Free Republic

Radical leftist president of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva used his opening speech to the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday to condemn the government of Israel for allegedly seeking “revenge” against Hamas terrorists and to defend widespread censorship of conservatives. Brazil opens the speeches at the General Assembly every year, a tradition that began in 1955 when Brazil’s leaders offered speak first as other countries hesitated. Lula began his speech, the second since he took office for a third term in January 2023, by making special mention of the Palestinian delegation and welcoming the presence of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud...

Ugh, here we go again: Self-righteous globalism-loving environmental zealots hellbent on getting developed nations to voluntarily “contract” their relatively prosperous economies, ostensibly in order to combat climate change, while trying to dictate the type of “green” development they’d like to see happen in poorer countries.As I’ve noted before, environmentalists are hopefully sniffing the air now that President Obama has won a second term, banking on the more “flexible” Obama’s willingness to once again take up the mantle of climate change — especially in the wake of this past summer’s droughts and superstorm Sandy. From the AP: [A]s a re-elected president...

This is an essay professor Richard Lindzen of MIT sent to the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va for their Opinion Page in March, and was recently republished in the Janesville, WI Gazette Extra where it got notice from many WUWT readers. It is well worth the read. – Anthony ****************************************************** worth the read. – Anthony Richard Lindzen To a significant extent, the issue of climate change revolves around the elevation of the commonplace to the ancient level of ominous omen. In a world where climate change has always been the norm, climate change is now taken as punishment for sinful...

Here's a quiz. What's the worst thing on the table at the UN Climate Control Conference in Copenhagen December 7-18? If you guessed cap-and-tax, you would be wrong. The reparations could be much, much worse. The draft of the treaty encompasses 181 pages and recites that it shall be the obligation of the developed countries (Europe, United States, Japan, Australia, etc.) to pay the developing countries (China, India, Africa, etc.) huge reparations, annual sums to erase poverty and to share technology with them. Australian lawyer Janet Albrechtsen explains the most recent draft of the treaty: Clause after complicated clause sets...

As I write this, leaders of 190 countries will soon be gathering at a UN “global warming” conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. They will be negotiating a treaty creating an unelected world government with unlimited powers to end free markets worldwide, to tax financial markets out of existence, to grab the equivalent of more than half the U.S. defense budget each year, to interfere directly in your nation’s economic and environmental affairs, and to redistribute your hard-earned dollars to third-world nations in reparation for imagined and imaginary “climate debt.”

India, China object to Bali U.N. climate draftReuters - 12 minutes ago NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) - India and China objected on Saturday to a draft deal at U.N. talks in Bali to launch negotiations on a global pact by 2009 to fight climate change, saying rich nations should do more to lead the way. After overnight talks lasting beyond a planned Friday deadline, India told a 190-nation meeting that it wanted changes to a final text to strengthen the role of rich nations in providing clean technology and finance to help them fight global warming. "This is completely unacceptable",...

Global warming may not be the only thing melting Greenland. Scientists have found at least one natural magma hotspot under the Arctic island that could be pitching in. In recent years, Greenland’s ice has been melting more and flowing faster into the sea—a record amount of ice melted from the frozen mass this summer, according to recently released data—and Earth’s rising temperatures are suspected to be the main culprit. But clues to a new natural contribution to the melt arose when scientists discovered a thin spot in the Earth’s crust under the northeast corner of the Greenland Ice Sheet where...

April Temps in U.S. Below AverageI’ve heard GWFundies* somehow blame this on global warming, which leads me to believe they don’t understand weather cycles better than anyone else.Scientists Who Changed Their Mind on Global WarmingI didn’t think any “real” scientists were against man-made global warming?Man-made versus naturally produced greenhouse gas concentrationsSo if the vast majority of greenhouse gases are not man-made, how are we causing it?* I use “Global Warming Fundamentalists” to refer to those who don’t or won’t consider any evidence that in any way contradicts their belief that global warming is man-made.

Goffstown – Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards proposed today that the United States spend $5 billion annually to lead a worldwide effort to end global poverty through education and health care initiatives. The former North Carolina senator said his effort would not only be a “good and moral thing,” but it would also make the United States safer. “We know that terrorists thrive in failed states and in states torn apart by internal conflict and poverty,” he said in a speech at Saint Anselm College. In Africa and Muslim countries, he said, millions of children are being educated “in madrassas...

Dear xxx, During the campaign and since then, we have talked to Americans from coast to coast about the environment and the critical challenge we all face in protecting the earth for future generations. From those conversations the idea emerged that we should write a book, This Moment on Earth, which we hope will help spark a new conversation about ways that everyday Americans from all walks of life can have an impact on the environment around them. The stories have inspired and moved us. Our hope is that they lead all of us to question the way things are,...

So far, so good. So, where does Gore buy his ‘carbon offsets’? According to The Tennessean newspaper’s report, Gore buys his carbon offsets through Generation Investment Management. a company he co-founded and serves as chairman: snip As co-founder and chairman of the firm Gore presumably draws an income or will make money as its investments prosper. In other words, he “buys” his “carbon offsets” from himself, through a transaction designed to boost his own investments and return a profit to himself. To be blunt, Gore doesn’t buy “carbon offsets” through Generation Investment Management - he buys stocks.

Swiss President Moritz Leuenberger has called for the introduction of an international tax on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to fight global warming. Speaking in Nairobi at the United Nations Climate Conference on Wednesday, Leuenberger said that such a levy would help those worst affected by climate change. The president explained that each individual and business would pay the tax based on their CO2 emissions, with revenue going towards measures mitigating the effects of global warming. Leuenberger said that it would encourage major producers of CO2 to cut their emissions and provide sufficient funding for the measures. He added that...

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz, perhaps the most prominent economic thinker in the Democratic Party, is blowing the horn for global taxes. A chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Bill Clinton Administration, Stiglitz has been described as a "real Democrat" and possible candidate to head the Federal Reserve [1] in a Democratic Administration.

French President Jacques Chirac is the latest leader to call for the imposition of an international tax to help fight poverty. Speaking at the United Nations in New York, Chirac praised a report prepared by a French working group that proposed a global tax be levied on arms sales and some financial transactions. The report contains "technically realistic and economically rational solutions," said Chirac, who joined forces with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to push the anti-poverty agenda.

GERMAN SOCIALISTS PLOT GLOBAL TAXES ON AMERICANS Reprinted from NewsMax.com Bush-Bashing Left Pushes Global Taxes Cliff Kincaid Exclusive for NewsMax.com Wednesday, April 10, 2002 WASHINGTON – Bush-bashing was on display Tuesday as activists from Germany, the U.S. and other countries urged international pressure on the Bush administration to support global taxes, the creation of more global agencies, and drastic cuts in American living standards in the name of "sustainable development” for the world. Hilary French, who runs "Global Governance Project” of U.S.-based Worldwatch Institute, suggested that Americans had to get over "the sovereignty thing” and embrace global taxes. She endorsed...