Free Republic

The Trump administration’s announcement that it would withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement is a largely symbolic move, but it is nevertheless another reminder of President Trump’s greatest folly: his disgraceful denial of the threat posed by catastrophic climate change. No matter who wins the Democratic presidential nomination, Trump’s open hostility toward any action on climate will elevate it to a defining issue in the 2020 campaign. Voters will choose between a president and Republican Party proud of systematic resistance to any action on climate, and a challenger and Democratic Party dedicated to historic efforts to limit...

A surge of oil production is coming, whether the world needs it or not. The flood of crude will arrive even as concerns about climate change are growing and worldwide oil demand is slowing. And it is not coming from the usual producers, but from Brazil, Canada, Norway and Guyana — countries that are either not known for oil or whose production has been lackluster in recent years. The oil-supply outlook is a sharp departure from the early 2000s, when prices soared as producers strained to keep up with ballooning demand in China and some analysts warned that the world...

Paris - More than 11,000 scientists warned Tuesday of "untold suffering" due to global warming, even as another team said Paris carbon-cutting pledges are "too little, too late". The European Union, meanwhile, confirmed that last month was the warmest October ever registered, fast on heels of a record September and the hottest month ever in July. Three-quarters of national commitments under the Paris climate accord to curb greenhouse gases will not even slow the accelerating pace of global warming, according to a report from five senior scientists. The sobering assessment came a day after President Donald Trump formally notified the...

It was one of the most heart-rending animal tragedy episodes ever shown on TV: hundreds of walruses shown plunging over a cliff to their deaths out of “desperation” caused by climate change. Or so the story originally went when Sir David Attenborough first told it last year on his Netflix documentary Our Planet, causing much upset to impressionable viewers. One problem: the story was absolute rubbish. It wasn’t diminishing sea ice reduced by “climate change” that caused those walruses to die. In reality, they were chased to their deaths by marauding polar bears — whose presence in the area the...

For more than two years President Donald Trump has talked about pulling the United States out of the landmark Paris climate agreement . Starting Monday he finally can do something about it. Even then, though, the withdrawal process takes a year and wouldn’t become official until at least the day after the 2020 presidential election. […] The terms of the deal say no country can withdraw in the first three years. So Monday is the first time the U.S. could actually start the withdrawal process, which begins with a letter to the United Nations. And it doesn’t become official for...

On Friday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) said that hurricanes, superstorms, and tornadoes did not occur before climate change. In the same breath, he said that anyone who questions the left's climate-alarmist hysteria is "just delusional." He may want to check in a mirror. After he finished berating President Donald Trump in an interview with MSNBC, Cuomo turned to his latest attempt to enforce climate change orthodoxy. "You know, anyone who questions extreme weather and climate change is just delusional at this point," Cuomo said. "We have seen in the State of New York what everyone is seeing. We see these...

WARNING: Do not have a sip of coffee or any other beverage in your mouth when you read this as it’s the funniest thing we’ve read today. 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg is stuck “halfway to Chile” because organizers moved the event to Spain: Greta Thunberg has traveled halfway to Chile, but will need to turn back to make the COP25 summit after it was moved to Spain. The activist, who refuses to fly due to high levels of emissions from air travel, has put out a transportation plea on Twitter. “It turns out I’ve traveled half around the world,...

Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg says she wouldn’t want to meet with President Trump even if given the opportunity. “I don’t understand why I would do that,” Thunberg told Ellen DeGeneres in an interview that airs Friday on the “Ellen” show. “I don’t see what I could tell him that he hasn’t already heard. And I just think it would be a waste of time, really.” Thunberg was in Los Angeles Friday for a protest rally by students opposed to new fossil-fuel production. She has drawn the ire of Trump, whose administration rolled back Obama-era environmental protections and withdrew...

Scientists have dramatically underestimated the impact rising seas will have on cities around the world, according to research published in the journal Nature Communications. One hundred and fifty million people are currently living in places that will be below the high-tide line in 30 years - three times as many people as the old projection methods estimated. Previous estimates relied on satellite data to forecast sea-level rise, but satellites can’t distinguish between ground level and taller elements integrated into the landscape, like trees and buildings. The paper, authored by Scott Kulp and Benjamin Strauss of the Princeton, used artificial intelligence...

