Free Republic

With Oregon considering an economy-threatening 50-cent-per-gallon tax to combat "climate change," Art Robinson contends it's time for a scientist to join the state legislature. As a former colleague of Nobel-winner Linus Pauling, member of the biochemistry faculty at the University of California at San Diego and chairman of the Oregon Republican Party, Robinson believes he fits the bill. "I think that Oregon voters would be benefited by sending a scientist to their state Senate in order to correct the lies that are being told there – lies that parrot the pronouncements of unethical and untruthful 'scientists,'" he said in a...

In 2014, Joe Duggan started reaching out to climate scientists to ask them a question: how did climate change make them feel? “I was just blown away when I started getting the letters back,” he says. Duggan, a science communicator at Australian National University, set up a website and starting publishing the mostly handwritten responses. “[Professor] Katrin Meissner was one of the first, and her letter really hit me. It was so ... unscience-y. Almost poetic.” “It makes me feel sad. And it scares me,” Meissner wrote. “It scares me more than anything else. I see a group of people...

Climate change and sea level rise are currently on track to wipe out half the world’s sandy beaches by 2100, researchers warned Monday. Even if humanity sharply reduces the fossil fuel pollution that drives global warming, more than a third of the planet’s sandy shorelines could disappear by then, crippling coastal tourism in countries large and small, they reported in the journal Nature Climate Change. “Apart from tourism, sandy beaches often act as the first line of defence from coastal storms and flooding, and without them impacts of extreme weather events will probably be higher,” lead author Michalis Vousdoukas, a...

If atmospheric science is not science, what is it? It is the nearest thing to a religion, particularly for the liberal secular humanists, atheists, and agnostics of the left. It has a pretty close copy of the concept of original sin and drips with guilt. It is the lever that politicians on the left will use to change our economy, violate our constitution, and restrict our freedoms. It is offered as the "big problem" that only "big government" or maybe "world government" can solve. This stuff is "junk science." These folks read ice core samples and tree rings the way...

It's cold tonight, and I sit at my desk, wishing it were warmer. Even with central heat and air, winter is a difficult time. My sinuses are inflamed, my knuckles are dry and red, and my joints are sore with the cold. Every year I dread it more. And now environmentalists like Jeff Bezos want to make it colder. It's no accident that Shakespeare wrote of "the winter of our discontent" (Richard III) and of "the icy fang / And churlish chiding of the winter's wind" (As You Like It). Shakespeare, who lived through some of the coldest decades of...

On Sunday's What's Eating America?, hosted by celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern, the second episode of the new food-focused MSNBC series engaged in scaremongering with predictions about the food industry being hurt by climate change, and indicted "deniers" for not believing climate change is caused by human activity. The show used several sources who are liberal activists critical of conservatives who are skeptical of climate alarmist views, with one even calling it "criminal" for skeptics to dispute the claims of alarmists. The new MSNBC host teased the show holding a plate of food he had prepared containing Alaskan salmon, summer sweet...

The U.S. Energy Information Administration just announced some spectacular news that should be banner headlines across the country: The price of natural gas has fallen to its lowest February level in 20 years. The data shows that natural gas prices fell to $1.77 per million British thermal units. In inflation-adjusted terms, the price of gas has plunged by some 80% since its high of $13.60 12 years ago. The price is down 90% since 2005, when prices hit nearly $20.

The key finding of the Brundtland Report is this: "Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." This is the theory that mankind is raping the Earth, plundering its resources, spreading pollution, and overwhelming the Earth's ability to support the population. This was and still is a theory embraced by those that don't like things as they are and wish to turn society upside down in the hope that they will like what results better. Venezuela is a...

This nearly universally held belief that even the most skeptical of us tend to believe is “warming by recollection.” Virtually every person from snowy climes claims that winters today are nothing like they were when they were a child. This recollection reinforces the thought that we are experiencing global warming within our own lifetime. Never mind that the slight warming of ~0.6 oF (0.3 oC) that a typical 45-year-old may have experienced since that big snowfall when he was five years old is much too slight to be recognizable by anyone. Before I looked at the actual data on the...

With teen climate-change icon Greta Thunberg in the audience along with world leaders, President Trump declared he rejects environmental "prophets of doom" in a speech Tuesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "To embrace the possibilities of tomorrow we must reject the perennial prophets of doom and their predictions of the Apocalypse," he said. "They are the heirs of yesterday's foolish fortune tellers, and they want to see us do badly but we won't let that happen." Trump said they "predicted an overpopulation crisis in the 1960s, mass starvation in the 70s, and an end of oil in...

