the Arctic, meaning that climate change witnessed today began about 180 years ago. Researchers in Australia found evidence for the early onset of warming after trawling through 500 years of data on tree rings, corals and ice cores that together form...

Are you looking for a job? Well, good news. The New York Times is looking for a Global Warming (now called "Climate Change" when the warming bit didn't happen) editor. Anyone can apply. Here is the happy announcement from the Times:

The problem with environmentalists isn't merely that they have destructive ideas about the economy, but that so many of them embrace repulsive ideas about human beings. Take a recent NPR piece that asks, "Should We Be Having Kids In The Age Of Climate Change?" If you want to learn about how environmentalism has already affected people in society, read about the couple pondering "the ethics of procreation" and its impact on the climate before starting a family, or the group of women in a prosperous New Hampshire town swapping stories about how the "the climate crisis is a reproductive crisis."...

In the Tom Cruise-starring science-fiction-future-flick “Minority Report”: “A special police unit is able to arrest murderers before they commit their crimes.” These were called “Pre-Crimes.” Objection, Your Honor: Assuming facts not yet in evidence. But Democrats aren’t letting that stop them. Donkeys and Hollywood have for decades been hyper-intertwined. And the Donkeys are now taking this harmonic convergence more than a mite too far. To wit: We have the nigh endless Democrat persecution of petroleum company Exxon Mobil; which began as an assault on the First Amendment.Democratic Attorneys General to Police Climate Change Dissent: “A coalition of Democratic attorneys general…announced...

Communities in nine U.S. states that have been hard-hit by coal layoffs are being promised more than 3,000 jobs in several industries through a multimillion-dollar federal grant. Officials for the Appalachian Regional Commission and other agencies announced the 29 projects totaling nearly $39 million Wednesday at a news conference in Huntington, West Virginia. The investments are expected to create or retain more than 3,400 jobs in agriculture, health care, manufacturing, technology and other industries. The projects are intended to help communities in Texas and in eight Appalachian states: Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. …

Although climate change is thought of as simply a political football, it has been a heated topic among meteorologists for years. I, for one, have changed my conclusion over time on whether humans are responsible for the increased heat content of the Earth. I write this article not to change your mind about global warming; I simply want to show you why I changed mine. Early in my scientific studies at Nebraska, most believed that humans could never pollute this massive globe enough to make a measurable difference. As a student, I learned to never exclude any possibility until ultimately...

The “keep it in the ground” fossil-fuel strategy described by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton as a “done deal” would kill more than 380,000 jobs and deliver a $70 billion annual hit to the economy, according to a report released Wednesday. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for 21st Century Energy found that banning fossil fuel production on public lands and offshore waters would result in a loss of $70 billion in annual GDP as well as $11.3 billion in royalties, along with massive direct and indirect job losses.

Earlier this month, an outbreak of anthrax in northern Russia caused the death of a 12-year-old boy and his grandmother and put 90 people in the hospital. These deadly spores – which had not been seen in the Arctic since 1941 – also spread to 2,300 caribou. Russian troops trained in biological warfare were dispatched to the Yamalo-Nenets region to evacuate hundreds of the indigenous, nomadic people and quarantine the disease. Americans are likely to associate anthrax with the mysterious white powder that was mailed to news media and US Senate offices in the weeks following 11 September 2001....

I remember a time — not that long ago — when Americans had an undisputed right to support causes in which they believed. I also remember a time when elected officials — from both sides of the aisle — staunchly supported that right. That’s why I was saddened to see government officials, including members of Congress, acting as the enemies of free speech, singling out individuals and organizations that have the audacity to hold contrary views on energy use and climate policy. Those who believe the so-called consensus view on climate and the environment are safe to express their concerns...

Great Barrier Reef tourist operators found less than 5 percent of the natural wonder has died off from “bleaching,” despite claims from scientists that most of the reef had been killed off by the effects of global warming. “Scientists had written off that entire northern section as a complete white-out,’’ Chris Eade, owner of the diving boat Spirit Of Freedom, told The Courier-Mail in an interview. “We expected the worst,” Eade said. “But it is tremendous condition, most of it is pristine, the rest is in full recovery. It shows the resilience of the reef.” Eade said dire predictions about...

