Free Republic

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Could "green" become a new watchword in TV programming? While the media companies have long been touting everything they're doing behind the scenes to become more environment-friendly, the message increasingly is seeping into their programming. On Wednesday, Discovery Communications launches the first 24/7 eco-friendly network, Planet Green, which will take over the space occupied by Discovery Home Channel. That follows NBC Universal's second companywide "Green Week" in April -- featuring 100 hours of green-themed content airing across 42 NBC Universal brands and 28 Web sites -- with two more already planned for November and April....

Remember the campaign against smokers? It started quietly and grew to hysteria. From bans to added taxes, smokers were left to wonder what hit them. Tobacco was (and continues to be) a legal substance. Now, following the same pattern, a push has started against red meat.

For a century, an ambitious, arrogant, unscrupulous knowledge class -- social planners, scientists, intellectuals, experts and their left-wing political allies -- arrogated to themselves the right to rule either in the name of the oppressed working class (communism) or, in its more benign form, by virtue of their superior expertise in achieving the highest social progress by means of state planning (socialism). Two decades ago, however, socialism and communism died rudely, then were buried forever by the empirical demonstration of the superiority of market capitalism everywhere from Thatcher's England to Deng's China, where just the partial abolition of socialism lifted...

A scheme recently proposed by British MP Tim Yeo shows what would happen to individual freedom if the environmentalist agenda on CO2 ever got enacted into law. This bill establishes a state-run British Carbon Cartel via the mechanism described below.Every adult in the UK would be given an annual carbon dioxide allowance in kgs and a special carbon card. The scheme would cover road fuel, flights and energy bills. Every time someone paid for road fuel, flights or energy, their carbon account would be docked. A litre of petrol would use up 2.3kg in carbon, while every 1.3 miles of...

Iadmit it: I'm no environmentalist. But I like to think I'm something of a conservationist. No doubt for millions of Americans this is a distinction without a difference, as the two words are usually used interchangeably. But they're different things, and the country would be better off if we sharpened the distinctions between both word and concept. At its core, environmentalism is a kind of nature worship. It's a holistic ideology, shot through with religious sentiment. "If you look carefully," author Michael Crichton famously observed, "you see that environmentalism is in fact a perfect 21st century remapping of traditional Judeo-Christian...

WASHINGTON - The Senate has rejected a Republican energy plan that calls for opening an Alaska wildlife refuge and some offshore waters to oil development. Supporters of the measure couldn't get the needed 60 votes to overcome a Democratic-led filibuster threat. Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said more domestic oil production is needed to keep prices in check and to reduce U.S. dependence on oil imports. Opponents said areas such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and coastal waters that have been off limits to drilling for 25 years ought to remain that out of bounds to oil companies....

Did you hear that Obama criticized us for driving big SUVs and eating our foods? I heard it on Fox News' 'Special Report' a few minutes ago. Mr. Barak Hussein Osama Bin-Laudin Obama, I do not want my GOVERNMENT to tell me either: a)What kind of car I can drive or b)What food I can eat. I live in a FREE COUNTRY -- so I don't need a NANNY STATE to tell me what to do. That is SOCIALISM you JACK@SS!!

"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK," Obama said. From this story: WASHINGTON (AFP) — Barack Obama set his sights on November's general election Saturday as he campaigned in Oregon, where he hopes to declare victory in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.Obama has said Tuesday's primaries in Oregon and Kentucky could mark the end of his drawn-out battle with rival Hillary Clinton, and his campaign pressed home that message by...

ENVIROMENTAL - RADICAL GREENS HARM THE EARTH MORE THAN THEY HELP By MAX SCHULZ nypost.com April 20, 2008 -- Tuesday is Earth Day, the calendar's High Holy Day of Green theology. With each passing year, environmentalism more clearly assumes the trappings of a secular religion. Now, along comes Iain Murray to assert that the Green God is dead. Murray's new book, "The Really Inconvenient Truths: Seven Environmental Catastrophes Liberals Don't Want You to Know About - Because They Helped Cause Them," clarifies...

