Free Republic

California on Thursday became the first state in the nation to approve green building standards to cut energy and water usage, a move that officials say will help the state meet its ambitious goals to curb greenhouse gas emissions. The plan, adopted by the California Building Standards Commission, requires that all new construction - from commercial buildings to homes, schools and hospitals - reduce energy usage by 15 percent, water use by 20 percent and water for landscaping by 50 percent. A voluntary form of the code is scheduled to kick in on July 1, 2009. "There is no statewide...

FARNBOROUGH, England (AFP) - With record oil prices crippling airlines worldwide, Canadian planemaker Bombardier said here Sunday it planned to launch its eco-friendly CSeries single-aisle passenger jet in 2013. German carrier Lufthansa has signed a letter saying it was interested in buying 30 CSeries jets and possibly up to 60, Bombardier said in a statement. Launch customer Lufthansa could be followed by other airlines after Bombardier said it had received "significant interest" worldwide regarding the new plane. "The CSeries family offers the greenest single-aisle aircraft in its class," said Gary Scott, president of Bombardier Commercial Aircraft. "These game-changing aircraft emit...

The green zone of Baghdad, a highly fortified slice of American suburbia on the banks of the Tigris river, may soon be handed over to Iraqi control if the increasingly assertive government of Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister, gets its way. A senior Iraqi government official said this weekend the enclave should revert to Iraqi control by the end of the year. “We think that by the end of 2008 all the zones in Baghdad should be integrated into the city,” said Ali Dabbagh, the government’s spokesman.

Environmentalist despotism is on a roll. From every corner of the globe, the Green movement has unceasingly inundated world citizens with a deluge of documentaries, articles, “hard facts,” “reliable models,” and “common sense” in an attempt to rally eco-warriors and build their cause. Having used nearly every method at their disposal, the movement has now turned to the merciless and unrelenting strategy of shame tactics. According to an article published yesterday at GreenBiz.com, the state of California has issued a mandate that all 2009 model cars be stamped with a “Global Warming Score” label. The label would display the carbon...

You would think that this story is right out of science fiction. But the facts appear to be that the US Democrat-controlled Congress intends to destroy the Republican middle class with $11 per gallon gasoline.

In the year since Al Gore took steps to make his home more energy-efficient, the former vice president’s home energy use surged more than 10 percent, according to the Tennessee Center for Policy Research. “A man’s commitment to his beliefs is best measured by what he does behind the closed doors of his own home,” said Drew Johnson, President of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research. “Al Gore is a hypocrite and a fraud when it comes to his commitment to the environment, judging by his home energy consumption.” In the past year, Gore’s home burned through 213,210 kilowatt-hours (kWh)...

The Greenest Show on Earth: Democrats Gear Up for Denver From Organic Fanny Packs to 'Pure' Trash, Party Planners Face Logistical Nightmare By STEPHANIE SIMON June 25, 2008; Page A1 DENVER -- As the Mile High City gears up to host a Democratic bash for 50,000, organizers are discovering the perils of trying to stage a political spectacle that's also politically correct. Consider the fanny packs. With biodegradable balloons and organic snacks, Denver Democrats hope to stage the "greenest convention" ever. See examples. The host committee for the Democratic National Convention wanted 15,000 fanny packs for volunteers. But they had...

Professor David J C MacKay tells The Register that he was first drawn into this field by the constant suggestion — from the BBC, parts of the government etc — that we can seriously impact our personal energy consumption by doing such things as turning our TVs off standby or unplugging our mobile-phone chargers. Anyone with even a slight grasp of energy units should know that this is madness. Skipping one bath saves a much energy as leaving your TV off standby for over six months. People who wash regularly, wear clean clothes, consume hot food or drink, use powered...

"There was terror as well as exaltation in their new insight," said Robert Oppenheimer of his pioneering generation of nuclear physicists who unlocked the riddle of atomic power in the early years of the last century. Their discovery of the atom and how to tap its stupendous elemental power was exalted as the greatest scientific advance since the realization that the Earth revolves around the sun. Along with it came the greatest shift in humanity's world view since then. The advent of the nuclear age marked the first time that the end of the world by human doing could be...

The Sierra Club, one of the nation's largest and most politically-active environmental organizations, announced this evening it would endorse Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president. The announcement was not a surprise: the group's executive director, Carl Pope, had hammered the presumptive GOP nominee, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), for months over his missed votes in the Senate and his support for nuclear power subsidies as a way to address global warming. This week Pope criticized McCain for announcing he supports lifting the federal moratorium on offshore oil drilling. Tomorrow, Pope will speak at an event in Cleveland, Ohio with Leo Gerard,...

