Free Republic

"Most headlights are made of polycarbonate plastic, which is durable and scratch-resistant. But over time polycarbonate clouds over, mostly due to UV rays that degrade the outer layer of plastic. ..... .....Good do it yourself project;

Is Big Green running things in President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency? Wake up and smell the corruption. A virulent 2009 sue-and-settle lawsuit, WildEarth Guardians v. Jackson (as in Lisa Jackson, former EPA administrator) is an outrageous sweetheart deal rife with collusion and manipulation to create arbitrary regulations, along with the EPA takeover of state regulatory programs and a price tag of more than $2.5 billion -- all aimed against the domestic fossil fuel industry.

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.justice.gov/usao/mow/news2010/harrison.ind.htm JULY 9, 2010 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BLACK MARKET TRAVEL AGENTS 38 DEFENDANTS INDICTED IN MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR FRAUD LOCAL INVESTIGATION EXPOSES NATIONWIDE NETWORK THAT USED STOLEN IDENTITIES, CREDIT CARDS TO PURCHASE AIRLINE TICKETS KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced today that 38 defendants from across the United States have been charged in a series of indictments that allege an extensive network of black market travel agents who used the stolen identities of thousands of victims as part of a multi-million dollar fraud scheme...

BEIJING (AFP) - China on Thursday unveiled a string of emergency measures it was prepared to use in its battle to tame Beijing's stubborn smog ahead of the Olympics, as the city was again shrouded in haze. Chinese authorities may close more factories, further reduce the number of cars on the road in the city and neighbouring areas, and stop all construction, the ministry of environmental protection said on its website. "When there are extremely unfavourable weather conditions, there will be some emergency measures," the statement said. Beijing has already taken drastic steps to reduce pollution, amid concerns expressed from...

UPDATE @ 4:40PM: This information is from Metro 911: AS OF THIS TIME...METRO 911 HAS NOT RECEIVED ANY REPORTS OF PEOPLE EXPERIENCING ACUTE DISTRESS FROM CONTACT WITH THIS UNKNOWN SUBSTANCE. METRO 911 STILL HAS NOT BEEN NOTIFIED OF THE SOURCE OR ORIGIN...AND NO ONE HAS NOTIFIED METRO 911 THAT THEY HAVE HAD A LEAK OR RELEASE. AS SUCH...EMERGENCY OFFICIALS ARE NOT ADVISING A FORMAL SHELTER IN PLACE...BUT IT IS NOT RECOMMENDED TO VOLUNTARILY PROLONG EXPOSURE BECAUSE THE SUBSTANCE IS STILL UNKNOWN.

UPDATE @ 4:40PM: This information is from Metro 911: AS OF THIS TIME...METRO 911 HAS NOT RECEIVED ANY REPORTS OF PEOPLE EXPERIENCING ACUTE DISTRESS FROM CONTACT WITH THIS UNKNOWN SUBSTANCE. METRO 911 STILL HAS NOT BEEN NOTIFIED OF THE SOURCE OR ORIGIN...AND NO ONE HAS NOTIFIED METRO 911 THAT THEY HAVE HAD A LEAK OR RELEASE. AS SUCH...EMERGENCY OFFICIALS ARE NOT ADVISING A FORMAL SHELTER IN PLACE...BUT IT IS NOT RECOMMENDED TO VOLUNTARILY PROLONG EXPOSURE BECAUSE THE SUBSTANCE IS STILL UNKNOWN.

Toxic Haze From China Blankets Korea A toxic haze enveloped the Korean Peninsula on Wednesday after industrial pollutants from China accumulated in the sky over the West Sea due to high temperatures and weak winds. The Seoul metropolitan area was blanketed in smog in daytime, showing an increase in fine dust density of four to six times over last weekend. According to the Environment Ministry, the pollutants began blowing in from China on Monday to pervade the sky over the entire peninsula. Fine dust density in Songpa-gu, Seoul soared from 42 microgram per cubic meter on Jan. 13 to...

WASHINGTON -- U.S. government scientists Friday said the long-term outlook for global warming may be more dire than suggested by this week's United Nations' report, which they say doesn't fully address the impact of clouds and melting glaciers. Recent evidence of accelerated melting of glaciers in Greenland and the Antarctic ice cap came too late to be included in the report released Thursday by the U.N.-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Glaciers are among the largest sources of fresh water in the world and are contributing to rising ocean levels. Rising sea levels could expose population centers bordering the ocean...

SINGAPORE, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Visibility plunged to 50 metres in parts of Borneo island on Saturday and Singapore recorded its highest pollution reading in nearly a decade as fires in Indonesia sent acrid smoke across Southeast Asia. Singapore issued its first haze-related health warning this year. The daily air pollution index hit 128, the National Environment Agency said on its Web site (www.nea.gov.sg). A reading above 100 is rated unhealthy. In Central Kalimantan, on the Indonesian side of Borneo, visibility in some places had plunged to 50 metres (165 ft) governor Agustin Teras Narang told Elshinta radio. Hundreds sought...

China has darkened over the past half-century. Where has all the sunshine gone? The usual suspect, at least to a climatologist, would be cloud cover. But in the most comprehensive study to date of overcast versus cloud-free days in China, a team led by the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, reporting in the current advance online issue of Geophysical Research Letters, has found that cloud cover has been decreasing for the past 50 years. Eliminating clouds from the dimming equation now leaves little doubt that human activity, in the form of a nine-fold increase in fossil fuel emissions...

WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal appeals court on Friday rejected a government-approved program used by five Western states to improve their air quality and visibility in national parks and wilderness areas. Siding with an industry coalition, the court said the states' program was based on Environmental Protection Agency methods that the court, ruling in a case three years ago, had found to be "inconsistent with the Clean Air Act." Friday's decision deals with efforts by Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming to cut sulfur dioxide pollution that contributes to regional haze, particularly at the Grand Canyon. Mike Leavitt, now...

Massive air pollution casts Asian haze over global climateA cloud of pollution which has been identified in the skies across Asia travels long distances across the Indian ocean and is now threatening to make the entire planet a drier place, experts warned Wednesday. "There is a nexus between local air pollution and global climate change," Mylvakanam Iyngararasan, senior programme specialist for the United Nations Environment Programme, told the annual "Better Air Quality" conference at a meeting in the home of the Taj Mahal. "Research suggests that there will be a large drying-out effect from the air pollution we see now....

'Brown haze' is blanketing Asia and changing weather, warn scientists By Charles Arthur Technology Editor 12 August 2002 A two-mile-high "brown haze" of human-generated soot and greenhouse gases is blanketing Asia, damaging health and altering rainfall patterns, scientists will warn today. But the effects are being felt around the world, because the particles in the haze can travel halfway around the globe in a week, reinforcing the patterns elsewhere. The findings come on the eve of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, which opens in Johannesburg on 24 August. But it is unlikely to be debated at the conference table....

'Asian Brown Cloud' damaging agriculture: UN reportLONDON (AFP) Aug 09, 2002 The "Asian Brown Cloud" -- a vast haze of pollution stretching across South Asia -- is damaging agriculture, modifying rainfall patterns and endangering the population, a UN-backed study said Friday. "There are also global implications, not least because a pollution parcel like this, which stretches three kilometres (1.86 miles) high, can travel half way round the globe in a week," said United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) chief Klaus Toepfer. Toepfer told a London press conference that the pollution was caused by the burning of agricultural wastes and fossil...