Free Republic

Most Americans remember Newt Gingrich as being the former Speaker of the House who led America into the glories of conservative victory, and who guided the Republican Party to electoral success in its 1994 “Revolution,” which resulted in the economic boon of the Internet era of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Most do not associate Newt, however, with his true record, which speaks volumes about his underlying ideology and motivations. This ideology is especially evident in his 2007 book A Contract with the Earth, which he coauthored with environmentalist Terry Maple. Gingrich’s environmentalism, as is the case with environmentalism...

My brother out in California narrowly escaped from fires that were burning up hundreds of acres and houses north of Los Angeles a few years ago. He told me that environmental policies had prohibited the clearing of brush around his, as well as, his neighbors' houses, which, of course, helped escort out of control, raging fires up to his very doorstep. Thank God, his house was spared. Not so, other homeowners on the block. Weeks after the fires, mudslides charged into the same area and floated several homes right off their foundations, because there was no brush to stop the...

Don’t confuse the title with “environmental movement.” Heaven knows Democrats aren’t about to forego those big SUV’s, yachts, jets, and multi- fireplace mansions. Offsetting carbon credits is up to you “little people” purchasing a five dollar light bulb (which is umpteen times more polluting). Actually, it will take quite a few of you “little people” installing green-pocket bulbs to offset the 100 gallons of gasoline per hour Al Goresky’s new houseboat burns...

SAN FRANCISCO—A small-scale, regional nuclear war could disrupt the global climate for a decade or more, with environmental effects that could be devastating for everyone on Earth, researchers have concluded. [snip] The lingering effects could re-shape the environment in ways never conceived. In terms of climate, a nuclear blast could plunge temperatures across large swaths of the globe. "It would be the largest climate change in recorded human history," Alan Robock, associate director of the Center for Environmental Prediction at Rutgers' Cook College and another member of the research team. [snip] They discovered the smoke emissions would plunge temperatures by...

Rosen: Enviro bullying won't flyJune 17, 2005The Foundation for Research on Economics & the Environment is a nonprofit educational organization - associated with Montana State University - that conducts seminars and conferences, and issues publications to advance conservation and environmental values in the real world. As the foundation explains it, "While our seminars are explicitly pro-environment, they explain why ecological values are not the only important ones. We stress that trade-offs among competing values are inescapable. We show why it is ethically and materially irresponsible to pretend such choices can be avoided." The foundation's chairman is Dr. John Baden, a...

Last month's U.S. election results elicited the predictable laments from the enviro crowd. "The re-election of President George W. Bush means that polluters will enjoy four more years of lax enforcement," moaned the Natural Resources Defense Council. But the political winds don't seem to ruffle one prominent environmentalist: William McDonough, a 53-year-old architect and man dubbed a "hero for the planet" by Time magazine in 1999. "We don't focus on politics, because they come and go," McDonough said in a phone interview last week, adding, "Republicans are very attracted to what we do." Indeed, last January, McDonough was back at...

Laurie David is the social-activist wife of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" TV star Larry David, well known for speaking out on, and rallying other activists on, environmental issues, such as the need for energy conservation. According to a report in the September Atlantic Monthly, David shuns commercial airliners to get to her speeches (even though the increase in fuel usage to carry a person of her size would be negligible), preferring to make special trips each time by private jet, which a New Republic columnist calculated uses as much fuel in one cross-country round-trip as a Hummer uses in a year....

Kerry Edwards tour staff buses just spotted in Elizabethtown, Ky. Cracker Barrel parking lot. This strong environmentalist candidate should prove his words by taking his smoke belching heavy polluting buses off the road or pull required maintenance on them. Both of their buses were seen idling in the parking lot churning out massive quantities of choking blue smoke. Weak on convictions again Mr.Kerry. I say Mr. Kerry because I know he will never be called Mr. President.

Anti-migrants plan coup at 100-year-old green group 'Extreme concern' for future of US Sierra Club Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles Friday January 23, 2004 The Guardian The most powerful and venerable environmental organisation in the United States is facing what is being described as its greatest crisis in its 112-year history. There are claims that anti-immigration groups are planning to take over the Sierra Club, in a battle that has reopened the debate on the priorities for environmentalists worldwide. The Sierra Club was founded in the 19th century by John Muir, a Scottish immigrant regarded as the father of American...

BANANA republic Gone is NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard), to be replaced by the BANANA — Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything. The recent blackout in the Northeast is just a symptom of our "Green BANANA" problem. So are the wildfires we face in the Western states. But, it's not the science-bound environmentalist that is the problem, it's the pseudo-scientific environmentalist, the one with the loudest voice, posters, bullhorns and condescending attitude that is to blame. They are the ones that have caused this by effectively driving environmental policy for the past three decades. Serious environmental scientists are just...

Burn, Baby Bjorn, Burn! The Report From the Committees on Saying McCarthyism in Danish By Charles Paul Freund Did you see where the Greens in Denmark have burned Bjorn Lomborg at the stake? A Danish institution with a deeply impressive (even pluralized!) name stenciled on its door, The Committees on Scientific Dishonesty, has reviewed Lomborg's book, The Skeptical Environmentalist, a statistical inquiry into the claims of Wild Environmentalism, and has made its pronouncement. Having examined the complaints against Lomborg, the Committees placed the Wig of Judiciousness on its head and lit the straw at the Danish statistician's feet. "Objectively...

Dear America: And so it has come to this. Your once-great nation has fallen into madness, an affliction of mass denial that brings shivers up the spines of millions outside your borders. Yours is a sick nation. But most of you carry on as though nothing at all is the matter. Dark, evil operations run rampant in the secret corners of your government institutions. A dubiously constituted government pursues war at will anywhere on earth, discussing nuclear options that become points for cheerful chatter over lunch. Your military and intelligence agencies employ terrorist tactics around the globe even as they...

A public interest research group representative was in my neighborhood soliciting donations and wanting to know about my opinions about drilling in the arctic refuge and other enviromental questions. I explained to him that I was a republican and that I supported President Bush etc... Of course I was standing there wearing my John Denver t-shirt. I think he was confused!