Free Republic

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says the federal government will provide €1 billion ($1.2 billion) to cities and towns across the country in 2018 in an effort to make traffic more environmentally friendly. […] Many cities in Germany face driving bans because the air pollution is frequently above the allowed maximum levels due to the many cars’ exhaust fumes. The funds are to be invested among other things into electric buses, electric charging stations and a more environmentally friendly traffic infrastructure. …

As global warming exacerbates drought and floods, farmers’ incomes plunge – and girls as young as 13 are given away to stave off poverty. ... Everyone has their own idea of what climate change looks like. For some, it’s the walrus struggling to find space on melting ice floes on Blue Planet II. For others, it’s an apocalyptic vision of cities disappearing beneath the waves. But for more and more girls across Africa, the most palpable manifestation of climate change is the baby in their arms as they sit watching their friends walk to school. Many experts are warning a...

Met Éireann has issued a nationwide snow and ice warning as a “polar low” sweeps over the country over the next two days. The yellow alert comes into force on Friday at 5 am and will remain in place until midday on Saturday. Snow showers are expected across the country during the alert, but the heaviest snowfall is forecast for counties in Connacht and in Ulster. Met Éireann said this “polar low” would begin to track down the country from the North. Friday and Saturday are set be bitterly cold, with widespread frost and ice and temperatures falling as low...

Many species, including humans, struggle to survive when temperatures rise too high. But even small increases can affect animals, causing subtle changes in physiology or behavior that alter how they fare. For some lizards, the effects of heat may, somewhat literally, be a no-brainer. A new study published in Royal Society Open Science has found that a temperature increase on the scale expected from climate change can make bearded dragons dumber. Bearded dragons are Australian lizards that have become popular as pets, and like other reptiles, they’re not as dumb as they might seem. “Reptiles were long considered to be...

The U.S. Constitution lists six goals. The intent to form a more perfect union is undermined by our current political divisiveness. The other five are crippled by our failure to address global warming: 1. Establish justice: Ethnic minorities and the poor suffer most from pollution caused by mining, refining and burning carbon fuels, and are most hurt by global warming they increasingly cause. 2. Ensure domestic tranquility: Multiple studies show that heat increases violence by both individuals and quarreling groups. 3. Provide for the common defense: As early as 2003, the military recognized the dangers climate change poses to world...

The Trump administration is making it harder to find government information about climate change on the web. If you searched Google for the words “climate change” a little over six months ago, one of the first hits would have been the Environmental Protection Agency’s website. But that was before April 28, when the agency began systematically dismantling its climate change website, which had survived Democratic and Republican administrations and was a leading source of information on a global problem that the president, as a candidate, labeled “a hoax.” If you search those words today, a link to the E.P.A. site...

A startling and honestly distressing view is beginning to receive serious consideration in both academic and popular discussions of climate change ethics. According to this view, having a child is a major contributor to climate change. The logical takeaway here is that everyone on Earth ought to consider having fewer children. Although culturally controversial, the scientific half of this position is fairly well-established. Several years ago, scientists showed that having a child, especially for the world’s wealthy, is one of the worst things you can do for the environment. That data was recycled this past summer in a paper showing...

Women bear the heaviest brunt of global warming, and are less empowered to contribute to solutions. A new action plan agreed at the Bonn climate talks aims to reverse this inequality. The women of the Marshall Islands and the Pacific have been fighting colonialism and injustice for a long time. They bore the brunt of the long term effects of nuclear testing, and women leaders like Lijon Eknilang and Darlene Keju-Johnson brought these issues to the international stage. For women, fighting for justice – including climate justice – can be downright dangerous. Last year was one of the deadliest for...

A late-November freeze is predicted for Ireland and the UK, and snow is also likely on the way in the coming weeks for the region. According to weather experts, this winter could be one of the coldest on record for Ireland. Snow showers will “engulf” Ireland and the UK in late November, according to a forecast chart on the Express. Piers Corbyn, forecaster for WeatherAction, said: “Apart from some cold snaps, the first half of November is looking relatively average for the time of year with some milder periods. However, during the second half of the month there is a...

