Free Republic

A thorough reexamination of scientific data has revealed that the rate of sea-level rise is accelerating, and the primary driver might not be what you think. While melting glaciers and shrinking ice sheets are commonly understood to contribute to sea levels creeping higher, the slow and steady expansion of our oceans often goes unseen. Yet this phenomenon is the main cause leading to higher sea levels around the world, research shows. As water in the ocean gets warmer, it expands in space – a process known as thermal expansion – meaning seawater occupies more volume. This expansion of water is...

The European Commission has taken Ireland to Europe’s highest court over the alleged lack of enforcement of EU rules when it comes to peat cutting. Following years of friction between the Government and the Commission on the issue, the EU’s executive body today referred Ireland to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for failure to comply with EU rules on environmental impact assessments. In a statement, the Commission said Ireland had failed to comply with the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive. The statement claimed there was still “significant peat cutting activity” which was not subject to planning permission or environmental impact...

PIERRE, S.D. (South Dakota Searchlight) – After 14 incumbent South Dakota lawmakers lost their seats in the 2024 Republican primary, 16 lost on Tuesday, according to unofficial results from the Secretary of State’s Office. The 2024 shakeup was described as “an earthquake” by Spearfish Rep. Scott Odenbach, a Republican incumbent who won his own primary that year and was elevated to majority leader of the House of Representatives with support from the newcomers. In the 2026 primary, those former newcomers made up the majority of the ousted incumbents. snip Several of the lawmakers who lost their seats in the 2024...

AAmong the greatest early accomplishments of the second Trump Administration was the shuttering of USAID. It’s great in part because it’s saving billions previously supposedly spent on trans camel surgeries in the third-world, but also because it has shut down innumerable Democrat NGOs and non-profits, including the Democrat National Committee, which, within a month, went broke and had to borrow millions just to keep the lights on. It seems USAID’s money—taxpayer money—wasn’t just spent on bizarre, leftist boondoggles overseas. It largely funded the Democrat Party and their cronies in America. Smart, that Trump guy. A recent, tear-drenched New York Times...

Nature is healing. VIDEOS AT LINK.................... Yes, failing NPR had a whole division of reporters dedicated to reporting climate hysteria. It would have been fine if they'd stuck to conservation and science instead of the anti-human cult thinking that says we're all gonna die if we don't stop the farting cows. Here's the scoop from former Chief Climate Editor Neela Banerjee: I've been at NPR for six years, and for the last three, I worked as head of its (relatively new) climate desk. We were 10 people who did ambitious, prize-winning enterprise and broke news. We launched an annual network-wide...

Tony Blair has accused Keir Starmer, Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting of putting Labour’s future at risk by abandoning the centre ground, warning that the party’s “almost infinite capacity for self-delusion” means it is likely to lose the next election. In a scathing 5,700-word attack on the prime minister and his would-be successors published on Tuesday night, Blair argued for the government to crack down on welfare spending, abandon restrictions on oil and gas and smooth relations with Donald Trump. His essay, a highly unusual intervention for a past Labour prime minister, is likely to draw a furious response from...

Findings by academic researchers suggest that hyperscalers' AI data centers contribute to local warming, but not everyone agrees. Findings of a new study conducted by a group of academics from around the globe have revealed that land surface temperature (LST) increases by 2°C (3.6°F) on average after the start of operations of an AI data center, an effect detectable up to an estimated 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) away. The study, The data heat island effect: quantifying the impact of AI data centers in a warming world, was conducted by a dozen experts from leading universities in the UK, Singapore, France,...

In Norway’s highest mountains, experts are scouring perilous terrain for pieces of the past, long stored in mint condition in ice patches. As temperatures rise across the world, glacial archaeologists must find the emerging artifacts before they degrade forever This arrow with a pressure-flaked arrowhead made from gray quartzite dates to the Late Stone Age or Bronze Age and was found on Norway’s ice. The pitch and the animal sinew used to fasten the arrowhead are still preserved, which is exceptionally rare. Espen Finstad, Innlandet County Municipality ============================================================================================ A brown leather loafer came into view on a patch of ice...

The world loves coal. That is the simple message from results showing new coal-fired power plants hit a global 10-year high in 2025, defying climate doomers who decry its use and long for wind farms, solar panels and hydro power everywhere. Rising gas prices and supply disruptions linked to the Middle East crisis are just some of the factors pushing countries like China, Indonesia, India, Japan, South Korea, Germany, and Italy to rely more heavily on dependable coal-fired energy security even as the global coal fleet generated less electricity – for now. Overall coal power capacity — plants that came...

A UN body of researchers that puts together possible climate scenarios announced last week that one extreme scenario it put forward back in 2011 is no longer plausible. As Roger Pielke Jr. from AEI puts it, the climate apocalypse is no longer around the corner.The climate apocalypse isn’t around the corner after all. That’s the upshot of a recent report from the international panel that supplies official “scenarios” to researchers, governments and banks. It turns out that the most extreme assumptions about the future — the doomsaying predictions embodied in the worst-case scenario known as RCP8.5 — are “implausible.”...The substance...

