Free Republic

...there have been at least five occasions throughout history where the human race has been in danger of dying out, not least because of the eruption of a supervolcano 70,000 years ago that almost sent us the same way as the dinosaurs. So when will our species go extinct? If you're an optimist, it won't be for another billion years. That is when the expanding sun will cause our planet to heart up to a Venus-like state and render all life on Earth extinct.

Rescuers are racing to salvage a US-bound cargo ship in the Atlantic engulfed in flames with 4,000 cars on board including Bentleys, Audis and Lamborghinis. The operation is taking place off the Azores archipelago where the 'Felicity Ace' cargo ship caught ablaze at sea on Wednesday. Lithium-ion batteries in the electric cars on board have caught fire and the blaze requires specialist equipment to extinguish. Investigators are probing whether the batteries started the onboard inferno. The ship is still ablaze and plumes of white smoke are billowing from the vessel as a Portuguese navy ship works to stop it sinking...

White House says 165,000 vehicles that would replace aging fleet are too gas guzzling. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the White House Council on Environmental Quality sent letters to the Postal Service on Wednesday urging the agency to reconsider its plans to buy mostly gas-powered vehicles, according to the Washington Post. The Postal Service has long put off replacing the deteriorating fleet, which has been in use for over 30 years. The current vehicles don't have air conditioning or air bags, and overuse has led to a slew of vehicle fires. The agency, drowning in $206.4 billion in debt,...

It brings to 21 the number of UK suppliers that have gone bust since the start of September after the price of buying gas on the wholesale market surged. More than two million customers have been affected. The gas market spike has left companies, some of whom did not "hedge" or insure themselves against such fluctuations, having to buy energy at elevated levels while being contracted to sell it much more cheaply to their customers.

India's Supreme Court has called for a lockdown in New Delhi to try and reduce air pollution by banning non-essential travel and closing offices. The proposal, the first of its kind, comes as the city of 20 million battles smog which has forced schools to shut for a week to keep children from breathing in toxic air. The Delhi government on Monday pushed back hard against the call by the country's top court, arguing that without a concerted effort by other states, the lockdown would have little impact on air quality.

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed off on the new law on Saturday banning gas-powered equipment that uses small off-road engines. Gas-powered equipment includes generators, lawn equipment, pressure washers, chainsaws, weed trimmers and even golf carts. Under the new law the machinery will have to be battery-powered or plug-in.

Politicians have for years debated imposing an 80km-per-hour speed limit on the stretches of road which are famous for allowing motorists to drive as fast as they please. The Green Party has pushed for the move as it would help reduce CO2 emissions and make roads safer, but has so far failed to push a speed limit through parliament. But the party emerged as potential kingmakers coming third in the vote last week and could enter either a Traffic Light coalition with the Social Democrats (SDP) and Free Democrats (FDP) or a Jamaica coalition with the ruling CDU/CSU and FDP....

All privately owned diesel vehicles will be barred from entering the proposed city centre clean air zone for eight hours a day. Mayor Marvin Rees saying they had a "moral, ecological and legal duty" to cut pollution Drivers breaking the ban will be fined. Diesel-powered commercial vehicles like buses, taxis and heavy goods vehicles will also face restrictions but efforts will be made to minimise disruption. "at least 300 people a year are dying because of air pollution". The decision was not universally popular, with councillors expressing concerns over whether it would become harder to get to hospital.

Eating meat could be made illegal like smoking in pubs, says top barrister Eating meat could become illegal in the future due to the damage caused to the environment, says a leading barrister calling for a new ecocide law. Michael Mansfield QC says new legislation is needed to criminalise the wilful destruction of nature, which he described as a crime against humanity. There are plenty of things that were once commonplace that are now illegal such as smoking inside. We know that because the UN has told us so. The organisation's director, Juliet Gellatley, said: Thirty years ago people didn't...

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis wants concrete action to combat the “emergency” of plastics littering seas and oceans. Francis made the appeal in a message Saturday to galvanize Christians and others to work to save what he hails as the “marvelous,” God-given gift of the “great waters and all they contain.” He said efforts to fight plastics litter must be waged “as if everything depended on us.”

Beneath the warm cuddly exterior of the bunny-hugging greenie beats the heart of a fascist. If you ever doubted it, check out this Vox interview with William T Vollmann. Vollmann is an award-winning author and war correspondent once described as the most “ambitious, audacious writer working in America today” and tipped as a plausible Nobel Prize for Literature candidate. He claims once to have been a climate change ‘denier’ but not any more. The climate change threat is so dire, he believes, that only the most drastic solutions will do: It’s not just what some consumer does at home. It’s...

