Free Republic

For a nation that’s supposedly laden with hard-headed common sense and a strong work ethic but is in fact more left-wing than anything else, Germany has slammed into the wall that bedevils similar political philosophies all over: they’ve run out of other people’s money to spend. And with what is so common among nations afflicted with a multi-party political system, their latest coalition government has therefore collapsed, crucified by essentially three factors: immigration (and growing popular resistance thereto), insane socio-economic policies fueled by Green eco-nonsense (e.g. an EV mandate which has led to closure of auto factories and concomitant unemployment),...

Germany's governing coalition is in crisis after Chancellor Olaf Scholz fired a key minister and said he would call a vote of confidence in his government early next year. Scholz said he had no trust in Finance Minister Christian Lindner, who leads a rival party that has been part of the coalition along with Scholz's Social Democrats and the Greens. The move means Scholz's government no longer has a majority in parliament. The confidence vote could lead to early elections by March. The so-called "traffic light" coalition led by the chancellor has governed Germany since 2021.

The European Green Party on Friday called for Jill Stein, the 2024 presidential candidate of the U.S. Green Party, to withdraw from the race...writing that the election is “too close for comfort.” “On 5 November 2024, the world will be watching to see whether Americans choose Kamala Harris or Donald Trump to be their next president,” the European party, also known as the European Greens, wrote. “Ahead of these pivotal elections, European Greens have called upon US Green Party candidate Jill Stein to withdraw her Presidential candidacy, and endorse Kamala Harris.” Harris is the only candidate who can block former...

Green politicians from across Europe on Friday called on U.S. Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein to withdraw from the race for the White House and endorse Democrat Kamala Harris instead.“We are clear that Kamala Harris is the only candidate who can block Donald Trump and his anti-democratic, authoritarian policies from the White House,” Green parties from countries including Germany, France, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Ireland, Estonia, Belgium, Spain, Poland and Ukraine said in a statement, which was shared with POLITICO ahead of publication.

Jubilant Republicans may imagine that the most significant harbinger for America’s future was the banging of a gavel on January 6, opening the 108th Congress. Finally, GOP partisans may conclude, they call the shots. But it may be that the Earth itself is in charge. In 2002, the second hottest year on record, scientists saw Arctic Ocean ice coverage shrink by more than at any time since satellite measurements were first made a quarter century ago. And, they say, continued melting could leave the Arctic nearly ice-free by summer 2050. Americans need to pay attention to the winds of change...

For years, world leaders have accused Russia of funding environmental groups in Europe to steer nations away from energy independence and strengthen Russia’s iron grip over the continent. As nations across the globe begin shunning Russian oil in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine, U.S. leaders are also questioning how deep Russia’s ties go in the environmental community. "The Russians actually fund some of the most rabid environmental groups in Europe because they sic them on the energy projects that aren’t Russian," James Carafano, vice president of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign...

Two European Union member countries held elections this past weekend and the results are just beginning to come into focus. From my cynical viewpoint, they look pretty darn good. First up were regional elections in Germany. I’ve tried to keep you all up on the general deep sense of dissatisfaction with the way Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Green coalition has been forcing German citizens and their economy into NetZero naught land. These regional contests in two of the bigger, wealthier states in the country – Bavaria and Hesse – were going to be a prime test for how the wind might...

Why is it that greens want everyone to drive electric cars but don’t want people to have electricity? Or, it seems, the cars ... Fossil and nuclear plants are being taken offline (bye, Indian Point!) while their replacement with “renewables” like wind and solar lags and often fails to produce power when it’s most needed. Nothing has improved on that front. But the thing about electric cars is that they don’t just need electricity, they also need batteries to store it in. And electric motors. That’s awkward because those cars and batteries require lots of copper and other metals, plus...

Joana Partyk declined to give full access to her electronic devices after they were seized by police in a raid in FebruaryAn artist who defaced one of Australia’s most famous paintings during a gas company protest will fight a counter-terrorism charge over access to her electronic devices, labelling it “state-sanctioned overreach”. Joana Veronika Partyka, 37, pleaded not guilty on Monday in the Perth magistrates court to one count of failing to obey a data access order after she declined to cooperate with authorities. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup Her...

The green energy group behind a study cited in Consumer Product Safety commissioner Richard Trumka Jr.'s call to ban gas stoves has partnered with the Chinese government to implement an "economy-wide transformation" away from oil and gas. Colorado-based nonprofit Rocky Mountain Institute, which published the December study that attributes 13 percent of U.S. childhood asthma cases to gas-stove use, is hardly staffed by an objective group of scientists. The organization is demanding "systemic change and economy-wide transformation" to address a climate crisis it says we must go to great lengths to avoid. In 2013, for example, the Rocky Mountain Institute...