(TomDispatch) -- Oil at $110 a barrel. Gasoline at $3.35 (or more) per gallon. Diesel fuel at $4 per gallon. Independent truckers forced off the road. Home heating oil rising to unconscionable price levels. Jet fuel so expensive that three low-cost airlines stopped flying in the past few weeks. This is just a taste of the latest energy news, signaling a profound change in how all of us, in this country and around the world, are going to live -- trends that, so far as anyone can predict, will only become more pronounced as energy supplies dwindle and the global...

WASHINGTON - Ralph Nader could be poised for another third party presidential campaign. The consumer advocate will appear on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday. Nader launched his 2004 presidential run on the show. A spokesman for Nader did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Kevin Zeese, who was Nader's spokesman during the 2004 presidential race, but is no longer working for him, said Friday that Nader has been actively talking to "lots of people on all sorts of levels" about the possibility of making another run. Zeese said he could only guess what Nader might do, but added:...

BY now you'll be in a panic, wondering how to save yourself from the apocalypse to come. After all, when the Profit of Doom, Al Gore, says global warming risks "ending all human civilisation" you'll have figured it will take more than a few low-energy light bulbs to save us. Too right, so I've collected the best and most original tips of many experts on how to slash the gases they say are killing the planet. Follow this advice and we'll be, um . . . safe? 1. Get rid of humans. Greenpeace co-founder Paul Watson insists we "reduce human...

Critics have long believed environmentalists were planning global domination. The problem with making a credible case against such an ambitious plan was simple: no environmental leader had published one. Yet conflicts over global warming, world trade, multinational corporations, population control, sustainable futures, and transnational government left little doubt that environmentalists in fact shared the unspoken aim of wielding supreme power over a green future. But there was no proof. For years, critics, lacking hard evidence, were reduced to piecing together a jigsaw puzzle of suspicious environmentalist actions - funding from huge charitable trusts, ties to the broader "progressive" community, and...

A fair and global effort to tackle climate change needs wealthy states to take the lead in CO2 cuts The Bali summit on climate change, which starts next week, will seek to lay the foundations for a new global agreement on reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that cause rising temperatures and climate change. Ambitious targets for emission reduction must be at the heart of that agreement, together with effective market mechanisms that encourage emission trading between countries, rich and poor. The problem of climate change involves a fundamental failure of markets: those who damage others by emitting greenhouse gases generally...

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 31 — Federal fisheries officials in Seattle on Wednesday endorsed, with minor modifications, a plan for the government’s continued operation of the hydroelectric dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers. They said it did not jeopardize the survival of 13 stocks of salmon and steelhead that the government must protect under the Endangered Species Act. The endorsement, a draft analysis from the National Marine Fisheries Service, agreed with dozens of proposed protective actions that would provide enhanced measures to get juvenile fish past the dams as they swim seaward, improve habitat in the river and discourage predators...

The United Nations has just issued yet another scaremongering assessment of the world’s environment. It was put together by the UN’s principal environmental agency, known as the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). The best way to engineer transformation of the current legal system to global governance of the environment, under the auspices of the UN, is for its “experts” to first create the mass perception of an imminent cosmic cataclysm if humanity continues on its present course.[1] The UNEP report, known as “Global Environment Outlook: Environment for Development (GEO-4)”, covers not just global warming. It covers all dimensions of environmental deterioration...

For all the money spent, nobody can say if the offsets have done much to alleviate global warming.... Without government regulation and mandatory caps on emissions, all that is left to drive offset sales is guilt and marketing. Offset companies charge what the market will bear. "How much are you willing to spend to feel good or to impress your neighbors?" asked Marland, of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. For Katy Hansen, a 29-year-old law school student, the answer was $429.99. She wanted to offset the travel of the guests to her May wedding in Madison, Wis., and paid San Francisco-based...

