Free Republic

A former employee with an extremist bent ignited the fire that destroyed part of Stock Building Supply in West Jordan in June, according to federal charges. Prosecutors labeled Justus A. Ireland, 23, a "domestic terrorist" Tuesday, saying he started the blaze in the name of the Earth Liberation Front, a group of underground environmental extremists. Ireland has confessed, according to prosecutors, resulting in an arson charge filed against him in U.S. District Court late Monday afternoon. "A blight on our community has been extinguished," said Chip Burrus, FBI special agent in charge. Federal officials had expected Ireland to plead guilty...

Island Conservationist Finds Way to Rescue One of Hawaii's Most Endangered Species Hawaii Reporter has learned an island conservationist working for two years secretly to avoid interference or seizure by the government of his work and property has successfully found a way to rescue one of Hawaii's most endangered and famous species --- the Kokia Cookei. Two bees are drinking nectar deep down in the center of the flower, and were invisible when this photo was taken. Their bodies are blocking access to the nectar, and the other bees are waiting unhappily. Copyright Keith Robinson. Keith Robinson, manager of the...

<p>A rare bald eagle egg, produced by a pair of birds in captivity at Kentucky's game farm in Frankfort, was destroyed by state wildlife officials.</p> <p>Officials said allowing the egg to hatch would violate their federal permit.</p> <p>But an official from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the state had another option — send the egg or the eaglet, once it hatched, to a facility with a permit to raise young eagles.</p>

Rockville, Md. (CNSNews.com) - A coalition of environmental and faith-based groups announced on Friday that it would be issuing 15,000 "tickets" to Washington, D.C./Baltimore area SUV owners as part of its campaign to "save our planet from the catastrophe of rapid global warming." Fred Scherlinder Dobb, a Maryland rabbi and co-chair of the interfaith group, Religious Witness for the Earth, told CNSNews.com that SUVs "are hurting the climate, hurting endangered species, hurting children, and we are out here trying to change that." Dobb held a sign that read: "Dirty SUVs = Global Warming." The Chesapeake Climate Action Network, at a...

Ross Gelbspan celebrated Earth Day 2003 with publication of his op-ed in the Boston Globe wherein he opines about the damage global warming will inflict upon earth’s ecosystems. True to form, he proposes fixes that will at the same time cure any number of global problems, not only climate change but Third World poverty, threats to public health, and joblessness. Climate change long has been the keystone locking in place Gelbspan’s belief structure. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the policies he prescribes include carbon taxes, travel taxes, proliferating wind farms, more solar "assemblies," and beefing up the Kyoto...

  Several California legislators are contemplating a measure to take over a federal clean air program that was recently abandoned by the Bush administration. Legislators and a coalition of environmental and public health groups say the state must act to protect the air from industrial pollution. If enacted, it would be the second time in a year that the state has passed a law in response to what critics consider the administration's hostile stance toward the environment. Last year, Democratic Governor Gray Davis signed a law making California the first state to regulate global warming pollution from cars. At...

Since the very first Earth Day, scare stories have been exaggerated WASHINGTON -"Between 1980 and 1989, some 4 billion people, including 65 million Americans, will perish from starvation ... civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind." These are actual predictions by environmentalists celebrating the first Earth Day -- April 22, 1970. They were wrong. Sixty-five million Americans haven't starved to death. Food production has handily outpaced population growth. And food today is cheaper and more abundant than ever before. Civilization has not ended. Undaunted, the environmental left continues to sound...

Leading environmental activist and lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gave a lecture to a packed Call Auditorium yesterday entitled "Our Environmental Destiny." As the inaugural speech in the Kaplan Family Distinguished Lecture in Public Service series and organized in part by the Cornell Public Service Center (CPSC), Kennedy sent a strong message concerning recent government actions and the meaning of being an environmentalist, which seemed to inspire some students such as Dana Hall '06. "I was quite impressed," Hall said. "I'm going to join an environmental club now." President Hunter R. Rawlings III gave opening remarks to Kennedy's lecture,...

The Oregon FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested two people today in connection with an arson fire that damaged log trucks in Eagle Creek in June of last year. Two others were indicted and are being sought. The truck fire happened near where protesters were camped out to block the now-canceled Eagle Creek timber sale. Federal prosecutors said the suspects face up to a million dollars in fines and 30 years in jail. A well-known Portland activist is among those indicted. Michael J. Scarpitti -- who goes by the name Tre Arrow -- is most known for living on a...

<p>The fallout from this year's forest fires is accomplishing wonders -- such as the sight of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle running into the protective arms of the Republican-controlled Forest Service. Quick, someone get water to revive the Sierra Club.</p>

THREE days before Christmas 1996, Chris Van de Werken, an environment officer in the sleepy little town of Nunspeet, 40 miles east of Amsterdam, went jogging in the woods near his home. He never came back. Alerted by gunshots, passers-by found Van de Werken's body on a cycle path. Although dozens of people were questioned, no motive was established and nobody was charged. In April 1997 the inquiry was closed. Five years later it has been reopened. This weekend, as the Netherlands mourned Pim Fortuyn, the populist right-wing politician, police were investigating links between his assassination last Monday and what...