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As an extreme year for hurricanes, wildfires and heat waves comes to an end, the head of the United Nations challenged world leaders to make 2021 the year that humanity ends its “war on nature” and commits to a future free of planet-warming carbon pollution. With new reports highlighting 2020’s record-breaking weather and growing fossil fuels extraction that triggers global warming, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres delivered yet another urgent appeal to curb climate change. It was tinged with optimism but delivered dire warnings, as the UN gears up for a Dec. 12 virtual climate summit in France on the 5th...

While it's unclear exactly how much Kerry benefited from his wife's company, private jets have been estimated to emit upward of 40 times as much carbon per passenger as commercial flights. "We look forward to the anti-carbon lectures from a guy who travels the globe on private jets and luxury yachts," read a New York Post editorial on Monday.

We have all heard on the media and on TV that solar and wind electrical energy is getting cheaper, and often much cheaper than that generated by coal, gas, oil, or nuclear. Here are some recent article titles: "Solar and wind costs continue to fall as power becomes cleaner," Forbes, April 30, 2020 "Solar power will cost less than coal, Bloomberg Green, June 2, 2020; Solar and wind power will cost less than coal by 2030 according to one analyst's math," Barrons, Energy Features, Nov 25, 2019 However, there are enormous scientific, technical, and economic barriers that these "new" energy...

EU member states Hungary and Poland have followed through on their threat to block the continental power bloc’s seven-year budget, after Brussels attempted to push it through with conditions the populist nations said were akin to “political enslavement”. European Union rules mean that many significant decisions — including whether to approve the bloc’s seven-yearly funding programs — must be taken unanimously, with any single member state able to veto decisions. This safeguard was triggered on Monday by conservative-led Hungary and Poland, who blocked the progress of the €1.8 trillion (£1.6 trillion, $2.1 trillion) ‘Multi annual Financial Framework’ (MFF) as an...

ohn Pavlovitz, who pastors North Raleigh Community Church in North Carolina, writes a heartfelt letter to white evangelicals: Dear White Evangelicals, I need to tell you something: People have had it with you. They’re done. They want nothing to do with you any longer, and here’s why: They see your hypocrisy, your inconsistency, your incredibly selective mercy, and your thinly veiled supremacy. For eight years they watched you relentlessly demonize a black President; a man faithfully married for 26 years; a doting father and husband without a hint of moral scandal or the slightest whiff of infidelity. They watched you...

NASA, ESA, J. Hester, A. Loll (ASU) ===================================================================== Supernovas may have affected the Earth’s climate in the last 40,000 years. Tree-ring data suggests supernovas caused spikes in radiocarbon. Could the next nearby supernova cause a collapse of civilization? ====================================================================== Dendrochronology is a fancy word for tree-ring dating, where the age of a tree can be determined by the number of growth rings across its trunk. But there’s a lot more to learn from looking at a tree’s rings than simply its age. Like fingerprints, tree rings give scientists clues to what the world was like when a tree was alive....

On Thursday, a new study came out warning that even if we stopped emitting carbon dioxide, the world has reached the “point of no return” for climate change. The paper claims that’s because Arctic permafrost—carbon-rich, permanently frozen earth made of rocks, water, and dead wildlife—is melting irreversibly, and it could continue to heat the planet for centuries by releasing carbon dioxide. Terrifying, right? The only solution, the authors indicate, is to suck carbon out of the air with carbon capture, which is yet unproven to work at scale, or to employ even more dangerous geoengineering technologies. The study’s results and...

Fortunately, some populations of great tits have learned to adapt to the untimely spring by simply hatching earlier — proving that the early bird does indeed get the worm. This behavior, in turn, could potentially be passed on to future generations.

The remains of a giant, ancient lake have been discovered under Greenland, buried deep below the ice sheet in the northwest of the country and estimated to be hundreds of thousands of years old, if not millions, scientists say. The huge 'fossil lake bed' is a phenomenon the likes of which scientists haven't seen before in this part of the world... Last year, scientists reported the discovery of over 50 subglacial lakes beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet: bodies of thawed liquid water trapped between bedrock and the ice sheet overhead. The new find is of a different nature: an ancient...

For a party that believes they got a House majority and a president elected, the Democrats are in total disarray. They were expected to do better. They thought they’d do better. The media was telling them they’d do better. Pollsters were telling them they’d do better. The voters said otherwise. Instead of walking away with the presidency, the Senate, and an increase in their majority in the House, Democrats came up short. Republicans have won at least five additional seats in the House and are leading in three others that Democratic incumbents are trying to defend. Republicans were projected to...