Back in 2004, Lancaster University's Professor Roger Kemp, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Engineering, produced a report for the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, on the environmental impact of high-speed rail versus air and car travel. He used the example of the London to Edinburgh route to illustrate his findings. The conclusions were startling and rather annoying for the car hating Green fundamentalists.

VENEZUELA: Chavez calls for global offensive for socialism 31 August 2005 "I believe it is time that we take up with courage and clarity a political, social, collective and ideological offensive across the world — a real offensive that permits us to move progressively, over the next years, the next decades, leaving behind the perverse, destructive, destroyer, capitalist model and go forward in constructing the socialist model to avoid barbarism and beyond that the annihilation of life on this planet. I believe this idea has a strong connection with reality. I don't think we have much time. Fidel Castro said...

The new head of the Science Museum has an uncompromising view about how global warming should be dealt with: get rid of a few billion people. Chris Rapley, who takes up his post on September 1, is not afraid of offending. 'I am not advocating genocide,' said Rapley. 'What I am saying is that if we invest in ways to reduce the birthrate - by improving contraception, education and healthcare - we will stop the world's population reaching its current estimated limit of between eight and 10 billion. That in turn will mean less carbon dioxide is being pumped into...

When Gareth Groves brought home his massive new Hummer, he knew his environmentally friendly neighbors disapproved. But he didn't expect what happened next. The sport utility vehicle was parked for five days on the street before two masked men smashed the windows, slashed the tires and scratched into the body: "FOR THE ENVIRON." "The thought of somebody vandalizing it never crossed my mind," said Gareth Groves, who lives near American University in Northwest Washington. "I've kind of been in shock." Police said they see small acts of vandalism in the area from time to time, but they have not seen...

But not of global warming — the Greens are out to get us Commentary | Archives March 28th, 2007 President Václav Klaus startled world audiences March 19 with his letter to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce in the U.S. Congress. The statement attacks global warming as a myth and calls environmentalism more dangerous than communism. Although scientists and policymakers at home and abroad have pointed out his arguments lack any reference to research studies, Klaus reiterated his long-held position in answers to Congress’ questions, an abridged version of which follows. The complete text is available in Czech...

Climate response has barely scratched the surface on social inequity, according to James Norman. THE new millennium has seen unprecedented shifts in world politics and economics, and increasingly climate change is taking centre stage. Yet there are many aspects of global warming that we have barely begun to understand — such as its potential to exacerbate already existing social inequity on both the local and international level. The Equity in Response to Climate Change Roundtable has brought about a unique partnership between Australia's peak environment and welfare groups — the Brotherhood of St Laurence, Australian Conservation Foundation, National Welfare Rights...

            A man who ceases to believe in God does not believe in nothing; he believes in anything.     - G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy The apocalyptic vision of global warming serves a deep need of the environmentalist credo, the dominant pseudo-religious tendency of our age in the prosperous West. For good or ill, human beings are constructed to believe, and faith has its demands.. Along with the concrete elements that demand belief (that fire burns and that it's not wise to walk off cliffs, for example) there exists an apparent necessity for a belief in "the rock higher than I" - a belief...

This book comes out later this month, but it looks great: "An outrageous, alarming look at how the environmental movement, with its radical, short-sighted eco-activists, has actually helped amplify the dangers of natural disasters..." - American Compass The author debunks myths and libels about: global warming and climate change, the dangers of pesticides like DDT, trees and pollution, fuel economy and the auto industry, the threat posed by asbestos, the lifesaving role of dams and levees and plans to "rewild" America. If you want to know the difference between radical enviros and rational enviros, this looks like the book to...

Creating 'human-animals' for research Ethics report endorses mingling human cells with lesser beings Sunday, May 1, 2005 Posted: 0316 GMT (1116 HKT) RENO, Nevada (AP) -- On a farm about six miles outside this gambling town, Jason Chamberlain looks over a flock of about 50 smelly sheep, many of them possessing partially human livers, hearts, brains and other organs. The University of Nevada-Reno researcher talks matter-of-factly about his plans to euthanize one of the pregnant sheep in a nearby lab. He can't wait to examine the effects of the human cells he had injected into the fetus' brain about two...