Swedish climate policy is the worst waste of the year 2019. At least when the Swedish people are allowed to decide. Climate policy is therefore awarded the award by the Taxpayers' Waste Ombudsman. - The government has more than doubled the appropriations for climate policy, but despite this, emissions no longer decrease. In 2018, emissions even increased. That is why climate policy has been voted the worst waste of the year, says Johan Gustafsson, Waste Ombudsman at the Taxpayers' Association. With over 18,000 votes, it was a new record in the number of votes for the competition's worst waste of...

In 2004, the U.S. Department of Defense released a report warning that by 2020, major European cities would be under water, Britain would be plunged into a "Siberian" climate and the world would be teetering on anarchy, with mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting. The secret Pentagon report, the Observer reported at the time, was, suppressed by American defense chiefs, noted John Nolte of Breitbart News. The report said abrupt climate change could bring the world to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. "Disruption and conflict will...

On Thursday's New Day show, CNN correspondent Anna Coren highlighted accusations by climate alarmists that the Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, is partly to blame for the intensity of the current wildfires because he has not done enough to support regulations to try to curb global warming, as if were possible for government action to do so. At 6:45 a.m. Eastern, after Coren spent most of a two-minute report recalling the plight of Australian residents in New South Wales who are having trouble finding a safe place because of the large area effected by the fires, the CNN correspondent concluded...

Full header: 'Climate despair' is making people give up on life 'It's super painful to be a human being right now at this point in history' In the summer of 2015—the warmest year on record at the time—it was the literal heat that got to Meg Ruttan Walker, a 37-year-old former teacher in Kitchener, Ontario. “Summers have been stressful to me since having my son,” said Ruttan Walker, who is now an environmental activist. “It’s hard to enjoy a season that’s a constant reminder that the world is getting warmer.” “I think my anxiety just reached a peak,” Ruttan Walker...

On Thursday, a group called Moms Clean Air Force hosted a rather unique climate change protest. A group of mothers flew in to Washington, D.C., and rented a space near the U.S. Capitol for a "play-in." They created a "sit-in" style protest that allowed their kids to do what they always do — run around and play — but made it seem like a demonstration. "I'm here at the [Play-In for Climate]! Kids can't stay still long enough for a Sit In, so we are having a Play In! Thank you [Clean Air Moms] for calling for 100% clean energy,"...

Don't let HBO's acclaimed five-part series Chernobyl (HBO, IMDb, Wikipedia) demonize all nuclear power in your mind. It made this kid eager to read Mac MacDowell's important June 3 article here at American Thinker. In "Rare Earth Minerals and Thorium," MacDowell explains a different type of nuclear reactor that would do more than just help us produce clean energy. "Global warmists" would do well to read it. If that article floats your boat, then you might also listen to the podcast of John Miller, a trader. In "Wind 'Farms' = Inefficient Power Plants," Mr. Miller reports on a "wind farm,"...

U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry blasted proponents of the Green New Deal as “a bunch of kids who’ve never been on the playground before.” The former Texas governor’s comments came during a wide-ranging policy discussion on Fox News host Brian Kilmeade’s radio show Thursday. “This is a bunch of kids who’ve never been on the playground before, they’ve never even been on the field of play before,” Perry told Kilmeade when asked about the plan. “They’re sitting on the sidelines and they’re saying, ‘Here’s what I can do. Let’s do this, zero emissions in 10 years. Alright let’s all go...

Supreme Court Justice John Roberts granted the Trump administration a stay Friday night in a climate lawsuit several young people leveled against the government. The Trump administration repeatedly asked both the SCOTUS and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to stop the trial through a writ of mandamus, a rarely used judicial tool allowing a higher court to overrule a lower court before a verdict is made. Roberts granted mandamus after the 9th Circuit twice turned down the writ. The 21 plaintiffs, all between the ages of 11 and 22, are arguing that federal officials violated their due process rights...

Our friend David Rutz at the Washington Free Beacon listened to a typically one-sided hour of National Public Radio on climate change on Tuesday and wrote an article titled "NPR: How Do We Talk to the Dangerous Idiots Who Disagree With Us?" The national talk show 1A tweeted out this summation: "Climate change is a fundamental threat. The science is clear and scientists around the world agree that this a man-made problem. What, if anything, can be done to win over climate skeptics?" Rutz summarized it this way: "I listened to a remarkable bit of self-parody on National Public Radio...

A new report lays out how liberal nonprofits are funneling millions to Democratic governors to further their agenda. This not only brings up legal concerns, but also raises questions whether this represents “government for hire.” Democratic governors want to mobilize $50 million a year by 2020 for their climate policy agenda. Democratic California Gov. Jerry Brown’s upcoming global warming activist summit is part of an effort to funnels millions of dollars from nonprofits to state politicians to advance a liberal climate agenda, according to a new report. Brown’s so-called “Global Climate Action Summit” begins Wednesday and is sure to garner...