Rome Newsroom, Nov 8, 2020 / 10:00 am MT (CNA).- The French bishops’ appeal to continue public Masses during France’s national lockdown was rejected Saturday by the Council of State. “The bishops deplore above all that the faithful will thus remain unable to participate in Mass, the summit of their faith and an irreplaceable encounter with God and with their brothers,” the French bishops’ conference said in a statement issued in response to the decision Nov. 7. As France entered into its second lockdown of this year in November, the French bishops’ conference filed a “référé liberté” with the Council...

President-elect Joe Biden is planning to quickly sign a series of executive orders after being sworn into office on Jan. 20, immediately forecasting that the country's politics have shifted and that his presidency will be guided by radically different priorities. He will rejoin the Paris climate accords, according to those close to his campaign and commitments he has made in recent months, and he will reverse President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the World Health Organization. He will repeal the ban on immigration from many Muslim-majority countries, and he will reinstate the program allowing "dreamers," who were brought to the United...

Suppose you're elected president after a bruising campaign and election season. Before you take office, a throng of critics arise, leveling non-stop criticism about you, your aims, your parents, your family, and every facet of your being. Don’t Say a WordImagine that as you’re sworn in, the verbal attacks intensify. Your intelligence is impugned. Your motives are questioned to the nth degree. Your appearance is mocked. Your family is derided, and subjected to constant threats. Everything that you say is taken out of context, often intentionally, to convolute the meaning of your message.Rather than be accorded a grace period of...

Former Vice President Joe Biden suggested last year that, if elected, his administration would seek to fight climate change by any possible measure, including jailing fossil fuel executives for excessive pollution. Biden, who is under fire for his position on fracking in the closing days of the presidential contest, made the comments during a campaign swing through New Hampshire in 2019 ahead of the state’s first in the nation primary. During an event with supporters in Peterborough, the former vice president was asked about what the consequences to America would be if the country did not stop using fossil fuels...

During last Thursday's debate, Joe Biden said his goal as president would be to "transition away from the oil industry." He has also said the future is in cars powered by electricity. Biden would build 500,000 charging stations across the country. It wasn't the first time he attacked the oil and job-producing industry in his worship of the cult of "climate change." According to Energy Information Administration data, petroleum is America's No. 1 source of energy, providing approximately 40 percent of the nation's power needs. Biden claims oil is also a major pollutant. According to the website IQ Air, the...

Pope Francis on Wednesday described the COVID-19 pandemic as a tough “lady” taskmaster who must be obeyed...

The Environmental Protection Agency has asked the Justice Department to investigate allegations that U.S. environmental groups have received covert funding from China and Russia. EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler made the request after Rep. Lance Gooden (R., Texas) alleged that left-wing environmental groups—including the Sea Change Foundation, Sunrise Movement, and Sierra Club—have functioned as conduits for "foreign influence, financial involvement, and election interference." Wheeler noted that it is not against the law for a nonprofit to take contributions from foreign entities but nonetheless asked the DOJ to look into whether the groups should register as foreign agents. "Given heightened concerns that...

On Thursday, President Donald J. Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden faced off for the final 2020 presidential debate where Biden was challenged on multiple fronts by the incumbent President. Probably most shockingly, Trump got Biden to admit on-air that he would flat-out destroy the oil and gas industry. Trump asked Biden, “Would you close down the oil industry?” Biden responded, “I would transition from the oil industry, yes.” The moderator asked, “Why would you do that,” to which Biden responded, “The oil industry pollutes significantly… because it has to be replaced by renewable energy over time, over time....

The answer should be obvious: you shouldn’t. Not in a million years. I know people who are still trying to decide whether or not to vote for Democrats in this election. As shocking as that might seem, it’s true. And as with any important decision that must be made, an important question to answer before deciding to do it is “Why?” While I know some people simply vote for personalities, let’s assume for sake of argument that some undecided voters are actually thinking people who want to wrestle with what is at stake in this election for them, their families,...

WASHINGTON - A climate advocacy group comprised of high-profile backers of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Tuesday urged the former vice president to consider using U.S. financial regulation as a tool to fight global warming if he is elected. Evergreen Action, a group of former staffers of Washington Governor Jay Inslee and Senator Elizabeth Warren who have advised the Biden campaign on a range of issues, handed the campaign a policy memo detailing how he could use the U.S. financial system to counter climate change within his first 100 days in office if he defeats Republican President Donald Trump....