Free Republic

Melbourne, Australia - Australia, one of the world's oldest continuing democracies, goes to the polls on Saturday to choose the country's next parliament and prime minister. Australians have had six changes of prime minister over the past 12 years - mostly the result of internal party fights - and the incumbent Liberal Coalition of Prime Minister Scott Morrison is hoping tax cuts and the enduring resilience of Australia's economy will be enough to keep it in office. But growth is slowing and climate change has emerged as a major issue after the country's hottest summer on record. The opposition Labor...

As sure as the sun rises in the east, when a heat wave engulfs the continental United States, it dawns on the media that “global warming” may be to blame. Such was the case with CBS’s Bob Orr on the July 31 “Evening News,” when the reporter consulted with Pew Center on Global Climate Change’s Jay Gulledge. “The average global temperature is getting hotter due to global warming,” Gulledge told Orr. “Gulledge says there’s no longer any serious debate” on climate change, Orr added. A short time later, Orr’s story was cut short just as Gulledge was explaining his theory...

Blistering heat broiled the county yesterday, breaking all-time records, testing the power system and sending weary souls in search of air conditioning.“This is the hottest it's ever been, and I'm a native,” said Maria Dorsey of Mission Valley as she attended a firefighting exhibition at Qualcomm Stadium, where visitors looked as though they had just stepped from the sauna. K.C. ALFRED / Union-Tribune Gabby Clippinger let Mitchell Carlin have it with a spray bottle as the 6-year-olds tried to keep cool yesterday on the infield at the Del Mar Racetrack. Today is expected to bring only slight relief. The National...

Carbon dioxide, the gas largely blamed for global warming, has reached record-high levels in the atmosphere after growing at an accelerated pace in the past year, say scientists monitoring the sky from this 2-mile-high station atop a Hawaiian volcano. Carbon dioxide, mostly from burning of coal, gasoline and other fossil fuels, traps heat that otherwise would radiate into space. Global temperatures increased by about 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.6 degrees Celsius) during the 20th century, and international panels of scientists sponsored by world governments have concluded that most of the warming probably was due to greenhouse gases.