Free Republic

State officials have reportedly been denying pieces of the recent Maine Examiner exposé showing how Janet Mills’ administration is paying a vendor to track the movements of Mainers when they drive, walk or ride a bike, but the group’s official meeting minutes from the two most recent meetings tell a different story. As previously reported by Maine Examiner, video of the November 16th meeting of the Maine Climate Council’s Transportation Working Group showed Maine DOT officials urging members of the Maine Climate Council to request driver data acquired from a new state vendor. The minutes from the meeting, posted online, show...

House Democrats outlined their vision for sweeping climate legislation Wednesday, offering a first look at a bill that would push the U.S. to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Wednesday’s white paper provides the framework that lawmakers in July promised to deliver by early 2020 – a broad climate bill targeting every major sector of the economy. “We’re treating this climate crisis like the emergency that it is,” House Energy and Commerce Chair Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) said of the so-called CLEAN Future Act. The measure includes a requirement that utilities work toward 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2050, a mandate...

Climate crusaders are failing to persuade voters to limit fossil fuels, but they’re turning to coercion by other means. They’re having some success with U.S. banks and insurers that are caving to pressure to divest from carbon energy. The Hartford insurance group last month announced it will no longer insure or invest in companies that generate more than 25% of their revenues from coal mining or more than 25% of their energy from coal. It will also black-list companies that generate more than a quarter of their revenues from drilling in Canada’s Alberta oil sands. “As an insurer and asset...

In Norfolk, Virginia, which is surrounded by water, the land barely rises above sea level, and the sea level is rising. So, flooded streets and front yards have become a way of life. But now after years of fretting about the flooding, a group of ordinary people has come up with a novel response, reports correspondent Brook Silva-Braga. As the tide rose, the water kept creeping toward John Bluming's house, which now sits on stilts. "The water comes up from Callie Bay, into the street," he said … and right into his yard. "After I bought the house, I realized...

The 77th annual Golden Globe awards will be presented Sunday. It’s billed as the biggest party of the year during the award show season. This year the dinner before the awards ceremony will present a completely meatless menu. Sorry, carnivores, there will be no tasty beef or poultry dishes this year. It’s all about saving the planet, you know. Entertainment industry award shows are notoriously political. In Trump’s America, the level of political statements offered by our Hollywood and Broadway betters has exceeded anything we heard during the eight years of Obama. As the national press, actors and actresses were...

Legendary singer Meat Loaf has accused teenage climate-change activist Greta Thunberg of being "brainwashed," saying he believes there is no such thing as climate change. "I feel for that Greta," he told U.K.'s Daily Mail. "She has been brainwashed into thinking that there is climate change and there isn't. "She hasn't done anything wrong but she's been forced into thinking that what she is saying is true." The rocker, who campaigned with Mitt Romney in 2012 and worked with Donald Trump on "The Apprentice" back in 2010, previously claimed that he lost a few gigs thanks to politics. "I've been...

For generations, climate scientists have educated the public that ‘weather is not climate’, and climate change has been framed as the change in the distribution of weather that slowly emerges from large variability over decades1. However, weather when considered globally is now in uncharted territory. Here we show that on the basis of a single day of globally observed temperature and moisture, we detect the fingerprint of externally driven climate change, and conclude that Earth as a whole is warming. Our detection approach invokes statistical learning and climate model simulations to encapsulate the relationship between spatial patterns of daily temperature...

One of the reasons why people don’t believe lavishly funded and media-hyped climate hysterics is that their predictions have consistently been wrong, over a period of decades. This example, via InstaPundit, dates to last June but is still timely. ZeroHedge reports: Glacier National Park Quietly Removes Its “Gone By 2020” Signs. Officials at Glacier National Park (GNP) have begun quietly removing and altering signs and government literature which told visitors that the Park’s glaciers were all expected to disappear by either 2020 or 2030. This photo is from a Glacier visitor display. It says, “Computer models indicate the glaciers will...

The climate crisis, the digitalization of the labor market, and European solidarity on migration formed the main themes of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s traditional New Year’s address, to be broadcast on Tuesday evening. But the scale of these challenges was no reason to be discouraged, the chancellor insisted, in a speech that strived for an optimistic tone to begin both the New Year and the new decade. “I believe we have good reasons to feel confident that the 2020s, the decade that will begin in a few hours, can be good years,” she began, before ending with a resolution: “Let’s surprise...

Funny how the environmental objectives of the "Save the Planet from the Flying Global Warming Monster" squad and that of Marxism line up so neatly. Of course you shouldn't have personal autonomy or private property. It's bad for the 'planet'. And by the planet, we mean the red planet. So it's no surprise that The Nation, where the synergy of the red and the green meet, should roll out a story like this, "If we want to keep cities safe in the face of climate change, we need to seriously question the ideal of private homeownership." ... And give up...

A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world. The document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents.

The leftist media can get so cuckoo for cocoa puffs it burns! Literally. Left-wing magazine The Nation published a bizarre article Dec. 23 against home ownership headlined “California’s Fires Prove the American Dream Is Flammable.” It argued that “Yes, climate change intensifies the fires—but the ways in which we plan and develop our cities makes them even more destructive.” The article continued to whine: “Our ideas about what success, comfort, home, and family should look like are so ingrained, it’s hard for us to see how they could be reinforcing the very conditions that put us at such grave risk.”...

If you’re experiencing anxiety — or something worse, like hopelessness or despair — about the future of the planet, you’re not alone. The American Psychological Association published a guide for therapists two years ago to help them counsel patients about what some have also called “eco-anxiety.” The report stated in part that negative psychological responses to climate change, such as conflict avoidance, hopelessness, fatalism and fear — even aggression and violence — were growing.

China’s efforts to wean itself off coal are losing steam, as the world’s biggest carbon emitter is putting economic growth and energy security above its ambitions to be a leader in combating climate change. Coal consumption is back near peak levels after rebounding over the past three years, despite China’s pledges to make steep cuts in what is the country’s most prevalent and polluting source of energy. The country is building more coal-fired plant capacity than the rest of the world combined. Infrastructure stimulus measures to offset the impact of the prolonged trade war with the U.S. have boosted consumption,...

Climate crisis activist Greta Thunberg recently appeared in DC Comics and Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child. Thunberg appears at the very end of the book as Carrie Kelley as Batwoman has assembled a group of protestors to take on Darkseid. Thunberg is one of the protestors. Darkseid describes the protestors: “Look at them…fists clenched in righteous rage…Eyes glistening with hope and determination…” He adds, “…Yes. They will serve me well…once they are turned.” Not only does the book feature Greta Thunberg, but it also takes issue with President Donald Trump and his supporters. The book shows crazed...

The Times has claimed in an analysis that despite a boom in the sale of Swedish eco-activist Greta Thunberg-related merchandise indicating greater environmental awareness, much of it is either transported from China or made from environmentally unfriendly materials. The “Greta” memorabilia includes a variety of T-shirts, mugs, stickers, badges and bags which are currently available online via Amazon, eBay and Etsy. (Please see link for full article)

Children’s magical movies are often deeply rooted in reality. Frozen II is an example of an animation that allows us to engage our children in discussions of climate change and other important, often complex events that define our time. It’s worth a lot more than the approximately 1 billion dollars already generated for Disney. We can use this film to explain to them why global warming is such a “hot topic” at the dinner table. The increasingly frequent wildfires and hurricanes are not “natural” rumbles from the planet’s peanut gallery. Instead, they represent a big problem that we can fix...

Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg on Friday unveiled a broad plan to eliminate all coal power plants and slow the expansion of the natural gas sector as part of a policy to fight climate change that he says would cut carbon emissions across the U.S. economy by 50% over the first 10 years. The New York billionaire, who has devoted significant time and money toward fighting climate change in recent years, said the new plan is the first of several that would ultimately move the nation toward phasing out fossil fuels completely “as soon as humanly possible” — ideally before...

You've got to give it to Democrats: they freely admit they do not care one bit about blue-collar workers. They don't. They're the party by and for leftist academics, illegal immigrants, and SJW whackjobs. Although this has been the case for at least a few decades, they've always pretended to care about John Doe. Not any longer. All pretenses are dropped. Case in point: Joe Biden admitting during Thursday's Democratic presidential debate that he's more than willing to hang out blue-collar workers to dry in order to pursue a costly and largely useless green dream: CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE...

Climate change protesters dressed as elves have superglued themselves to the road on Pitt Street in Sydney’s CBD, causing traffic chaos. The group from Extinction Rebellion have gathered around a makeshift Santa sleigh filled with charcoal, which they spread on the ground. Police and emergency services are currently on the scene and attempting to use acetone to remove the protesters, Seven News reports.