Corning, the makers of Gorilla Glass, aren’t convinced that sapphire is the right way to go for Apple. Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference, one of the company’s executives slammed the material, calling it a bad choice from a number of viewpoints. Apple is known to have enlisted the services of a company called GT Advanced to make huge amounts of sapphire crystal/glass for an upcoming product, or even more than one product. One of those is believed to be the iPhone 6, a bigger version of the flagship Apple smartphone that is said to sport...

"A 12-year-old girl has responded with the stunning “I wish we didn’t exist” to questions about how she feels about pollution and humanity’s impact on the earth, according to a new video released by Brian Sussman, author of “Eco-Tyranny: How the Left’s Green Agenda will Dismantle America.” The response came from a 6th-grade girl identified only as Kalie, from Gault Elementary. Sussman met her during Earth Day events in Santa Cruz, Calif., recently, where he traveled to ask “What is the most serious threat facing mankind?”"

[James Lee Demands as posted at http://www.savetheplanetprotest.com/] The Discovery Channel MUST broadcast to the world their commitment to save the planet and to do the following IMMEDIATELY:1. The Discovery Channel and it's affiliate channels MUST have daily television programs at prime time slots based on Daniel Quinn's "My Ishmael" pages 207-212 where solutions to save the planet would be done in the same way as the Industrial Revolution was done, by people building on each other's inventive ideas. Focus must be given on how people can live WITHOUT giving birth to more filthy human children since those new additions continue...

It has been two months since we began operations with Operation Waltzing Matilda. Two months ago, we began with three vessels. We now have two, having lost the Ady Gil when the Japanese whaler Shonan Maru No. 2 cut it in half and sank it on January 6th, 2010. During the last two months, the Steve Irwin has engaged the Shonan Maru No. 2 in numerous skirmishes and the Sea Shepherd ships Bob Barker and the Ady Gil engaged the main body of the whaling fleet, a day that disrupted the whaling activities and ended with the destruction of our...

The U.S. Marshals Service on Thursday took custody of a Utah environmental crimes fugitive after he underwent facial surgery for injuries he suffered when Florida Keys authorities shot him, state officials said. Larkin Baggett, 53, remained in critical condition at Jackson Memorial Hospital, two days after authorities shot him in the neck and buttocks when he alledgedly pointed an assault rifle at Monroe County Sheriff's Office deputies and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officers who went to an 11th Street trailer in Marathon where he was living to arrest him. Meanwhile, state investigators on Thursday continued to try to determine how...

Authorities shot a federal fugitive from Utah Tuesday morning, saying he pointed an assault rifle at them when they went to a Marathon trailer to arrest him on a tip. Larkin Baggett, 53, was in unknown condition Tuesday night at a Miami hospital where he was flown. No law enforcement officers were injured in the gunfire. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which is investigating the shooting, would not release details about the incident, such as how many bullets hit Baggett, from what kind of gun, and which officers from which agencies shot him. "It sounded like fireworks were going...

We share common cause with the Islamist terrorists: Far from being unreasonable fanatics, the terrorists fight for the same things we do. We have a common enemy. Ian Buruma, writing in the Financial Times, reveals that “suicide bombers and jihadis” are by their very nature unreasonable. “There is nothing to negotiate with people who wish to kill as many infidels as they can to establish a divine realm of the faithful,” he instructs us. They see “mass murder as an existential act,” he adds. What source is Buruma drawing on to make these extravagant conclusions? I have been paying...

Go HERE. The poll is on the left side, scroll down. Vote early, vote often. U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe, who represents Cochise County, announced last week that he was not going to seek a 12th term in office. How would you rate his work in Congress over the past 21 years? Effective. Somewhat effective. Not very effective. Ineffective. This poll needs to be FReeped. This is a newspaper in Kolbe's home district. Kolbe lost Cochise County to conservative Republican challenger Randy Graf in last year's primary election. Tucson easily nullified our votes. This newspaper is in the heart of Cochise...

<p>Federal officials have filed an arrest warrant for a 25-year-old Sonoma man in connection with pre-dawn bombings at two Bay Area companies in August and September.</p> <p>The FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) have asked the public to be on the lookout for Daniel Andreas San Diego, who they say is armed and dangerous.</p>