I thought about GanGreen because we are going to be cutting off arms and legs to pay.

According to a recent study by the California Integrated Waste Management Board, 73 percent of California drivers change their oil more frequently than required. This same scenario no doubt repeats itself across the country. Besides wasting money, this translates into unnecessary consumption of $100-a-barrel oil, much of it imported. Using 2005 data, the Board estimates that Californians alone generate about 153.5 million gallons of waste oil annually, of which only about 60 percent is recycled. Used motor oil poses the greatest environmental risk of all automotive fluids because it is insoluble, persistent, and contains heavy metal and toxic chemicals. One...

Every 26 seconds, a student drops out of high school in the United States. National test scores reveal that half of all low-income fourth graders cannot read. Given such alarming statistics, you’d think that helping at-risk kids would be the top education-related priority on Capitol Hill. Apparently not. As far as Congress is concerned, the real problem with public education in America is that it’s not environmentally friendly enough. On Wednesday, the House passed the “21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act,” a $6.4 billion school-construction program. Essentially, it’s a regulatory gift bag for environmental groups and labor unions...

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Could "green" become a new watchword in TV programming? While the media companies have long been touting everything they're doing behind the scenes to become more environment-friendly, the message increasingly is seeping into their programming. On Wednesday, Discovery Communications launches the first 24/7 eco-friendly network, Planet Green, which will take over the space occupied by Discovery Home Channel. That follows NBC Universal's second companywide "Green Week" in April -- featuring 100 hours of green-themed content airing across 42 NBC Universal brands and 28 Web sites -- with two more already planned for November and April....

For conservatives who would like to think the whole government should be handed over to the liberals for a few years until the Reagan wing of the Republican Party can get its act together, a quick look at a monstrosity under consideration by Congress is in order. Liberal Democrats and "green" Republicans are proposing a massive reorganization of the American economy to fight so-called global warming. Worse yet, proponents of this bill are attempting to sell this eco-socialism as a "market-based" policy, and their allies in the national media are going along with the charade.

The dirty secret of the environmental movement is how indifferent it can be to the poor. Consider the widespread ban on DDT. As environmental groups celebrated the recovery of bald eagles, parents in poor countries buried 20 million children who died from the ensuing malaria outbreak. Now we see another crisis looming from the fight against global warming. Food riots are breaking out in poor countries as motorists in wealthy countries burn grains and oils in gas tanks. We are green for one simple reason: We can afford it. But what if that changes? What if the pain of going...

Take a look at this web page. Find out when you should DIE: http://www.abc.net.au/science/planetslayer/greenhouse_calc.htm Propaganda to brain wash Australian children. A questionnaire to calculate your carbon footprint and predict how long you will/should live on the planet.

The Grandiose Socialist Scheme Written by Bridget Geegan Blanton Europe is in midst of a period of enlightenment ... .... as reflected by recent election results where voters revolted against the shackles of Socialism. They’re throwing the Socialists out of office along with their burdensome multicultural policies. The European economy is quickly being run into the ground due to excessive entitlements and a Third World Immigration that guarantees welfare without the requirement of assimilation. Once again, Socialism has proven to be unsustainable in the long term. While an increasing amount of economies throughout the world are embracing Capitalism, America is...

Holes, Cheese, and Heads The Swiss, a few years ago, added a provision to their constitution that gives dignity to all living organisms using the term “Würde der Kreatur” (dignity of living beings) to apply to both plants and animals. To explain exactly what this means, the Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology produced a report called "The Dignity of Living Beings with Regard to Plants." There is a reason the most famous invention of the Swiss is the cuckoo clock. There are obviously more holes in their heads than in their cheese. The report appears to be one...

It was something that had never occurred to Jane Flannigan, until she got the call Sunday that her eight-year-old son had been hit by a car while biking with a friend. Owen Erickson was not badly hurt, though he did end up on the hood of the car. But when the car's driver moved his Toyota Prius from the street to the curb, Flannigan noticed something. "I saw the car, but I could not hear anything," she recalled about the hybrid vehicle which was operating on battery power at the time. "It is totally silent." That's when it dawned on...

Why are 2.5 billion people -- more than 40 percent of the human race -- in imminent danger of famine? The threat is real, but its solutions aren‘t what the United Nations, the Green Lobby, or the Carbon Threat/Greenhouse Gases lunatics want you to believe. A billion people live on less than $1 a day. Another 1.5 billion people live on $1 to $1.5 a day. For them, any substantial rise in the price of staple grains like rice or wheat is potentially fatal. Yet since January, according to The Economist magazine, global rice prices have soared 142 percent. Last...