Rising seas could affect three times more people by 2050 than previously thought, according to new research, threatening to all but erase some of the world’s great coastal cities. The authors of a paper published Tuesday developed a more accurate way of calculating land elevation based on satellite readings, a standard way of estimating the effects of sea level rise over large areas, and found that the previous numbers were far too optimistic. The new research shows that some 150 million people are now living on land that will be below the high-tide line by midcentury. SNIP

A group of climate activists crossing the Atlantic by sailboat to a UN summit in Chile were shocked to learn the event was canceled -- four weeks into their grueling voyage. The 36 young environmentalists set off from Amsterdam on October 2, using a sailboat in order to highlight the impact of flying on greenhouse gas emissions. They had completed more than half of their seven-week journey to the UN Climate Conference (COP25) in Santiago, Chile, which was scheduled to take place in early December. However Chile's President Sebastián Piñera announced Wednesday that the country would no longer host the...

The Independent, 2000: Snow is starting to disappear from our lives. Sledges, snowmen, snowballs and the excitement of waking to find that the stuff has settled outside are all a rapidly diminishing part of Britain's culture, as warmer winters – which scientists are attributing to global climate change – produce not only fewer white Christmases, but fewer white Januaries and Februaries … Global warming, the heating of the atmosphere by increased amounts of industrial gases, is now accepted as a reality by the international community … According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit...

When the plan to build a natural gas power plant in Killingly first came up in 2016, the objections from folks in this northeast corner town of about 17,000 were pretty basic – they already had one, didn’t want another about a mile away, and didn’t want its emissions. “Not another power plant,” was the rallying cry. Three years later, this remains the name of the local opposition group — or NAPP for short. But since then, the furor over the proposed Killingly Energy Center (KEC) has expanded into a statewide environmental cause célèbre and is now something of a...

A cold like never before seen in October is hitting Utah on Tuesday and Wednesday as a record-breaking Arctic cold front brings freezing air straight from Canada. Parts of the state had highs only in the 20s, which FOX 13 Chief Meteorologist Kristen Van Dyke said has never happened before on an October day. On Wednesday, temperatures in Salt Lake City are expected to break all-time records. The coldest recorded October temperature in the city was in 1971 with 16-degree low and 35-degree high. Wednesday is expected to see a low of 11 degrees and a high of 31. Strong...

October is National Energy Awareness Month, and the topic of energy production and its role in driving climate change — very rightfully — is as important a topic as ever. While the United States is leading the way in developing energy in significantly cleaner ways than countries like Russia, Venezuela and China, Democrats continue to promote a policy agenda that would cripple our economy and cause energy prices to skyrocket for American families. This month, Democrats on the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources held a hearing on their latest virtue-signaling messaging effort: Net-Zero Emissions. Their goal,...

Many people are without cell service after PG&E cut power to two milllion people and wildfires burn across California. In Marin County, close to 50 percent of all cell sites are down. In Sonoma County, 17 percent of sites are without power.  "The biggest concern is that when it comes to 911 calls, 81 percent of 911 calls are made from your wireless phone so having cell sites down it's an incredible public safety concern that consumers cannot access emergency services," said Ana Maria Johnson with the California Public Utilities Commission. Johnson said cell towers don't have back-up power systems because cell companies are not required...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said she has been “mostly” flying commercial in an effort to combat climate change but said her campaign is trying to look at “other ways” to reduce its carbon footprint. “What specific steps have you taken in your campaign to ensure that your campaign’s environmental impact is limited as possible?” a listener asked.Host Laura Knoy pointed out that Tom Steyer (D) recently told NHPR that he is only flying commercial, adding, “there’s a huge carbon footprint of a private jet, so that’s the sacrifice he said he was willing to make. How about you?” “So I’ve...

Upside-down "rivers" of warm ocean water may be one of the causes of Antarctica's ice shelves breaking up, leading to a rise in sea levels. But a new study suggests an increase in sea ice may lead to a much more devastating change in the Earth's climate — another ice age.

SAN FRANCISCO — Facing down 600 wildfires in the past three days alone, emergency workers rushed to evacuate tens of thousands of people in Southern California on Thursday as a state utility said one of its major transmission lines broke near the source of the out-of-control Kincade blaze in Northern California. **SNIP** The idea that fire could itself be used to help fight fire and restore ecosystems first gained institutional acceptance in the South. In 1958 a policy change was made to allow for the first prescribed burn in a national park, at Everglades National Park in Florida. For some...

The Left’s fixation on climate change is cloaked in scientism, deploying computer models to create the illusion of certainty. Ever more convinced of their role as planetary saviors, radical greens are increasingly intolerant of dissent or any questioning of their policy agenda. They embrace a sort of “soft Stalinism,” driven by a determination to remake society, whether people want it or not—and their draconian views are penetrating the mainstream. “Democracy,” a writer for Foreign Policy suggests, constitutes “the planet’s biggest enemy.” Today’s working and middle classes are skeptical about policies that undermine their livelihoods in the promise of distant policy...