Free Republic

America's beloved dogs and cats play a significant role in causing global warming, according to a new study by UCLA. Most cat or dog lovers would say they can't imagine living in a world without pets, but as the threat of global warming increases, environmentally conscious pet lovers may need to make some tough choices, according to the study. Pet ownership in the United States creates about 64 million tons of carbon dioxide a year, UCLA researchers found. That's the equivalent of driving 13.6 million cars for a year. The problem lies with the meat-filled diets of kitties and...

The widening of Interstate 66 outside the Capital Beltway is bringing HOT lanes to one of the region’s most congested corridors. It also will make room for bicyclists and pedestrians — putting them on a trail next to one of the region’s busiest and most congested highways. The bike path, part of the $2.3 billion interstate expansion project, has drawn cheers and criticism from biking aficionados who welcome the addition of the trail but say, if built as proposed, users will be too close to cars whizzing by on the interstate and exposed to toxic exhaust fumes. For about five...

after 8 long years of solar energy businesses being promoted by the U.S. government, hard numbers and real work experiences are causing people to reassess just how “green” solar energy is. To begin with, it appears that solar panels create 300 times more toxic waste per unit of electricity generated than nuclear power plants.... And while nuclear energy production does generate radioactive wastes, the sheer volume difference shows that the nuclear energy is more efficient at energy production. And while “toxic” may seem less hazardous than “radioactives”, heavy metals are forever whereas radioactive particles decay over time. Chronic exposures to...

The fact that it’s being proposed by Republicans doesn’t make it any more economically palatable. Madness is rare in individuals — but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule — Friedrich Nietzsche ‘Cap and trade was just one way of skinning the cat; it was not the only way,” Barack Obama declared after Democrats’ disastrous losses in the 2010 midterm elections. That shellacking finally killed off the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill. From it was born the EPA’s Clean Power Plan and the Obama administration’s war on coal, in turn a contributory factor to Donald Trump’s election and Republicans’...

Least terns. A federal lawsuit. Greenpeace. Vandals. Industrious beavers. Angry homeowners. Bureaucratic delays. These were among the obstacles and setbacks that had to be overcome before the Creek Turnpike was built. At one point, the chairman of the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority declared it a “total disaster” and exclaimed: “The Creek Turnpike in Tulsa, God only knows when that’ll be completed,” John Kilpatrick said, as reported by the Tulsa World’s Wayne Greene on Oct. 19, 1990. “If we had it to do all over again, we wouldn’t do that project,” the exasperated Kilpatrick said after federal bureaucrats held up construction of...

A Parisian woman is taking the French state to court for failing to protect her health from the effects of air pollution. Clotilde Nonnez, a 56-year-old yoga teacher, says she has lived in the capital for 30 years and seen her health deteriorate. However, it became worse than ever when pollution in Paris hit record levels last December. Her lawyer says air pollution is causing 48,000 French deaths per year. "We are taking the state to task because we think the medical problems that pollution victims suffer are as a result of the authorities' lack of action in tackling air...

Despite recent attempts to paint the United States as a major global polluter, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), the U.S. is among the cleanest nations on the planet. In the most recent WHO report on air pollution, the United States was listed as one of the countries with the cleanest air in the world, significantly cleaner in fact than the air in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the UK, Japan, Austria and France.

Does watching a movie nowadays leave you with the feeling that you’ve just been preached to? Quite likely it’s because you have. The whole Hollywood industry has abandoned its primary cause of entertainment and moved into the field of social conditioning. And the agenda is not in our interests; it’s in the interests of the big corporations and the liberal elites. Consider one example: Neill Blomkamp’s 2013 blockbuster Elysium. The human race lives in two divided societies, one in the space station Elysium, where all is clean and diseases are miraculously cured, and the other on the poor, polluted planet...

A telephone survey seeking opinions about the expansion of I-70 through east Denver is generating irate protests from some respondents, who say the survey seems designed to elicit positive responses about the purported benefits of the $1.8 billion project."It was one of the most one-sided push polls I ever listened to," Larry Patchett, a production technician for public television, wrote in a complaint to CDOT. "The entire thing was just a series of opportunities to validate your suppositions and PR spin on the I-70 Ditch project." The project, which would replace a crumbling six-lane viaduct with a below-grade, partially covered...

DENVER — Each morning Yadira Sanchez and her three children awaken to the roar of traffic and the plumes of exhaust that spill from the highway that cuts through their neighborhood. Now, Ms. Sanchez and her family are confronting a plan to triple the width of this state’s main east-west artery, sending tens of thousands more cars by their door. Denver was the fastest-growing large city in America in 2015, with a population of nearly 700,000, and the scene of a tech and marijuana boom that has drawn 1,000 new households a month. But as in other cities, its highways...