'European democracy is under attack': Roberta Metsola addresses EU Parliament corruption scandal By Euronews • Updated: 13/12/2022 - 11:31 Roberta Metsola address the European Parliament plenary in Strasbourg, France. Roberta Metsola address the European Parliament plenary in Strasbourg, France. - Copyright Philippe BUISSIN/ European Union 2022 - Source : EP Roberta Metsola, the President of the European Parliament, warned on Monday that there would be "no impunity" for those found guilty of corruption as she addressed what is perhaps the gravest graft scandal to hit the hemicycle in recent years. "Make no mistake, the European Parliament, dear colleague, is under...

Despite months of enormous and widespread protests from Dutch farmers, the Dutch government will be confiscating 3,000 farms and closing them down in the interests of complying with EU environmental rules to decrease nitrogen emissions by 50% by 2030.Of course, this means 3,000 farms' worth of food production will be eliminated. The Netherlands is the world's second-largest exporter of agricultural products and provides vegetables for much of Western Europe. Over half of Dutch land is used for agriculture, and that doesn't count 24,000 acres' worth of crops growing in greenhouses. What does the Dutch government think will happen to the...

Doesn’t this headline say it all about whose priorities are what?Energy crisis sparks air pollution fearsIn the environmentally conscious, Green-centric world where the Brussels commissioners live, their focus is on the air you breathe, not the mean temperature as you take that breath. Granted, it might be partially their fault – okay, mostly their fault – that the ambient air inside your humble cottage is a…tad cooler than it was last winter for the now 6, 8, or even 10 times as many Euros to make it so……As the Continent scrambles to avert a full-scale energy crisis, efforts to stay...

The “Kill Keystone XL” crowd isn’t little David up against a Big Oil Goliath. As usual, conventional wisdom isn’t wisdom when the mainstream media ask all the wrong questions with commensurate answers. Behemoth Big Green outstrips Big Oil in expendable revenue by orders of magnitude — if you know how to follow the money. The mainstream media don’t know how. Like most liberals, their staffs are afflicted with what 20th century futurist Herman Kahn called “Educated Incapacity” — the learned inability to understand or even perceive a problem, much less a solution. They’ve been taught to be blind, unable to...

Former Secretary of State James Baker on Tuesday paid tribute to former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who died at 91 earlier in the day, calling the former world leader a “giant who steered his great nation toward democracy.” In a statement published through his eponymous Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, Baker applauded Gorbachev’s role in ending the 40-year Cold War between Russia and the U.S., referring to him as an “honest broker” who stood by his word despite experiencing pressure from Moscow. Baker served as the secretary of State in the George H.W. Bush administration from 1989...

Germany's Catholic environmental Bishop, Rolf Lohmann takes a sceptical view of the debate on extending the operating lives of German nuclear power plants. In perspective, he said, it is ethically imperative to "phase out sooner rather than later, as nuclear energy remains a risky technology." Lohmann praised climate strike actions. Germany's Catholic environmental Bishop Rolf Lohmann takes a sceptical view of the debate on extending the operating life of German nuclear power plants. It is true that "it would be wrong to categorically rule out this measure in an emergency", the auxiliary bishop from Xanten told the weekly newspapers "Neue...

Many consumers are committed to organic products for reasons that are more emotional than logical. They frequently define their purchasing choices in terms of what they consider to be “wholesome and natural,” which often translates to the absence of “synthetic” inputs such as fertilizer and pesticides. For some, the prohibition on “genetically modified” crops (however they might be defined) is another consideration. Sometimes, they assume that in some vague way, organic agricultural practices are better for the planet. In short, on their dinner table they want something like the farm of the idealized “Old McDonald” children’s tune that many of...

Electrifying most energy demand in order to replace fossil fuels with carbon-free sources of power like wind and solar is widely seen as necessary to prevent catastrophic climate change, but it comes with a significant side effect: using much more land to produce electricity. A team of researchers hailing from the University of Michigan, UC-Santa Barbara, UC-Berkeley, and the Breakthough Institute reported the finding last week in the journal PLoS ONE.... "Renewable energy sources like ground-mounted photovoltaics, concentrated solar power, and wind feature prominently in many decarbonization scenarios, but since they can have higher land use intensity than fossil fuels,...

Australia survived booms and busts, two World Wars, and the Great Depression only to run aground on pure ridiculousness. There is an ominous buzz in the new Australian Parliament — Albo and the Greens are planning to pass 40 new bills, quick smart. Each bill will probably need 100 new regulations and 200 new inspectors, auditors, and enforcers plus many new taxes and fees. They will not deliver "Net Zero" — they are "Net Negative." They will divert labor and capital from productive activities to bureaucracies and green energy speculators. Where are the 40 old bills that Green-Albo will repeal...

The climate advocates who cheered President Joe Biden’s arrival at the White House last year are preparing to give up on Washington. Instead, environmentalists and many of their Democratic allies are starting to shift their focus to state capitals as the places to press for action on climate change - going back to a strategy that they employed with some success during the Trump era. The flight from D.C. is in large part a response to 18 months of frustration with major setbacks to Biden’s climate agenda, capped by Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling that hobbled the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority...