Free Republic

New experiments to dim the Sun using geoengineering techniques will be approved by the UK government within weeks. These trials could provide critical data on methods to combat runaway climate change.

Yes, the headlines are bleak. Yes, scientists are sounding the alarm. Yes, a growing pile of studies warn that the world is “on the brink of irreversible climate disaster,” as a recent “state of the climate” report put it. It’s easy to feel like the planet is on fire — because, well, sometimes it literally is. But even amid the floods, droughts and devastating forecasts, it’s not all doom: Innovators are reimagining how we power our lives, nature is pulling off surprising comebacks, cities are cleaning their air and nations are opening their wallets. This Earth Day, take a break...

Every year, new temperature records are breathlessly announced as though the planet is plunging into uncharted climate chaos. Mainstream headlines proclaim things like "Humanity just lived through the hottest 12 months in at least 125,000 years" or "This year virtually certain' to be warmest in 125,000 years, EU scientists say". We’re told, often without context or qualification, that the warming we’re experiencing is unlike anything seen in hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of years. But is that really true? Or have climate authorities, especially the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), built their entire narrative on the selective memory...

"Leafy moss dated to the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) has been found embedded in Antarctic glacier ice that today is “permanently snow-covered” with “no evidence of meltwater....This affirms a warmer MWP and that summer melt during the MWP was greater than today...The leafy moss samples have been dated to about 1,000 years ago"

Security experts say that climate change should not become a strategic "blind spot" and militaries must respond to the evolving threat of weather disaster. Their warning comes amid growing concerns that climate action is being sidelined as Europe beefs up defence and the US retreats from allies and its green commitments. "You can't escape this. Climate doesn't care who's president or what your political goals are at the moment," said Erin Sikorsky, director of the Washington-based Center for Climate & Security. "It is coming, and militaries need to be prepared," she said. In the US, where President Donald Trump's administration...

As the threat posed by US President Donald Trump tops Canada's federal election agenda, the issue of the country's contribution to global warming has been largely overshadowed. The two main contenders are pushing plans for new energy infrastructure as the country seeks to pivot away from its reliance on the US. Mark Carney's Liberals are promising to make Canada a global superpower in both conventional and green energy. The Conservatives under Pierre Poilievre want to invigorate the oil and gas sector and scrap the industrial carbon tax. It's a big shift from the 2021 election, when the environment topped the...

SAN FRANCISCO — Former Vice President Al Gore on Monday compared President Donald Trump’s administration to Nazi Germany and issued a dire warning about Trump’s use of power in a speech devoted to climate change. Speaking at an event at the start of San Francisco’s Climate Week, Gore said the Trump administration was “trying to create their own preferred version of reality” to achieve their sweeping objectives similar to Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party in the 1930s and ‘40s. “I understand very well why it is wrong to compare Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich to any other movement,” Gore said to an...

A new report from GlobalData, a data and analytics group, projects global nuclear power capacity will hit 494 GW by 2035. The group’s “Nuclear Power Market, Update 2025–Market Size, Segmentation, Major Trends, and Key Country Analysis to 2035” said capacity gains will be tied to advancements in deployments of small modular reactors (SMRs), along with the continuing worldwide shift to cleaner forms of energy. The report released April 21 said recent gains in nuclear power have been driven by moves toward more low-carbon baseload power. Measures promoting energy security, in addition to interest in decarbonization of industrial sectors, also is...

On Wednesday afternoon, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to halt construction on Equinor’s Empire Wind project off the New York coast. It’s a new frontier for President Donald Trump’s war on offshore wind, marking the first time his administration has attempted to shut down a fully permitted, in-construction project. In a post on X, Burgum said the order will allow for “further review of information that suggests the Biden administration rushed through its approval without sufficient analysis.” Equinor had been planning the Empire Wind project for years, receiving its first site assessment approval from...

Plan to eliminate $307 million ecosystem program could face obstacles in Congress... The email, sent yesterday by Anne Kinsinger, associate director of ecosystems at USGS, notified colleagues that the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has ordered the agency to design a plan to slow and then cease all activities in its Ecosystems Mission Area in the next fiscal year, which begins in October... USGS scientists study how ecosystems respond to climate change...

In June 2019, when New York passed its Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), it all seemed so easy. Back then, everyone knew that “renewables” were cheaper than fossil fuels for making electricity; it was only the nefarious machinations of evil oil and gas companies that stood in the way of an effortless energy transition. New York would assume the mantle of climate leadership to show everyone the way. And even as recently as December 2022, New York’s path to energy utopia still seemed clear. That’s when the state issued what it called the Final Scoping Plan under the...