Los Angeles -- A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order Monday barring the Navy from using a particular kind of sonar allegedly harmful to marine mammals during a Pacific warfare exercise scheduled to begin this week. The order comes three days after the Navy obtained a six-month national defense exemption from the Defense Department allowing it to use "mid-frequency active sonar." Environmental groups had sued to stop the Navy's use of the sonar in the Rim of the Pacific 2006 exercise off Hawaii. The use of sonar in the war games was set to start Thursday. U.S. District Judge...

Judy Ettenhofer: Gore's 'Truth' needs to be acted upon now By Judy Ettenhofer, June 21, 2006 When "Fahrenheit 9/11," the Michael Moore screen diatribe against our current president, arrived in Madison theaters shortly before the 2004 presidential election, people sympathetic to its message couldn't get enough of it. They flocked to screenings and breathlessly implored their friends to see the movie that bolstered all their reasons for hating George W. Bush. It is my profound hope that the same kind of passionate evangelism occurs as a result of a much, much more crucial film that arrived at Westgate and Eastgate...

ALGOMA, Wis.The blue-green waters of Lake Michigan stretching to the horizon. "I'll fight this every way I can," said Algoma alderman Ken Taylor, chairman of the city's marina committee. "The beautiful view we have would be destroyed" The turbines would be huge, towering as high as 400 feet with blade spans wider than a football field The payoff would come in increased energy production, Mr. Musial said. Winds over water are generally stronger, less turbulent and more consistent than on land. "Offshore machines can make about twice as much as onshore," Mr. Musial said. "It's a potentially big resource for...

Nomenclature and in particular, catchy phrases and slogans, are integral to the institution and leadership of political action and violence as well as simplifying or condensing the rational for such action into neat and all encompassing phraseology. Take for example, "from each according to ability, to each according to need." This trite phrase uttered by Bolsheviks encapsulated the raison d'être and legitimized the terror inflicted by their foot soldiers against "bloodsuckers" and "enemies of the state" who were murdered and relieved of their property. Who was a bloodsucker or enemy of the state was decided upon by Bolshevik leadership. In...

Dutch told to return land they won from the sea By David Rennie in Zaamslag (Filed: 27/05/2006) A photograph of a grinning boy, riding a toy tractor, has pride of place in the kitchen of Aarnout and Magda de Feijter, the owners of a 148-acre farm in the Dutch province of Zeeland. The picture is of their first grandson, Louis, and the de Feijters have always dreamed that he will one day take over the expanse of wind-rippled flax fields that has been in their family since 1835. The de Feijters on the dyke protecting their farm But there are...

Reporting Iran to UN 'grave mistake,' warns Greenpeace London, Feb 2, IRNA Iran Nuclear-Greenpeace Greenpeace International Thursday warned IAEA board member meeting in Vienna not to report Iran to the UN Security Council, saying it was "not the right body" to resolve whether a country has the right to a nuclear programme. "This is a grave mistake. It's the triumph of hawkish sabre- rattling over diplomacy. It's the beginning of a slide toward war," the environmentalist organization said. It said it was opposed to any nation acquiring nuclear technology and nuclear weapons, but believed "the best way to ensure that...

Seattle -- A federal judge who struck down a Bush administration decision to ease logging restrictions last summer issued an injunction Monday blocking as many as 144 timber sales in three states. The sales in Washington, Oregon and northern California had been approved under the administration's decision to stop requiring that the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management look for and protect rare plants and animals before logging on 5.5 million acres covered by the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan. The Bush administration eliminated the so-called "survey and manage" rule in spring 2004 as part of a legal settlement with...

WASHINGTON – In 1986, Gale Norton was 32 and working for the secretary of the interior on matters pertaining to the proposal to open a small portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge – area 1002 – to drilling for oil and natural gas, a proposal that then had already been a bone of contention for several years. Today Norton is the secretary of the interior and is working on opening ANWR. But this interminable argument actually could end soon with Congress authorizing drilling. That would be good for energy policy and excellent for the nation's governance. Area 1002 is...

