Free Republic

There is a simple test for determining whether something is a resource (something valuable) or just garbage (something you want to dispose of at the lowest possible cost, including costs to the environment). If someone will pay you for the item, it's a resource. Or, if you can use the item to make something else people want, and do it at lower price or higher quality than you could without that item, then the item is also a resource. But if you have to pay someone to take the item away, or if other things made with that item cost...

Thomas Alva Edison, meet the Internet. More than a century after Edison invented a reliable light bulb, the nation's electricity-distribution system, an aging spider web of power lines, is poised to move into the digital age. The "smart grid" has become the buzz of the electric-power industry, at the White House and among members of Congress. President Obama says it's essential to boost development of wind and solar power, get people to use less energy and tackle climate change. What smart-grid visionaries see coming are home thermostats and individual appliances that adjust automatically based on the cost of power, and...

CALGARY - U.S. President Barack Obama says Alberta's oilsands industry "creates a big carbon footprint" that leaves Canada and America facing an environmental dilemma about how to curb greenhouse-gas emissions from energy development. He also says he's eyeing carbon capture and storage as a possible solution. As the public-relations war between industry and environmental groups heats up over the oilsands - the second-largest oil reserves on the planet next to Saudi Arabia - the massive development in northern Alberta has clearly caught the eye of the 44th U.S. president. Obama has previously vowed to end America's addiction to "dirty, dwindling...

Political correctness portrays untamed America before European invasion as a natural paradise, where Indians maintained an exquisite ecological balance, living in a harmonious, idyllic relationship to the natural world. According to conventional wisdom, this pre-Columbian Eden flourished for peaceful millenia until brutal disuprtion by thoughtless, menacing and mercenary white colonists. Stewart Udall, one-time Arizona Congressman and later Secretary of the Interior for President Kennedy, became an early advocate of this point of view in his influential 1973 article, “Indians: First Americans, First Ecologists,” urging modern citizens to follow the native example of treating the landscape with love and respect. Udall’s...

In a decision that affects all national forests, a federal appellate court ruled Wednesday that the U.S. Forest Service cannot cut brush and use controlled burns to reduce the risk of wildfires in and near urban areas unless it first performs a detailed assessment of the environmental impact. The ruling, which reversed a 2005 decision by U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. of Sacramento, comes after a devastating fire season that included the destruction of more than 250 homes in the South Lake Tahoe area and a series of Southern California firestorms that displaced hundreds of thousands of residents....

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Environmental and animal rights activists who have turned to arson and explosives are the nation's top domestic terrorism threat, an FBI official told a Senate committee on Wednesday. Groups such as the Animal Liberation Front, the Earth Liberation Front and Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty are "way out in front" in terms of damage and number of crimes, said John Lewis, the FBI's deputy assistant director for counterterrorism. "There is nothing else going on in this country over the last several years that is racking up the high number of violent crimes and terrorist actions," Lewis said. ALF...

Please has Bambi called the Animal Liberation Front (ALF, and Im not making that up) and asked for a reprieve from the likes of Jon Kerry crawling on his belly in the mud shooting deer in the kneecaps? Earth Liberation Front The ELF is an underground movement with no leadership, membership or official spokesperson. ....well atleast they are organized. Where is Santa in this mess? Their site chronicles house burnings, vehicles fires to SUVs of course etc. etc.

Eco Logic06/15/2003 And your state, too... The Biodiversity-Socialist Movement in Pennsylvania By Dr. N. Charles Bolgiano Landowners and sportsmen in Pennsylvania are beginning to learn how devastating, threatening and costly the Biodiversity - Socialist movement in Pennsylvania has become. It is not only a serious threat to hunting sports, but goes much further, by threatening the very foundations on which this Nation was founded, namely, the 1st and 2nd Amendments of the Constitution, and the basic right to own property. Several years ago (1996-97) the State was paid a visit by Maurice Strong, a Canadian Socialist, and chief organizer of...

POLE POSITION: Gary Hererra, a "pond jumper" at Pacific Lumber Co.'s mill in Scotia, pushes logs through a water canal in this photo from 1999. A judge has ordered the company to temporarily halt its logging operation. Without a court-ordered stay, Judge John Golden said logging that could hurt timberlands and wildlife would continue. August 31, 2002 — 2:13 a.m. SACRAMENTO (AP) — Environmental groups on Friday hailed a Humboldt County Superior Court judge's unexpected ruling ordering a temporary halt to logging by Pacific Lumber Co. The company, however, believes the order will have no immediate impact, particularly if...

Biscuit fire nearly surrounded 08/24/02ALEX PULASKI Firefighters pushed control lines closer around the Biscuit fire Friday, and hope to have its 240-mile perimeter sewn up by this weekend. From Our Advertiser Twenty-plus miles of line remained to be built around the Biscuit blaze, the biggest fire in the United States this year. The most critical stretch remains along the fire's western edge, near the Pistol River. Randy Shepard, a fire spokesman, said 10 hand crews were pressing south in rough terrain. Aided by bulldozers and three crews working toward the north to meet them, firefighters hope to tie the two...

Fires burning across Oregon The Associated Press8/23/02 10:22 AM Major wildfires were burning on about 565,362 acres in Oregon on Friday. About 8,944 firefighters were fighting five major fires around the state. The Northwest Interagency Communication Center is tracking five major fires in Oregon. Top priorities for fire officials Monday were the Biscuit fire, covering 492,342 acres, the 7,400-acre Apple fire and the 62,200-acre Tiller Complex. BISCUIT FIRE (formerly called Florence Fire; name changed on 8/11/02) Started: Florence fire started 26 miles west of Grant Pass, 07/13/02; Sour Biscuit started 17 miles southwest of Cave Junction. Size: 492,342 acres. Containment:...

Here's a very workable idea for all those activist eco-whackos perpetually causing problems around the county: Shovel it! That's right. A great new opportunity has opened up that would allow the eco-whackos to be both gainfully employed AND do something significant to help the environment. What's not for them to like here, eh? It's a very simple no-brainer. All they have to do is shovel it. Because, by shoveling it, they will be cleaning the land, helping clean the air we breath and aiding in the production of an important product. Plus, they can probably earn a living wage from...