Free Republic

The invasive and aggressive Asian tiger mosquito, capable of infecting people with rare diseases like the Zika virus and dengue fever, is now expected to spread through almost all of Connecticut by 2040, according to a new state report. The Council on Environmental Quality’s annual report also warns that “Infection rates of West Nile Virus and other mosquito-borne diseases are likely to rise as a warming climate creates more favorable habitats for mosquitoes.” “I don’t want to scare anyone,” said Armstrong, who was a co-author of a study published last year on the spread of Asian tiger mosquitoes in this...

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Researchers studying the impact of extreme climate conditions on biodiversity found a “tipping point” at which species, under pressure from dwindling food supplies due to climate change, must either evolve to take advantage of different food supplies or face extinction. Adam Siepielski, an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Arkansas, and Seth Haney, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, San Diego, created a computer model to test how events like drought, flooding and heat waves affect adaptive evolution. “There is the perception, and ample evidence, that extreme events seem...

Climate change is over. [snip] Judged by deeds rather than words, most national governments are backing away from forced-marched decarbonization. ...President Trump’s ostentatious withdrawal from the Paris Agreement merely ratified a trend long becoming evident. [snip] Climate alarm is like a car alarm—a blaring noise people are tuning out. This outcome was predictable. Political scientist Anthony Downs described the downward trajectory of many political movements in an article for the Public Interest, “Up and Down With Ecology: The ‘Issue-Attention Cycle,’ ” published in 1972, long before the climate-change campaign began. ...Mr. Downs discerned a five-stage cycle through which political issues...

Ask a typical person concerned about global warming if they think Congress will enact a bipartisan solution to climate change, and the response is likely to be a derisive laugh. For millions of Americans who watch cable news shows or read the papers, such cynicism is easy to come by. Democrats and Republicans can barely get together on keeping the government from shutting down. How in the world could they ever come together on an issue as politically divisive as climate change? But in the past decade, the findings and predictions of climate scientists have been validated by real-world evidence:...

Pope Francis will meet with some of the world’s oil executives next week, likely to give them another moral nudge to clean up their act on global warming. Climate change policy and science experts are cautiously hopeful but aren’t expecting any miracles or even noticeable changes. The conference will be a follow-up to the pope’s encyclical three years ago calling on people to save the planet from climate change and other environmental ills, Vatican spokesman Greg Burke confirmed Friday. Cardinal Peter Turkson, who spearheaded the encyclical, set up the June 8-9 conference with the executives. The pope himself will speak...

Women retain and carry living DNA from every man with whom they have sexual intercourse, according to a new study by the University of Seattle and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. The study, which discovered the startling information by accident, was originally trying to determine if women who have been pregnant with a son might be more predisposed to certain neurological diseases that occur more frequently in males. But as the scientists picked apart the female brain, the study began to veer wildly off course. As it turns out, the female brain is even more mysterious than we previously...

The greenhouse gas theory( GHGT) is a theory claiming that certain gas molecules in the atmosphere are inhibiting the Earth from transmitting heat into space. There is great debate about what role different gases play in heating and cooling and the accuracy of certain assumptions of data. It turns out that these arguments are irrelevant because the basic assumption of the theory is wrong and based on ignorance of science. Every object with a temperature above absolute zero radiates energy and every object absorbs radiated energy. Any movement of an atom creates a disturbance in the electromagnetic field that transmits...

... The offspring of partying adolescents, specifically those who used THC, may be at increased risk for mental illness and addiction as a result of changes to the epigenome — even if those children are years away from being conceived. The epigenome is a record of molecular imprints of potent experiences, including cannabis exposure, that lead to persistent changes in gene expression and behavior, even across generations. Though the critical studies are only now beginning, many neuroscientists prophesize a social version of Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring,” in which we learn we’ve burdened our heirs only generations hence.

Since we first covered the Climategate Files here at PJ Media in 2009, the controversy has continued, but with some interesting changes. For example, the term "global warming" has pretty universally been replaced with the term "climate change." The language has changed, and the facts have changed. There are lots of new facts, and a whole lot of them dispute the climate dogma. Of course, the more the climate dogma is disputed, the more the climate change cultists resist. On the other hand, we've seen a lot more people coming out as thinking maybe, just maybe, there are some points...

Achieving the toughest climate change target set in the global Paris agreement will save the world about $30tn in damages, far more than the costs of cutting carbon emissions, according to a new economic analysis. Most nations, representing 90% of global population, would benefit economically from keeping global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, the research indicates. This includes almost all the world’s poorest countries, as well as the three biggest economies – the US, China and Japan – contradicting the claim of US president, Donald Trump, that climate action is too costly. The scientists used 40 global climate models...