Some of the country’s most beloved national parks – including many across the West – could see substantial jumps in the number of extremely hot days in coming decades, according to a new report. The nonprofit Climate Central analyzed data from the National Park Service and found that by 2050, the 25 most visited parks are likely to have five times as many extremely hot days – compared to recent decades. Climate Central defines extreme heat as a high temperature above the 99th percentile for the roughly three decade period between 1979 and 2012. For example, Utah’s Zion National Park...

(Reuters) -A U.S. judge blocked President Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday from freezing billions of dollars in grants Congress authorized under climate investment and infrastructure laws of his Democratic predecessor, former President Joe Biden. U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy in Providence, Rhode Island, issued an injunction at the behest of environmental groups who argued the Trump administration was unlawfully freezing already-awarded funding for projects to combat climate change, reduce pollution and modernize U.S. infrastructure. The group that led the lawsuit, Democracy Forward, said in a statement that Trump's action was an abuse of executive power. The funding had been authorized...

Scientists at the University of Oregon are working on a greener way to make iron metal—a big step toward cleaning up the steel industry, which is one of the largest sources of carbon pollution worldwide. Their latest research, published in ACS Energy Letters, shows how this new method could be more efficient and environmentally friendly than the traditional way of making steel. Right now, making iron from iron ore usually happens in blast furnaces that burn fossil fuels and release a lot of carbon dioxide into the air. But chemist Paul Kempler and his team have developed a new method...

A human rights expert has described the year-long sentence given to a climate change activist as "blatantly disproportionate". Dr Patrick Hart caused thousands of pounds worth of damage to fuel pumps during a Just Stop Oil demonstration in August 2022 and said he had done so because he believed the world was in a "truly dark and unprecedented time". Dr Hart, 38, was jailed in January after causing damage to 16 fuel pumps at Thurrock Motorway Services, in Grays, Essex. The Bristol-based GP hit the pumps with a hammer, sprayed them with orange paint and obstructed lorries refuelling the station....

days each year — giving plants more time to grow and release allergy-inducing pollen.The freeze-free growing season lengthened in 87% (172) of 198 U.S. cities analyzed since 1970. These 172 cities saw their freeze-free season lengthen by 20 days on average. Cities across the Northwest (+24 days) and Southwest (+20 days) have experienced the largest average change. The first spring leaves and flowers are unfolding early in parts of the south including in Atlanta, Georgia and Charlotte, North Carolina. Climate Central assessed temperature trends in 198 U.S. cities to see how the length of the freeze-free growing season has changed...

In a sudden and unexplained change from previous decades, the federal government has stopped covering the travel costs of Canadian experts volunteering for the next major global climate science assessment. The decision to end travel funding means that Canadian scientists are now wondering whether they can still participate in the United Nations climate science process, perhaps by using their own money or diverting grant funds that could be going toward research and students. Sarah Burch, a professor at the University of Waterloo who studies climate adaptation, urban planning and governance, is a lead author on the IPCC's upcoming report on...

Large-scale solar farms, wind turbines, and associated infrastructure are touted as solutions to the climate crisis, but their development comes at the cost of native forests and critical habitats.” “Until conservation charities disentangle themselves from government funding and corporate influence, they risk becoming complicit in the very destruction they were created to prevent.” ... One of the great ironies of our age is the double standard of Big Environmentalism toward wind and solar, which commit numerous eco-sins that would not be tolerated otherwise. Dilute, intermittent, and thus inefficient? Yes. Energy sprawl requiring service roads and transmission lines in the wild?...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Trump administration plans to scrap a contract for a federal climate assessment used to direct government action on climate change, two sources familiar with the matter said. The administration will cut the contract with global advisory ICF for work on the National Climate Assessment, a comprehensive report published every five years on how climate change affects the United States. CF provides most of the staff for the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), an agency created by Congress in 1990 to coordinate research and investment on climate change, and which has overseen the last five national climate...

The climate crisis is not a distant threat; it's happening right now and affecting what matters most to us. Hurricanes intensified by a warming planet and drought-fueled wildfires are destroying our communities. Rising seas and flooding are swallowing our homes. And record-breaking heat waves are reshaping our way of life. The good news is we know how to turn the tide and avoid the worst possible outcomes. However, understanding what needs to be done can be confusing due to a constant stream of climate updates, scientific findings, and critical decisions that are shaping our future. That's why the ABC News...