Free Republic

A bill that would prohibit discriminating against people based on their beliefs about climate change is up for a hearing in the Maine state capital. Republican Rep. Larry Lockman says his bill would prohibit the state from favoring or penalizing a person based on how they feel about climate change. It's up for a hearing on Thursday before the Legislature's Committee on Judiciary. Lockman says climate change doubters get treated like "heretics'' and they deserve to be protected. He also says his bill would protect people who feel strongly that climate change is real. Democrats and environmental groups in Maine...

Climate change is rapidly becoming a crisis that defies hyperbole. For all the sound and fury of climate change denialists, self-deluding politicians and a very bewildered global public, the science behind climate change is rock solid while the impacts – observed on every ecosystem on the planet – are occurring faster in many parts of the world than even the most gloomy scientists predicted. Given all this, it’s logical to assume life on Earth – the millions of species that cohabitate our little ball of rock in space – would be impacted. But it still feels unnerving to discover that...

The reason for the collapse of Mayan civilisation has been hotly debated, but now scientists claim they have an answer - climate change. Researchers believe that hot weather made the Mayans more aggressive and therefore likely to fight one another. As crops failed due to the rising temperatures leaders waged war for power which lit the fuse of their eventual demise around 900 AD, the study says. With crops levels low Mayan leaders could no longer rely on brash festivals or building projects to keep their sujects happy. So they resorted to power struggles and war instead which finished the...

A group of top House Democrats banded together Monday to condemn a political group for disseminating books skeptical of climate change to public high schools. "Lying to children about the world we live in to further corporate polluter profits is cruel," said Rep. Raul Grijalva, ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee. "If climate deniers think our public schools are the right place for their propaganda, they need to be exposed in no uncertain terms." The group in question, the Heartland Institute, is a long-time climate change skeptic, and in recent weeks it has been emboldened by President Trump's...

A coalition of U.S. states has mounted a broad legal challenge against what it called the Trump administration's illegal suspension of rules to improve the energy efficiency of ceiling fans, portable air conditioners and other products. The challenge, also joined by environmental groups, came after the U.S. Department of Energy last month delayed standards proposed under the Obama administration to reduce air pollution and operating costs associated with the products. Ten Democratic attorneys general, plus New York City and a Pennsylvania regulator, on Monday notified Energy Secretary Rick Perry of their plan to sue in 60 days for stalling proposed...

It's over. We now have a video of President Trump conspiring with a Russian leader prior to the election. Watch it and weep, fellow Conservatives. :(

Michelle Obama was just sent a mind blowing bill by President Donald J. Trump for ELEVEN BILLION DOLLARS, to repay the American people for all of the money she and her family blew through during their eight years in the people's home, our WHITE HOUSE. "The Obama family will never be able to pay" this bill, says the computer generated narrator on TheTrumpBreakingNewsNetwork.net who is calling the former first lady the most outrageous spender of all of America's first ladies! The Obama family spent a whopping TEN BILLION on their vacations, food, clothing, liquor, and cigarettes alone, according to the...

Former New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman is warning that President Donald Trump's "unprecedented" proposed budget cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, which she used to run, pose a "great danger to Americans' lives." Whitman, a Republican who served as governor from 1994 to 2001, made the declarations in an op-ed she wrote that was published by The Atlantic magazine on Friday. "Practically speaking, funding for climate-change research would be axed, public-health programs would be effectively defunded, state environmental programs would be closed, and regional projects would end," Whitman writes. "Make no mistake: Human health would be endangered." Among her many...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's scientific integrity watchdog is reviewing whether EPA chief Scott Pruitt violated the agency's policies when he said in a television interview he does not believe carbon dioxide is driving global climate change, according to an email seen by Reuters on Friday. Lawyers for environmental group the Sierra Club had asked the EPA's Office of Inspector General to check whether Pruitt violated policy when he told a CNBC interviewer on March 9, "I would not agree that it's a primary contributor to the global warming that we see." The EPA Inspector General's office responded to the...

John Podesta has requested immunity from the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigations, for his alleged Russian connections during the 2016 Presidential Elections, in return for his testimony against Hillary Clinton regarding “the content of his leaked emails”, according to a leaked document. A document that appears to be a drafted letter from Mr. Podesta’s law firm to the DOJ, was obtained by hackers and uploaded to 4chan, the anonymous message board that’s often used by hackers and government insiders to leak information to the public. The letter suggests that Clinton is currently being investigated over the...