New York has a major opportunity to lead the nation in reducing emissions and to strike a blow against inequality by making significant and bold investments in public transit across the state. Transportation is now the top climate culprit in New York state, responsible for more greenhouse-gas emissions than power plants. While our state is ramping up investments in renewable energy, moving people cleanly and efficiently is absolutely critical too. We must address this need by expanding public transit in ways that will also create family-sustaining employment options, improved public health, safety and mobility. The climate crisis and the transportation...

Corporate reports constantly talk about the importance to business of climate change. Yet this is not always reflected in the content of the business school courses supposedly preparing the future leaders of organizations. One institution that is trying to bridge the gap is CEMS, the global alliance of academic and corporate bodies dedicated to educating and preparing future generations of international business leaders. In fact, it has been doing it since 2009, when the University of St Gallen and ESADE in Barcelona first held a model United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to enable students to get to grips...

Movements of the earth's crust may mean that global warming driven by greenhouse gases from power stations and vehicle exhausts isn't the only threat to life the world faces. About 700 million years ago, global temperatures fell so low that glaciers may have reached the equator. Snowball Earth may have all but extinguished life on the planet. But the only life at the time was microbial and dispersed in the oceans. The planet survived: volcanic eruptions may have darkened the ice and pumped more carbon dioxide and steam into the atmosphere, and the world warmed again. But, say two Texan...

Last week, a congressman from Alabama who serves on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology suggested in a public hearing that sea level rise may be caused by erosion - a possibility experts rate somewhere between absurd and laughable. But it’s hardly surprising. The willingness of climate change skeptics to grasp onto any alternative other than a warming planet fueled by greenhouse gas emissions (along with melting ice and oceans expanding as they warm) is commonly observed. Closer to home, the Chesapeake Bay is surrounded by towns and villages where the politically conservative residents refuse to accept scientific...

Climate change is wreaking havoc across the globe - melting ice caps, causing dangerous weather and decimating animal populations. New research has found that it could also be increasing antibiotic resistance in bacteria. A team of epidemiologists from Harvard Medical School, Boston Children's Hospital and the University of Toronto have found that higher local temperatures and population densities correspond with a higher degree of antibiotic resistance in common bacterial strains. Previously, increase in resistance to common bacteria was thought to come from over-prescribing antibiotics. 'The effects of climate are increasingly being recognized in a variety of infectious diseases, but so...

In a NASA town hall yesterday (May 17), NASA's new administrator, Jim Bridenstine, said that he knows Earth's climate is changing, and that humans contribute to it "in a major way," also supporting NASA's research into that important area. The statement is significant because Bridenstine has expressed doubt about human-caused climate change in the past, causing some to question his suitability to lead a fact-focused NASA. In 2013, as an Oklahoma congressman, Bridenstine claimed there was no current trend toward global warming. More recently, such as in his NASA administrator confirmation hearings last November, he has acknowledged that human activity...

Now at Harvard, the Obama administration alum admits it’s been hard to watch the Trump administration take aim at the work she’s proudest of. But she hasn’t lost hope. GINA MCCARTHY STRIDES INTO the ocean-view ballroom at the Sea Crest Beach Hotel in Falmouth, plops down her green backpack, and glances out the window. The waves are angrily advancing on this last night in April, which feels as dreary as mid-January. “The water seems way closer than it was the last time I was here,” she says. Maybe that’s because of climate change, the threat that McCarthy led the charge...

Jon Meacham, presidential scholar and author of "The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels," says that President Trump is in office because "we have a climate of fear in the country" which he "took advantage of" over the course of the 2016 campaign. "Politicians are far more often mirrors of who we are than they are molders. That's why the molders are so extraordinary. Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan -- those are different kinds of figures," Meacham said on CBS News' "Face the Nation" on Sunday. "I think that President Trump in many ways is president because we...

The new administrator of nasa held a town hall Thursday at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. Jim Bridenstine is about four weeks into the job, and his path here was mired in controversy. After a few opening remarks, he started taking some questions. The first was about what Bridenstine thinks makes him qualified to be the head of nasa. The second was, as the moderator put it, “one more easy one—because it’s about climate change.” Bridenstine laughed. So did many in the room. It was an uncomfortable question. Bridenstine, as a Republican in Congress, has a record of denying...

VIENNA (AP) — Arnold Schwarzenegger is urging President Donald Trump to join in efforts to promote green energy, saying he would have "a lot of victories." The former California governor spoke Tuesday at the R20 Austrian World Summit, an offshoot of a Schwarzenegger climate change initiative. Schwarzenegger has sparred with Trump, who last year announced the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate accord. Schwarzenegger said: "Those of you who resist because you can't imagine success without fossil fuels: we ask you to join us. Everyone. Also you, President Trump: Join us." He added: "You said ... you want to have...