Air quality in some East Asian capitals is famously poor, with residents of Beijing taking extreme measures to avoid the health risks associated with heavy pollution. The problem has grown worse as emerging Asian economies, particularly China, have increased their use of high-sulfur coal and private automobiles. Now, scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) warn that East Asian pollution may be causing smog along the West Coast of the United States, as nitrogen oxides move on air currents across the Pacific Ocean.

CANNON BALL, N.D – After seven months of protests, beating drums, freezing nights and canned chili, police shut down campsites once occupied by tens of thousands of environmentalists and Native Americans fighting the North Dakota Access Pipeline project. At least one person was injured Wednesday after protesters set fire to a handful of wooden structures at the makeshift campsite. Cecily Fong, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Emergency Services, says the extent of the unidentified female's injuries weren't known. Fong said an ambulance was being sent to the encampment. Most of the 200 to 300 protesters who remained at...

I got my notice from the state last month: you can’t renew your plates until you get an emissions test. Naturally, my first thought was “Sounds good to me; so I just won’t renew my plates! There’s a nice hundred dollar savings…” But of course, realistically, that’s not an option. So I awakened early and drove to an Illinois Air Team location for the test. I can’t complain, exactly… the employees are always polite and efficient; since I arrived before they opened, I was first in line; it took no time at all. So, let me make this clear: I...

Ontario’s hell-bent determination to phase out coal-fired generation raised electricity rates without significantly improving air pollution levels, a new Fraser Institute report says. Ontario’s hell-bent determination to phase out coal-fired generation raised electricity rates without significantly improving air pollution levels, a new Fraser Institute report says. Report co-author Ross McKitrick, an economics professor at the University of Guelph, said the findings should act as a cautionary tale for Alberta and Ottawa currently going down the same road. Even though there was reliable information available at the time that showed Ontario coal was not a big player in common air pollution...

A New Zealand company is canning and selling the country’s air to smog-ridden China. Breathe Ezy sells aerosol canisters of compressed air from the Southern Alps mountain range, which extends along New Zealand’s South Island, for NZ$25 (about USD$18 or £14). The company’s director, Phillip Duval, said the business is “thundering along” and apparently selling tens of thousands of the canisters to Chinese buyers each month.

It’s called the Clean Air Act, but it was never intended to ensure pure, pristine air. Congress wanted America to have safe, healthy air, and regulations based on solid scientific and medical studies.The law says costs cannot be considered where human health and safety are actually at stake. But legislators also understood that efforts to bring emissions to zero are unnecessary, technologically impossible, extremely expensive, harmful to electricity generation, factory output, job creation and retention, and living standards – and thus likely to reduce human health, wellbeing and longevity.The Obama Environmental Protection Agency ignored these facts and employed highly dubious...

As Smog Hits China, Chinese Tourists Seek Fresh Air On Pollution Free Holidays Wolfgang Georg Arlt Jan 5, 2017 The year 2017 started for China with the first ever nationwide red level fog alarm. On January 4th, the country disappeared under a thick blanket of fog with visibility reduced to below 50 meters (164 feet), grounding air transport and rendering travel by car almost impossible. Red and orange smog alarms were raised in cities from Harbin to Guangzhou and from Chengdu to Hangzhou, halting half of all private transport and forcing many polluting factories and construction sites to shut down...

DENVER (CBS4)– Federal authorities told the Colorado Department of Transportation and opponents of the planned Interstate 70 expansion this week that it would open an investigation into claims the project violates the Civil Rights Act.The pending investigation comes in response to a federal complaint filed with the U.S Department of Transportation by Earthjustice, an environmental law firm, and neighborhood groups impacted by the project, including the Cross Community Coalition, Colorado Latino Forum and Elyria-Swansea Neighborhood Association. Filed last month, the complaint alleges CDOT’s plan will result in “disparate and severe environmental and economic impacts” on the predominantly Latino communities.Candi CdeBaca,...

The streets of San Francisco are used to weird smells. However, on Wednesday morning, a mysterious rotten-egg and sulfur-like odor that baffled city and federal agencies and prompted dozens of phone calls of complaint. [Snip] The calls initially came from the downtown area and then moved toward the Marina, Sunset and Richmond neighborhoods. SFist said complaints also poured in from Bayview, the Tenderloin, Nob Hill, the Marina, SoMa and the Mission. Officials with SF Environment, San Francisco Public Works and the city’s Department of Emergency Management, as well as Recology, were reportedly notified, KQED reports.

After seeing all the damage from the recent hurricane, it’s time for South Carolina to abandon projects such as Interstate 73. There’s been a lot of fallen trees and a lot of flooding. What makes the state believe that flooding of urban areas is not being caused by the filling of wetlands, the heightening of new roads, and putting more concrete pilings in drainage basin areas? Before building any more roads, an environmental impact study should include what hindrances there will be to water drainage after all those waterways are filled with dirt, concrete piers and steel rebar. Water from...