Free Republic

Al Gore has been roughly handled in an important new book by former French Inerior Minister Claude Allegre, a physicist. He calls Fat Albert a "crook." He says the evermore rotund former Clinton lackey ihas made himself head of an insane cult ... one that spins off lots of cash. Allegre points out in his book that although the Arctic Ice Cap is indeed somewhat smaller, the Antartic Ice Cap, 95% of the Earth's ice, is growing dramatically. "Mais oui," says the former minister and physicist, the Earth is warmer, however it is extremely doubtful that we here on Earth...

The damage wrought by hurricanes Katrina and Wilma in 2005 spelled the end of the venerable Flamingo Lodge at Everglades National Park. Now as park officials consider options for a replacement, they have to factor in more than just the dangers of inundation from a storm surge. On the northern edge of Florida Bay, Flamingo, and other vast tracts of the 1.5-million-acre park, are threatened by global warming-induced sea level rise, officials say. The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change earlier this year estimated that oceans will rise between 7 inches and 23 inches over the course of this century...

The Conservative government's green plan, released with much fanfare on Thursday, is a mixed bag and so deserves a mixed response. Much of the substance is praiseworthy (and some is not), but the spin has been atrocious. John Baird, the Environment Minister, has been so keen to win praise from environmentalists and green voters that he has adopted the scare-mongering rhetoric of the Liberals and other eco-crusaders. In announcing a plethora of emission caps, carbon-trading schemes, pollution controls, taxes, regulations, penalties and light bulb bans, Mr. Baird couldn't resist predicting that winter as we know it will disappear if action...

On Feb.15, the eve of the effective date of the Kyoto Treaty on global warming, I introduced the Pennsylvania Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act (H.B. 500), which would represent an important first step for Pennsylvania in addressing global climate change. Our federal government's failure to sign on to the Kyoto Treaty makes it even more important for individual states to take action. Pennsylvania has a particular responsibility to act. Our state alone produces about 1 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, more than 105 developing nations combined. The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act, which was introduced with the bipartisan support of...