Australian koalas are drinking much more water than they used to—and it’s likely because of hot, dry weather aggravated by climate change. Koalas, which normally spend most of their time in the safety of eucalyptus trees, have begun to climb down and drink from artificial water stations provided by University of Sydney researchers. The koalas of Gunnedah, a town in southeastern Australia often referred to as the “Koala Capital of the World,” were drinking from the stations for more than 10 minutes on average, according to a press release from the university. Koalas are leaving their trees even when they...

When people think about climate change, they probably think first about its effects on the environment, and possibly on their physical health. But climate change also takes a significant toll on mental health, according to a new report released by the American Psychological Association and ecoAmerica entitled Mental Health and Our Changing Climate: Impacts, Implications, and Guidance. Climate change-induced severe weather and other natural disasters have the most immediate effects on mental health in the form of the trauma and shock due to personal injuries, loss of a loved one, damage to or loss of personal property or even the...

Russia President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that climate change doubters "may not be at all silly." In an interview by CNBC at the International Arctic Forum in Arkhangelsk, Russia, Putin was asked about the rollback of environmental regulations from U.S. President Donald Trump's administration. "Those people who are not in agreement with opponents (of climate change) may not be at all silly," Putin replied via an interpreter. Russia's president also pointed to the economic importance of the Arctic region as he argued global warming and ice melting in the area created beneficial conditions for economic improvement. "Climate change brings in...

How media created the very climate of hate they sought to preempt. The arrest of a Jewish American-Israeli teen for making hundreds of bomb threats against American Jewish institutions in recent months seems to put paid to the favorite explanation advanced by both American Jews and the broader American left–i.e., that Donald Trump’s election empowered right-wing anti-Semites, leading to an upsurge in anti-Semitic acts. Yet the fact remains that the number of threats did jump dramatically following Trump’s election, to a degree that seems hard to attribute to mere coincidence. Now, new disclosures by the Israeli police provide a way...

A study that measures the human toll of air pollution from global manufacturing and trade shows how buying goods made far away can lead to premature deaths both there and close to home. More than 750,000 people die prematurely from dirty air every year that is generated by making goods in one location that will be sold elsewhere, about one-fifth of the 3.45 million premature deaths from air pollution. The study says 12 percent of those deaths, about 411,000 people, are a result of air pollution that has blown across national borders. “It’s not a local issue anymore,” said study...

Few of President Barack Obama’s achievements seem more imperiled from President Trump than progress in combating climate change. To avert catastrophic climate change, the broadly accepted goal among climate scientists is to stay below two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming over preindustrial temperatures. By helping negotiate the 2015 climate agreement in Paris and setting up a regulatory framework for fossil fuel emissions domestically, Obama created conditions that are necessary, but insufficient, to get there. The plan was for his successor to go further by increasing the ambition of Obama’s climate rules, cracking down on methane leakage and completing...

That didn’t take long. Only 10 weeks into his presidency, and at great risk to future generations, Donald Trump has ordered the demolition of most of President Barack Obama’s policies to combat climate change by reducing emissions from fossil fuels. The assault began with Mr. Trump’s pledge in Detroit to roll back fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks, continued with a stingy budget plan that would end funding for climate-related scientific programs and reached an unhappy apex Tuesday with an executive order that, among things, would rescind the centerpiece of Mr. Obama’s clean power strategy, a rule that would...

President Trump issued a sweeping executive order on Tuesday that will begin to undo a slew of government efforts to fight global warming. Among those worrying and watching to see how the executive order plays out are scientists who actually are in favor of exploring bold interventions to artificially cool the climate. Just a year ago, some hoped that the U. S. government would start funding such research and take a leadership role. Back then, advocates for the work saw public funding as ideal, because it would foster transparency, accountability and public trust. But now that the Trump administration is...

MOSUL, Iraq — A sharp rise in the number of civilians reported killed in U.S.-led airstrikes in Iraq and Syria is spreading panic, deepening mistrust and triggering accusations that the United States and its partners may be acting without sufficient regard for lives of noncombatants. The increase comes as local ground forces backed by air support from a U.S.-led coalition close in on the Islamic State’s two main urban bastions — Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq. In front-line neighborhoods in western Mosul, families described cowering in basements for weeks as bombs rained down around them and the Islamic...

On average, every ton of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere imposes damages equal to about $40. The social cost of carbon represents the damages of one ton of carbon dioxide emitted into the air. To estimate it, economists run models that forecast varying levels of carbon dioxide emissions. They can then model and compare two forecasts – one with slightly higher emissions than the other. The difference in total climate change damages represents the social cost of carbon. Some model scenarios, based on admittedly extreme assumptions, produce negative SCC estimates – that is, they find that carbon pollution is...