Free Republic

Then in 1999 an obscure young US physicist, Michael Mann, came up with a new graph like nothing seen before. Instead of the familiar rises and falls in temperature over the past 1,000 years, the line ran virtually flat, only curving up dramatically at the end in a hockey-stick shape to show recent decades as easily the hottest on record. This was just what the IPCC wanted, The Mediaeval Warming had simply been wiped from the record. When its next report came along in 2001, Mann's graph was given top billing, appearing right at the top of page one of...

A new system for mapping carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. will help regulators figure out exactly where these emissions are coming from and how best to reduce them. Among human-produced gases that contribute to climate change, carbon dioxide is public enemy number one. A group of researchers at Purdue University, led by atmospheric scientist Kevin Gurney, created the interactive mapping system. Called Vulcan, the system tracks the hourly output of carbon dioxide—emitted when fossil fuels such as coal and gasoline are burned—from factories, power plants and other sources across the country. Vulcan shows carbon dioxide emissions at a scale...

Anchorage continues to dig out from a snowfall that set a record for the day and the month.The National Weather Service says 17.2 inches fell at its office just south of Anchorage's international airport and 22 inches fell in northeast Anchorage on Friday and Saturday. The heaviest snow fell between 3 and 6 p.m. Friday at a rate of almost two inches per hour. The monthly total at the weather service office is now 29.7 inches, breaking a record from 1963 when 27.6 inches fell during April.

Snow fell across London on Sunday before an Olympic torch relay through the capital that is expected to attract anti-China protests. About 80 athletes and celebrities will carry the torch by foot, bike, boat and bus during a 31-mile (50-km) journey starting at Wembley Stadium and ending in Greenwich. The 2008 Games take place in Beijing from August 8 to 24. The next Summer Olympics are in London in 2012. Anti-China protesters are set to appear at key points along the route. Police have said they will be dealt with firmly if they try to disrupt the torch's journey. The...

Embracing Earth Charter key to environmental salvation Author and U of A professor Colin Soskolne says humans need to smarten up. March 7, 2008 - Edmonton -- Human beings, laments Colin Soskolne, are a "seriously dumb species." Just what kind of defect drives us to destroy the very ecosystems that provide us with sustenance? Why do we turn away from mounting, irrefutable evidence that we are sabotaging our very existence?Such questions are asked in a new collection of essays, called Sustaining Life on Earth: Environmental and Human Health through Global Governance, edited by Soskolne, on the environment and human health."Our...