A Peruvian farmer won a small but significant legal victory on Monday when a German court said his appeal against energy giant RWE, which he accuses of contributing to climate change that is threatening his Andean home, had merit. After hearing oral arguments from both sides, the higher regional court in the western city of Hamm said Saul Luciano Lliuya’s demand for damages from RWE was “admissible”, paving the way for the case to proceed. Luciano argues that RWE, as one of the world’s top emitters of climate-altering carbon dioxide, must share in the cost of protecting his hometown Huaraz...

Representatives for Norway’s government appeared in an Oslo court on Tuesday after environmental groups including Greenpeace brought a case over drilling in the Arctic. Greenpeace, along with environmentalist youth group Natur og Ungdom (Nature and Youth), has sued the Norwegian state over licenses it awarded in 2016 for oil prospecting in the Barents Sea. The Scandinavian country is western Europe’s biggest oil producer. A third group, called the Grandparents Climate Campaign, has also joined the case against the state. The plaintiffs accuse Norway of violating the Paris Agreement on climate change and a section of the country’s constitution amended in...

Denmark and other countries are determined to see through the 2015 Paris climate agreement, Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said as environment ministers from 190 countries met in the German city of Bonn on Tuesday at the UN’s COP23 climate summit. Much of the discussion at the summit will revolve around US President Donald Trump’s announcement earlier this year that his country — which the world’s second-largest carbon dioxide emissions — would pull out of the December 2015 agreement. But other countries are determined to see the agreement through, regardless of the message sent by the United States, according...

The first snows of the season have begun to fall in Germany, as a cold front from the north moves across the country, bringing heavy rain, storms and snowfall at regions over 1,000 meters. The cold polar air has reached the north of Germany and is moving south, bringing heavy showers and the possibility of sleet and one or two storms, DWD predicts. Temperatures will reach highs of 5°C to 11°C, and most of the country will have cloudy skies throughout the day on Friday. There will be a fresh west wind with strong gusts in the north and particularly...

A mantle plume producing almost as much heat as Yellowstone supervolcano appears to be melting part of West Antarctica from beneath. Researchers at NASA have discovered a huge upwelling of hot rock under Marie Byrd Land, which lies between the Ross Ice Shelf and the Ross Sea, is creating vast lakes and rivers under the ice sheet. The presence of a huge mantle plume could explain why the region is so unstable today, and why it collapsed so quickly at the end of the last Ice Age, 11,000 years ago.

President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as his top environmental adviser said Wednesday she is unconvinced by a new U.S. government assessment reaffirming that manmade carbon emissions are the primary cause of climate change. Kathleen Hartnett White testified before a Senate committee weighing her confirmation as chair of the Council on Environmental Quality at the White House. White, who is from Texas, reiterated her view that carbon dioxide is a “plant nutrient,” not a pollutant. Pressed by Democrats about the specific evidence linking carbon emissions to global warming, White grew visibly flustered. “I am not a scientist, but in my...

PARIS - U.S. President Donald Trump, who pulled his country out of the 2015 Paris climate change deal, is “for the time being” not invited to a climate change summit due to be held in the French capital in December, an official in President Emmanuel Macron’s office said. Over a hundred countries, as well as non governmental organizations, have been invited for the Dec.12 summit. “The United States have a bit of a special status for that summit,” the official said.

Paul McCartney criticized President Trump's lax attitude toward climate change in a new interview with the BBC. "You've got someone like Trump who says that it [climate change] is just a hoax," he said. "A lot of people like myself think that's just madness." "It's maybe a good time now to try and focus people's attention and say, 'Look, forget about [Trump] – we can do something,'" he said. "It's not the total solution, but it's part of the solution. A lot of people have been saying this for a long time but there's resistance."

Gov. Jerry Brown challenged the world’s religious leaders to further engage as he minimized the negative effects of President Donald Trump on meeting the climate-change challenge. “The Trump factor is very small, very small indeed,” in comparison to the commitments taking place around the world, Brown said to a burst of applause Saturday at an event organized by the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences. “That’s nothing to cheer about, because if it was only Trump that was a problem, we’d have it solved. But that’s not our only problem.

WASHINGTON — Directly contradicting much of the Trump administration’s position on climate change, 13 federal agencies unveiled an exhaustive scientific report on Friday that says humans are the dominant cause of the global temperature rise that has created the warmest period in the history of civilization.

They just took it down, but there was a banner atop the NT Times front page that said, "Breaking News. The White House has stated they believe humans cause global warning." I kid you not.