WASHINGTON — In 1986, Gale Norton was 32 and working for the secretary of the interior on matters pertaining to the proposal to open a small portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — area 1002 — to drilling for oil and natural gas, a proposal that then had already been a bone of contention for several years. Today Norton is the secretary of the interior and is working on opening ANWR. But this interminable argument actually could end soon with Congress authorizing drilling. That would be good for energy policy and excellent for the nation's governance. Area 1002 is...

Animal rights terrorists have won a battle in New York, and all it took was a few gallons of paint and a little trespassing. On the evening of November 15th, according to a press release from the Animal Liberation Front, these thugs went to the home of Lloyd Harbor mayor Leland Hairr. They painted anti-hunting slogans across the home, gained access to the garage (the Animal Liberation Front says the garage door was open), and painted more anti-hunting slogans on both cars. Then they put a statement on the internet containing the mayor’s address and home phone number, adding, “His...

Science and religion may differ on how we got here, but increasingly there is little disagreement on where we are headed if we don't begin to address the causes of climate change. Scientists have long warned of the dangers of global warming attributed to our profligate use of fossil fuels. Now, one of the nation's most influential religious groups is delivering the same message, if based on an alternative standard of proof. "I had a conversion experience on the climate issue not unlike my conversion to Christ," Richard Cizik, vice president for governmental affairs at the National Association of Evangelicals,...

The Hurricane Katrina fiasco has been blamed on President Bush, on poorly prepared or corrupt state and local governments, and even (by Rush Limbaugh) on a “culture of entitlement” that persuaded people they should stay in their homes and let the feds take care of them. But blaming it on environmentalists? That’s a new one. The latest wrinkle in the blame game comes in a September 8 article from a Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) scribe that charges “environmental activist groups” (specifically American Rivers and the Sierra Club) with opposing flood protection by filing lawsuits against levee construction as an “artificial...

Radical leftist group CODEPINK is joining forces with radical Islamic front group The Muslim Public Affairs Committee and academic America-hater Mark LeVine, to sponsor an event on September 12 in Los Angeles: On Monday, Sept. 12, 7:30 p.m., Middle East historian Mark LeVine presents his new book Why They Don't Hate Us: Unveiling the Axis of Evil and engages in conversation with CODEPINK cofounder Jodie Evans, who has made several trips to Iraq, along with Baghdad-born Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, a progressive voice for Muslim Americans based in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. The...

Kuwait City, 25 July (AKI) - Security officials in Kuwait have banned the import of Iraqi watermelons amid fears the fruit could be used to smuggle explosives or drugs into the Gulf state. The ban follows reports in local newspapers that security officers on the Kuwaiti-Iraqi border stopped two trucks on Sunday carrying watermelons stuffed with explosives. The explosives were discovered when one security inspector noticed cracks in the watermelons while searching the vehicles. The drivers of the trucks were handed over to the state security department, but it is not known if they are linked to any militant group....

Kuwaiti border security men on Sunday foiled an attempt to smuggle a large quantity of explosives into Kuwait, the Arab Times reported Monday. According to the daily, two trucks carrying watermelons crossed the Kuwaiti border from Iraq and were about to get into the country when one security inspector saw cracks in a watermelon. He opened it and found explosives. The trucks were thoroughly searched and a large quantity of explosives was found hidden inside the watermelons. The two drivers were referred to the State Security Department for further investigations to find out the partners of these criminals. No details...

Hiking along a ridge trail at Point Reyes National Seashore, Peter Douglas can see the shadow of his past and a glint of the future. The deep-green landscape of conifer trees and chaparral is where he built his first home, raised two sons and spread his grandmother's ashes. He helped establish this place as a national park and a personal reminder of why he perseveres as a leading advocate for California's 1,100-mile coastline. A political Houdini, Douglas has spent a lifetime sparring with developers, local government and even fellow environmentalists over his vision of coastal protection. This year marks his...