It is immoral to destroy millions of jobs and harm America's poor, minority, and working class families with soaring energy prices because of a questionable theory about future climate According to a new survey led by researchers at the University of Michigan, more Americans than ever, about one in five, say they are not sure whether climate change is occurring. Paradoxically, the survey also shows that those who are convinced that there is no solid evidence of global warming is at its lowest level (15%) in the nine-year history of the poll. Most interesting however, is the fact that the...

Despite a historic opportunity for third parties to do well this presidential election, Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson seems determined to blow it. In the equivalent of shooting himself in the political foot, Johnson announced support for a deeply unpopular tax on emissions of carbon dioxide, or CO2, to stop alleged “climate change.” And he sought to deceive voters while doing it. While the former New Mexico governor framed the tax scheme as a “fee” and a “free-market approach,” even libertarians blasted the deception.The “fee,” as Johnson referred to his proposed tax in a perfect emulation of ObamaCare-style semantic deception,...

What is the “biggest unfinished business for the Obama administration?” According to a report from Bill McKibben, the outspoken climate alarmist who calls for all fossil fuels to be kept in the ground, it is “to establish tight rules on methane emissions”—emissions that he blames on the “rapid spread of fracking.” McKibben calls methane emissions a “disaster.” He claims “methane is much more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide” and that it does more damage to the climate than coal. Methane, CH4, is the primary component of natural gas. To buttress his anti-fracking argument, McKibben is selective on which...

The Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration jointly issued a new regulation last week that is meant to help protect the world from “climate change” by limiting “greenhouse gas emissions” and improving fuel efficiency in medium- and heavy-duty vehicles operated in the United States. The 1,690-page regulation is approximately 700,000 words long. A “regulatory impact analysis” published by EPA and NHTSA estimates the regulation will add an average of as much as $13,749 to the cost of a tractor truck and $1,370 to a trailer, making some tractor-trailer combinations $15,119 more expensive in 2027 than they...

From the “global warming and ocean acidification will kill everything, forever” and the “nature always finds a way” department comes this inconvenient truth.Back From The Dead: Giant Coral Reef That ‘Died’ In 2003 Teeming With Life Again In 2003, researchers declared Coral Castles dead. On the floor of a remote island lagoon halfway between Hawaii and Fiji, the giant reef site had been devastated by unusually warm water. Its remains looked like a pile of drab dinner plates tossed into the sea. Research dives in 2009 and 2012 had shown little improvement in the coral colonies.Then in 2015, a team of...

After a century of shooing away hunters, tending to trails and helping visitors enjoy the wonder of the natural world, the guardians of America’s most treasured places have been handed an almost unimaginable new job – slowing the all-out assault climate change is waging against national parks across the nation. As the National Parks Service (NPS) has charted the loss of glaciers, sea level rise and increase in wildfires spurred by rising temperatures in recent years, the scale of the threat to US heritage across the 412 national parks and monuments has become starkly apparent. As the National Parks Service...

American truckers, and the big rigs they drive, are literally the lifeblood of this nation, transporting food, raw materials and finished goods from one end of the country to the other and back again, delivering what is needed where it is needed when it is needed on a daily basis. But those truckers just had a major roadblock placed in their way, courtesy of President Barack Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency, and the consequences for not only the trucking industry, but America as a whole, could be devastating. According to The Daily Caller, the EPA just announced on Tuesday that it...

Full Title - Obama: Climate Change ‘Could Mean No More Glaciers In Glacier National Park,’ Threaten the Statue of Liberty During Saturday’s Weekly Address, President Obama stated, “the threat of climate change means that protecting our public lands and waters is more important than ever. Rising temperatures could mean no more glaciers in Glacier National Park. No more Joshua Trees in Joshua Tree National Park. Rising seas could destroy vital ecosystems in the Everglades, even threaten Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.”