Free Republic

A black radio host convicted of staging burning cross to help sway the election testifies that mayor was in on it. A black media personality was convicted last week of faking a hate crime against Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade to gin up votes for him, with the ringleader Derrick Bernard testifying that Mobolade was in on the hoax, and the FBI testifying that the mayor misled agents about his contact with Bernard. Mobolade, who is Nigerian, won the election as a left-leaning independent in the traditional Republican stronghold in 2023 after the n-word was scrawled on one of his...

A Colorado couple who burned a cross in front of a black mayoral candidate’s campaign sign to generate voter sympathy was convicted Friday of conveying false information about a threat. Prosecutors argued that although Ashley Blackcloud, who is indigenous and Black, and Derrick Bernard, who is Black, orchestrated and broadcast the hoax to aid the candidate, their actions still amounted to a criminal threat. The cross burning happened in 2023 during the run-up to the mayoral election in Colorado Springs, the state’s second-largest city. Images and video of the episode were emailed to local news outlets to boost the campaign...

The United Nations warned Wednesday there is a 70 percent chance that average warming from 2025 to 2029 will exceed the 1.5 degrees Celsius international benchmark. The planet is therefore expected to remain at historic levels of warming after the two hottest years ever recorded in 2023 and 2024, according to an annual climate report published by the World Meteorological Organization, the UN's weather and climate agency. "We have just experienced the 10 warmest years on record," said the WMO's deputy secretary-general Ko Barrett. "Unfortunately, this WMO report provides no sign of respite over the coming years, and this means...

The man accused of staging a hate crime to garner support for Yemi Mobolade during his 2023 mayoral campaign shared shocking testimony during a federal trial on Thursday, claiming Mobolade not only knew of the plan but that a state representative was also in on it. Derrick Bernard and his partner Ashley Blackcloud have been on trial this week at the federal courthouse in downtown Denver. They are accused of burning a wooden cross in front of a Yemi Mobolade campaign sign, defaced with the N-word slur, in order to gain sympathy for the man trying to become the first-elected...

If it seems like allergy season is getting worse and longer every year, you aren't mistaken. Eighty-one million Americans suffer from allergies, and 87% of people living in cities say the allergy season is getting longer. "As climate change progresses — the temperature keep increasing and the CO2 in the air — the prediction is, allergy season will keep getting worse”, said Mary Margaret Johnson, principal research scientist at Harvard University's T.H. Chan School of Public Health. For those who have allergies, Johnson recommends wearing a mask outdoors to reduce the amount of pollen that you take into your body...

BURLINGTON, Vt. - Vermont’s consumers are not buying electric vehicles as fast as the state’s rules require, according to data collected by the Vermont Vehicle Distributors Association. “We’re between a rock and a hard place, quite frankly,” says Vermont Vehicle and Automotive Distributors Association representative, Matt Cota To meet goals in Vermont’s Global Warming Solutions Act, the Agency of Natural Resources set standards for the number of electric vehicles that should be on the road by 2035. “We’re showing exponential growth, but we’re not showing the type of growth as required by law. The law requires 35%, we’re only at...

The U.S. Navy officially scrapped a Biden-era “climate action” plan for the force on Tuesday, signifying the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to refocus the military towards warfighting. “Today, I’m focusing on the warfighters first, and I’m rescinding the Biden administration’s climate action program. Our focus needs to be on lethality and our warfighters,” Navy Secretary John Phelan announced in a video message. Released in May 2022, the Climate Action 2030 program contained a series of actions and goals the Department of the Navy (DON) has taken or planned to undertake to tackle what Biden Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro characterized...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The world’s biggest corporations have caused $28 trillion in climate damage, a new study estimates as part of an effort to make it easier for people and governments to hold companies financially accountable, like the tobacco giants have been. A Dartmouth College research team came up with the estimated pollution caused by 111 companies, with more than half of the total dollar figure coming from 10 fossil fuel providers: Saudi Aramco, Gazprom, Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, National Iranian Oil Co., Pemex, Coal India and the British Coal Corporation. For comparison, $28 trillion is a shade less than...

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...

In a post on January 28 — a week into President Trump’s second term — I urged that it is time to “purge the climate scam from the federal websites.” Trump 1.0 did a remarkably poor job of taking control of communications on the climate issue on websites like those of EPA, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Transportation. Are they doing any better this time? They have definitely taken some significant steps to address this issue here in the early weeks of the new administration. For example, on April 15 the Guardian ran a piece with the...

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...

Lab Leak: The True Origins of Covid-19 - The White House THE ORIGIN “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2” publication — which was used repeatedly by public health officials and the media to discredit the lab leak theory — was prompted by Dr. Fauci to push the preferred narrative that COVID-19 originated naturally. 1. The virus possesses a biological characteristic that is not found in nature. 2. Data shows that all COVID-19 cases stem from a single introduction into humans. This runs contrary to previous pandemics where there were multiple spillover events. 3. Wuhan is home to China’s foremost SARS research...

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...

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....

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...

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...

Scientists primarily publish their work in academic journals, where writing is expected to be technical, objective and dispassionate -- making it unlikely to appeal to, or be easily understood by non-experts. The researchers -- from the University of Exeter -- argue for science "translated into stories," with benefits both for science and wider society. They suggest ways that scientists can tell powerful, passionate stories without compromising the objectivity of science. "As environmental scientists ourselves, we feel frustration, a sense of loss, fear and sometimes helplessness at the lack of action to protect the planet," said Professor Karen Anderson, from the...

The climate crisis affects everyone, but women disproportionately bear its impact. A special conference was held on Tuesday in honor of International Women’s Month, examining the climate crisis from a gender perspective. The climate crisis particularly affects women in developing countries, according to research. They are primarily responsible for caring for their family, which is becoming more difficult with the increasing frequency of droughts, floods, and other natural disasters. However, women are not only victims of this issue. They also play an important role in addressing climate change, as research has shown that countries with higher female representation in decision-making...