Julia Roberts has a natural approach to going "Green," right down to not using deodorant. According to the Huffington Post, the Oscar-winner appeared Tuesday (April 22nd) on Oprah Winfrey's syndicated talk show along with her friend, Gorgeously Green author Sophie Uliano. In a conversation on incorporating green alternatives into your life, Roberts told how she composts and feeds her kids organic foods. When the subject of skin care came up, Roberts revealed that she doesn't use deodorant, explaining, "It's just never been my thing." Julia Roberts reveals a personal secret to Oprah Winfrey: ["I don't actually use deodorant. I don't...

CIVITAVECCHIA, Italy — At a time when the world’s top climate experts agree that carbon emissions must be rapidly reduced to hold down global warming, Italy’s major electricity producer, Enel, is converting its massive power plant here from oil to coal, generally the dirtiest fuel on earth. Over the next five years, Italy will increase its reliance on coal to 33 percent from 14 percent. Power generated by Enel from coal will rise to 50 percent. And Italy is not alone in its return to coal. Driven by rising demand, record high oil and natural gas prices, concerns over energy...

The last few years have witnessed an Internet-stock bubble and a real-estate bubble. Could we be approaching the bursting point of the climate-change bubble? The intensity of the current climate crusade, Al Gore’s $300 million ad campaign, and Time’s fifth panicky global-warming cover in three years (“Be Worried, Be Very Worried” read the 2006 cover) are all good contrary indicators suggesting that the hysteria is reaching its terminal stage. Like mortgage-backed securities dealers, the climate campaigners are in a panic because the public isn’t buying what they’re selling. The latest annual Gallup survey on the environment shows that only 37...

These are just as worthwhile even if you don't believe that human-created climate change is a big problem, or even a reality. * Reducing carbon emissions by making people poorer will never happen. Just ask people in China - now the world's No. 1 carbon emitter - how interested they are in returning to the economic conditions they suffered a few decades ago when their carbon emissions were lower. * Burning fossil fuels is a lousy idea for reasons that have nothing to do with global warming. These hydrocarbons offer important applications as fertilizers and chemical feedstocks, making it foolish...

Dear Sir / Madam As a long time resident of the south east of France, notably the famous region called “Provence”, I would like to make a complaint. Firstly, I am writing to the “General Manager” because I assume that there must be one. With so many “experts” in the world, someone somewhere must manage them. I assume. I have spent the day with 2 people from the south of England who are very serious about buying a property in northern Provence. They have read most of my previously published news articles about the climate (300 days of sunshine, Provencal...

These days, more Americans not only want to live well, but want to also do good (or at least do no evil). They still love money and conspicuous displays of affluence. But now, the way to achieve status is to trade in the Beemer for a Toyota Prius, spend $50,000 putting solar panels on the roof, shop at Whole Foods for $7-a-bunch organic endive, and acquire a chic new wardrobe fashioned entirely of hemp, soy fiber, and recycled tires, Failla says.

Farewell the age of reason, welcome the idiocracy. Only George Orwell could have invented - and named - the government's Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) that came into operation yesterday. It is the latest in a long line of measures intended to ease the conscience of the rich while keeping the poor miserable, in this case spectacularly so. The consequences of the RTFO have been much trumpeted on these pages. It says enough that one car tank of bio petrol needs as much grain as it takes to feed an African for a year, or that a reported one-third of...

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA engineers have adjusted the flight path of the Phoenix Mars Lander, setting the spacecraft on course for its May 25 landing on the Red Planet. "This is our first trajectory maneuver targeting a specific location in the northern polar region of Mars," said Brian Portock, chief of the Phoenix navigation team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The mission's two prior trajectory maneuvers, made last August and October, adjusted the flight path of Phoenix to intersect with Mars. NASA has conditionally approved a landing site in a broad, flat valley informally called "Green Valley."...

On my "pings" page all of my posts just turned green. Moose are not green. Soylent Green is, well, green. But, not my posts......

Pelosi helps launch green DNCBy David Montero, Rocky Mountain News Originally published 05:33 p.m., April 7, 2008 House Speaker Nancy Pelosi came to Denver this afternoon to help launch a green Democratic National Convention this summer, calling the effort a "moral responsibility." "We believe this planet is God's creation," she said. "We have a moral responsibility to protect it and this initiative does just that." The initiative is the Democratic National Convention Committee's Green Delegate Challenge. DNCC Chief Executive Officer Leah Daughtry said they set up a contest for all of the states sending delegates to the convention Aug. 25-28...