The climate crisis should be declared a global public health emergency by the World Health Organization, or millions more people will die unnecessarily, leading international experts have said. The independent pan-European commission on climate and health, which was convened by the WHO, concluded the climate crisis was such a worldwide threat to health that the WHO should declare it “a public health emergency of international concern” (Pheic). The international spread of vector-borne disease, such as dengue and chikungunya, as well as the health impacts of extreme weather events, global heating, food insecurity and air pollution make a Pheic necessary, said...

Mohammad Baghdadi Khan responded to criticism online by writing, "Who said councillors can’t drive cars like this?" A newly elected Green councillor in Bolton has posted video footage of himself driving a Lamborghini shortly after winning a seat in last week’s local elections. Mohammad Baghdadi Khan, also known as Baggy Khan, shared the video online following his victory in the Halliwell ward of Bolton, Greater Manchester, reports the Daily Mail. The footage shows Khan behind the wheel of a Lamborghini Huracan Spyder, a model that can cost up to £270,000. The clip also includes scenes from his election win. Reports...

The process of relocating people from New Orleans should start immediately, as the city has reached a “point of no return” that will see it surrounded by the ocean within decades due to the climate crisis, a stark new study has concluded. Ongoing sea-level rise and the erosion of wetlands in southern Louisiana will swallow up the New Orleans area within a few generations, with the new paper estimating the city “may well be surrounded by the Gulf of Mexico before the end of this century”. Low-lying southern Louisiana faces multiple threats, with rising sea levels driven by global heating,...

I guess you could say she's sounding the alarm?... This took place this week in Venice at the city's 61st Art Biennale, one of the world's most "prestigious" modern art events. Austrian artist Florentina Holzinger created an exhibit at the Austrian Pavilion called "Seaworld Venice" to warn humanity that climate change is going to destroy us all... I suppose by comparison, hanging upside-down naked in a bell is pretty tame to her usual stuff?

The European Commission has drafted plans to give more free emissions permits to industries ​over the next few years, a move that ‌could save companies 4 billion euros ($4.68 billion) in CO2 costs, an internal EU document seen by Reuters showed on Monday. The EU's ​carbon market is the bloc's main tool for ​addressing CO2 emissions, which it does by forcing ⁠industries to buy CO2 emissions permits when they pollute. The ​scheme has come under growing political pressure from member states ​worried about Europe's faltering economic competitiveness, while some heavy industries have urged Brussels to give them more free CO2...

Europe is the fastest-warming continent on Earth, the European State of the Climate Report for 2025 has found. From the Mediterranean to the Arctic Circle, its climate is shifting in ways that are no longer subtle, no longer gradual, and no longer distant. The consequences are cascading across Europe’s environment, economy, and ecosystems. With hotter air, warmer seas, shrinking ice, drying soils, and stressed ecosystems, the warning signals are screaming from every part of the climate system. Europe has been warming at a rate of 0.56°C per decade throughout the past 30 years. This is more than twice as fast...

Deep-diving robots help crack the mystery of Antarctica’s vanishing sea ice Something strange has been swirling in the waters around Antarctica. From the 1970s until a decade ago, the floating sea ice that radiates from the continent had been expanding, even with climate change already in full swing. Then, in 2016, it suddenly and dramatically contracted — and has yet to recover — as rising global temperatures seemed to catch up with the Southern Ocean. Far from being just a local issue, the loss of sea ice has huge implications for Antarctica’s vast ice sheet, which would drive sea levels...

A new Minnesota bill could ban most weekday and nighttime driving for classic cars A Minnesota bill would sharply limit when classic cars can legally be driven. Collector vehicles may only be allowed on weekends or at organized events. Critics warn the proposal could hurt car culture and local businesses. Seeing a classic car on the road is one of those rare moments that still brings a smile to anyone who appreciates such machines. That experience might be about to become even rarer in Minnesota. A new law there would limit classic cars to driving only on weekends or at...

The Trump administration will celebrate the groundbreaking of a controversial new natural gas pipeline in New York City on Tuesday — with the project set to run off the coast of the city to boost the region’s energy supply. President Trump strongly backs the Northeast Supply Enhancement pipeline and used his influence to persuade Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul to approve the permits allowing the project to proceed, despite fierce opposition from anti-fossil fuel environmentalists. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Environmental Protection Secretary Lee Zeldin will attend the event at Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field, hosted by Williams...

In an arid valley near the village of Kourtimale in southern Djibouti, a tattered chain link fence marks the boundaries of what was once Abdi Guelleh's farm. Within it, there's not a speck of greenery in sight. Broken lengths of irrigation piping lie scattered in the dust. A derelict weather station stands in a corner amid a tangle of cables. Here and there, taps that haven't seen water in years protrude from the earth. There's little to hint at the fact that this lifeless 2.5-acre plot was once meant to be one tiny brick in one of the world's most...