What do you envision when you hear the term "environmentalist?" Perhaps a long-haired, sandal-wearing, granola-eating someone comes to mind. But in recent years, people from much different, traditionally more conservative groups have been speaking out on behalf of green causes -- including the Bible-thumping, khaki-wearing kind. It's a development that established environmental groups, such as the Sierra Club and the National Resources Defense Council, are quietly celebrating since they say a greater diversity of voices pushing environmental issues, particularly from the political right, can only have a positive effect on policy. At the same time, these historically liberal and conservative...

Have the nuclear industry and its supporters suddenly gained an environmental consciousness? While they're not planning to close their dangerous, polluting reactors nor begin dealing responsibly with their legacy of toxic radioactive wastes, they are now professing deep concern about climate change — and argue that nuclear power is the only solution. Even environmentalists are turning to nuclear power, we're told. It's not true — you could count them on one hand — but the nuclear boosters and the mainstream media aren't letting the facts get in the way of a good story. Proponents of nuclear power downplay or ignore...

Greenpeace Wages Redwar (The New American, Nov. 19, 1990) The targeted nations of the North Atlantic (In yellow...see original link for map) Because of the growing environmentalist fad of the last few years, much of the public has invested nearly blind faith in organizations claiming to play David to the Goliath of environmental exploitation. Among the leading beneficiaries of this public trust has been the international activist organization Greenpeace. The group began with a 1971 protest against US testing of nuclear weapons, which it followed up with an attempt to physically block French nuclear testing in 1972 by sailing a...

At a recent dinner party with some liberal friends the discussion turned, as it always does, to the state of our world. Specifically, we began talking about climate change and the coming catastrophic result of mankind’s willful defiling of our ecosystem. One of my friends, a columnist for the Toronto Star, told me that he knew without a doubt that our climate change was a direct result of all the SUVs being driven around by soccer moms in North America. If only we added less greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere, the ecosphere would heal and cleanse itself, restoring nature to...

The Nobel Prize has sunk to a new and discrediting low by honoring an environmental activist who insists white scientists created the AIDS virus to eradicate the world’s black population. The media have portrayed Kenyan activist Wangari Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement, as a latter day Johnny Appleseed who has planted millions of trees in Africa. She is in fact a paranoid, anti-white, anti-Western crusader for international socialism. Maathai, the first African woman to win the Nobel Prize, states AIDS is man-made. She claimed “some sadistic scientists” created AIDS “to punish blacks.”  “I may not be able to...

By MARY PEMBERTON ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A small cruise ship catering to eco-tourists was seriously damaged after running aground in the Aleutian Islands. The accident Saturday night punctured the 340-foot Clipper Odyssey's forward fuel tank and forced 153 people to abandon ship, a Coast Guard official said Sunday. There were no reports of injuries. Coast Guard Chief Warrant Officer Roddy Corr said about 5,000 gallons of diesel fuel spilled from the ruptured tank, as was some waste water. He said swift currents dispersed the spilled fluid before it could be cleaned up. Fishing boats and a freighter in the area...

<p>LOS ANGELES — Each year, thousands of illegal immigrants sneak across the border between Tijuana and San Ysidro, Calif.</p> <p>A thin metal border fence helps separate the United States from Mexico and has helped stem the flow of immigrants but it's not enough. Now, the U.S. Border Patrol is trying to finish building a second fence but the effort is being blocked by the California Coastal Commission (search) because of environmental concerns.</p>

Malaria, a disease forgotten in wealthy countries, is advancing, killing a million people or more a year, at least 700,000 of them African children. In many nations, some people spend several months a year ill from malaria, a toll that cripples African economies. One reason for malaria's resurgence is that it has evolved to resist the two standard treatments. In East Africa, chloroquine, the most widely used drug, fails two-thirds of the time, and a newer treatment is useless in nearly half of the cases. A better treatment exists, but the world is adopting it far too slowly. It is...