If I did not enjoy my work in life and just wanted to make money I would do two things that would most certainly lead to a fortune: 1. Enter the Television/Internet Evangelism field and 2.Promote anything "Green". Since I have some persistent nagging uncertainty about my position in the after life anyway I'm going to focus on the "Green" thing to the exclusion of having a purpose driven life that leads me to a best life now. I have the tee shirts and hats though, so I'm not completely lost. And I have submitted the paperwork for the other...

Earth Day. Live Earth. And, now, Earth Hour. The latest bright idea from the country that gave us "Crocodile Dundee" is to have everyone across the globe turn off their lights for an hour at 8 p.m. Saturday. Apparently, a bunch of neo-Luddites in Sydney did this last year and it made them feel good about themselves, so they've decided to give the rest of the world a chance to achieve a similar sense of self-worth. Because, if we are being honest, Earth Hour, like its forefathers, is not about environmental policy--it is about social networking and self-importance. Earth Hour...

SAINT PATRICK First this...... Prayer to Saint Patrick O Blessed Apostle of Ireland, glorious Saint Patrick, many centuries ago you converted Ireland to Christ. Receive my grateful and heartfelt prayers today and intercede for me and for those I love. I unite my prayers to those of all your spiritual children, turning confidently to God through the ages. May I begin anew at this moment to love God with all my heart and serve him with all my strength. Gain for me that missionary spirit which inspired you to work for the gospel. Open my heart to charity for...

(GOLETA, California) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc will meet with its thousands of Chinese suppliers this fall as part of a big push to reduce waste and emissions at factories that make its products, Chief Executive Lee Scott said on Thursday. "We started a very aggressive program in China that is not only going to deal with environmental sustainability, but is also going to deal more aggressively with the issues of sourcing in China," Scott said during an appearance at the Wall Street Journal ECO:nomics conference in Goleta, California. As the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart is considered one of the few...

New tests of 100 "natural" and "organic" soaps, shampoos and other consumer products show that nearly half of them contained a cancer-causing chemical that is a byproduct of petrochemicals used in manufacturing. Many items that tested positive for the carcinogen are well-known brands, including Kiss My Face, Alba, Seventh Generation and Nature's Gate products, sold in retail stores across the nation. The findings of the Organic Consumers Assn., a consumer advocacy group, are sending a jolt through the natural products industry. Gathering today in Anaheim for a national trade show, many leaders worry that the test results will taint the...

When Eliot Spitzer was New York attorney general, the man seemed to own the press, seizing headlines with every investigation on Wall Street -- or prosecution of high-end prostitutes on Staten Island. Now that The New York Times has reported on Gov. Spitzer's much more amicable relationship with a separate ring of expensive prostitutes, the press will for a time own him. Nor will public life be much better for Silda Wall Spitzer, Mr. Spitzer's wife. So let's take a moment to appreciate the last softball interview Ms. Spitzer is going to have for a while: a video tour, for...

Congregation of the Church of the Holy Organic, let us buy. Let us buy Anna Sova Luxury Organics Turkish towels, 900 grams per square meter, $58 apiece. Let us buy the eco-friendly 600-thread-count bed sheets, milled in Switzerland with U.S. cotton, $570 for queen-size. Let us purge our closets of those sinful synthetics, purify ourselves in the flame of the soy candle at the altar of the immaculate Earth Weave rug, and let us buy, buy, buy until we are whipped into a beatific froth of free-range fulfillment. And let us never consider the other organic option -- not buying...

WOODINVILLE -- Explosive devices were found inside multimillion-dollar show homes that burned in a suburb north of Seattle Monday, fire officials said. Authorities also found a spray-painted sign purportedly left by a radical environmental group at the scene. The spray-painted sign, a white sheet that had the initials of the Earth Liberation Front in scraggly red letters, mocked claims that the homes were environmentally friendly, according to video images of the sign aired by KING-TV. "Built Green? Nope black!" the sign said.

Many Christians sacrifice a personal pleasure such as chocolate, liquor, or cigarettes to mark Lent, the period of penance and prayer before Easter. This year, Nina Scott is giving up carbon. The retired University of Massachusetts at Amherst professor is hanging wet laundry on a clothesline in her basement to prevent emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide from using the dryer. She is carpooling as much as she can and turning off lights more often.

