Free Republic

PEARL HARBOR (NNS) -- The Navy is disappointed with EarthJustice’s decision to pursue litigation against critical training activities in Hawaiian waters, the deputy commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet said. “These fleet training activities are essential to the Navy’s ability to ensure our nation’s armed forces are fully combat ready and adequately trained according to established, time-tested standards,” said Rear Adm. John M. Bird. The suit, filed May 16 by EarthJustice on behalf of five non-government organizations, asks the court to prohibit naval sonar exercises near Hawaii, saying that sonar can have a negative impact on marine mammals. But such...

Texas view on environment is 18 lanes wide-critics By Anna Driver Fri Jan 19, 8:45 AM ET HOUSTON (Reuters) - As President Bush readies a new plan on global warming, environmentalists say an 18-lane highway going up in Houston speaks volumes about how people in his home state of Texas view the planet. Between 2003 and 2009, $2.7 billion of state and federal money will have been plowed into expanding 23 miles of Interstate-10 in west Houston to as wide as 18 lanes in some stretches of the city's main east-west road."It is a concrete monstrosity," said Jim Blackburn,...

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - A two-week conference on the Antarctic, focusing on environmental, climate change and tourism issues, has opened with representatives of 50 governments, researchers and experts, the Swedish hosts said. The conference, which runs to June 17, comes amid fresh warnings from scientists about the effect of climate change on Antarctica, the fifth largest continent in the world, which contains more than 90 percent of the world's ice. Sweden hopes that the meeting will result in a special protocol on responsibility and insurance in the case of major accidents in the Antarctic, such as oil spills. "It seems that...

You may have heard in the news, an ice shelf (called Larsen B) on the eastern side of the Antarctic peninsula has broken up into a mosaic of smaller icebergs. Global warming was immediately blamed. As has been the case with many such claims in recent years, it is not supported by the facts. First to have global warming, one needs warmer temperatures. Antarctica has not warmed as some have claimed. In fact, 98% of the continent is colder than it was 20 years ago. This is despite the fact that global warming theory predicts these polar regions should be...