Obama Has Been Highly Critical Of The U.S. Operation In Afghanistan; Said "We Have Taken Our Eye Off The Ball": Obama Said The U.S. Took Its "Eye Off The Ball" In Afghanistan. Obama: "We went into Iraq, a war that we should have never authorized and should not have been waged. ... It has ... allowed us to neglect the situation in Afghanistan. We know right now ... that al Qaeda is hiding in the hills between Afghanistan and Pakistan. And because we have taken our eye off the ball, they are stronger now than any time since 2001." (Sen....

King County Executive Ron Sims plans to introduce legislation that would allow the county to reject or modify development projects because of their effect on global warming. If the proposal is passed by the Metropolitan King County Council, county land-use officials believe King County would be the first jurisdiction in the nation to take that step.

Compact fluorescent lights -- those energy-efficient bulbs popular as a way to combat global warming -- can pose a small risk of mercury poisoning to infants, young children and pregnant women if they break, two reports concluded today.

Space Data Corp. has brought a brilliant idea into actuality. It operates 10 cheap, high-soaring balloons carrying electronics that turns them into the equivalent of 65,000-foot cell-phone antenna towers in the thinly populated American Southwest. Something like this just might make the task of bringing broadband Internet service to the 95 towns of rural Massachusetts that have little or none of it a lot cheaper than the $25 million for which Gov. Deval Patrick is seeking legislative authority to borrow. The balloons only last about a day, so Space Data launches 10 every day to provide cell phone service to...

The speeding freight train carrying toxic waste liability for makers, sellers and purchasers of compact fluorescent lightbulbs, or CFLs, was only faintly audible in the distance last spring when this column first warned of it. Now we’re beginning to see that environmentalist-stoked train speed toward its victims, whom President Bush and Congress just finished tying to the tracks. CFLs and all other fluorescent lightbulbs require special clean-up and disposal procedures because they contain small amounts of mercury, which is neurotoxic at sufficiently high exposures. For example, you’re not supposed to vacuum breakage or toss used bulbs in household trash. Despite...

Despite increasing popular support for solar photovoltaic panels in the United States, their costs far outweigh the benefits, according to a new analysis by Severin Borenstein, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business and director of the UC Energy Institute. "Solar photovoltaic (PV) is a very exciting technology, but the current technology is not economic," said Borenstein. "We are throwing money away by installing the current solar PV technology, which is a loser." In his January working paper, "The Market Value and Cost of Solar Photovoltaic Electricity Product," Borenstein also found that, even after considering...

Salgado, 40, one of many renters who found themselves homeless after their cash-strapped landlords stopped making mortgage payments and their houses or apartment buildings were foreclosed upon. The California Apartment Assn. estimates a quarter of all foreclosed single-family residences are occupied by renters. This "shadow market" of renters isn't being tracked by organizations that compile statistics on established rental properties. Salgado, works as a service manager at a San Bernardino boat dealer. He returned to his rented Hesperia house 1/23 to find a notice from his property manager, Century 21 Fairway Realty, informing him the property had been foreclosed upon....

The Sun Also Sets By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Thursday, February 07, 2008 4:20 PM PT Climate Change: Not every scientist is part of Al Gore's mythical "consensus." Scientists worried about a new ice age seek funding to better observe something bigger than your SUV — the sun. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Related Topics: Global Warming -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Back in 1991, before Al Gore first shouted that the Earth was in the balance, the Danish Meteorological Institute released a study using data that went back centuries that showed that global temperatures closely tracked solar cycles. To many, those data were convincing. Now, Canadian...

Just one month ago, a study conducted by a team of American researchers concluded that there was nothing more environmental-friendly than the biofuel crops, that could reduce the greenhouse gas emissions by 94% and produce five times more energy. New studies however warn that by transforming the various ecosystems into biofuel crop fields would only accentuate the global warming phenomenon rather than reducing it. According to the latest estimations, converting natural ecosystems into biofuel crop fields is likely to release up to 420 times more carbon. “The land we’re likely to plow up is the land that we’ve had taking...

Voters in her new home state of California have rejected former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney in her bid for the presidency on the Green Party ticket. They voted instead — by a margin of more than 2 to 1 — for Ralph Nader in Tuesday's presidential primary. McKinney won Green Party primaries in Arkansas and Illinois and is in slightly trailing Nader in Massachusetts, according to the Green Party. The party reported there were voting irregularities Illinois, where some voters reported there were no Green Party ballots at some locations.