Free Republic

If you're despairing at recent reports that Earth's water sources have been thoroughly infested with hazardous human-made chemicals called PFAS that can last for thousands of years, making even rainwater unsafe to drink, there's a spot of good news. Chemists have developed a simple way to break down almost a dozen types of these nearly indestructible 'forever chemicals' at relatively low temperatures with no harmful byproducts. ...

Pope Francis again warns against nationalism, says recent speeches sound like ‘Hitler in 1934’ Pope Francis called for a united Europe in an interview published by Italian daily La Stampa on Friday, saying recent political rhetoric has echoed that of Nazi Germany.“I am concerned because we hear speeches that resemble those of Hitler in 1934,” he said. “ 'Us first. We … We … ’ These are frightening thoughts.”It is not the first time the pontiff has made such remarks, but his comments published Friday came as Italy’s populist government appeared to be on the verge of collapse.

Brexit’ makes the decline of the European Union (EU) “practically inevitable”...

Michele Bachmann is on the defensive about comments she made earlier this week suggesting that a vaccine against a virus linked to cervical cancer poses a danger to young girls. "During the debate, I didn't make any statements that would indicate that I'm a doctor, I'm a scientist or that I'm making any conclusions about the drug one way or another," the GOP presidential hopeful told reporters here who questioned her about the story she told suggesting that the vaccine had caused mental retardation. Asked whether she would apologize for comments that outraged medical experts say will discourage parents from...

Al Gore has once again displayed the timing and class that enabled him to help elect George W. Bush President back in 2000. As the dead lie unburied and decaying in Myanmar, after a cyclone hit the country with the impact of Lucifer’s Hammer, the government worries more about its sovereignty than it does its people. Al Gore, like the Fiddling Emperor Nero, worries far more about his showmanship and his pet issue than he does the fact that at least 40,000 people lie dead in the wake of a cataclysmic natural disaster. Al Gore ironically released his latest counterfactual,...

Scientists say rising greenhouses gases will make climate change unstoppable in a decade THE world has just 10 years to reverse surging greenhouse gas emissions or risk runaway climate change that could make many parts of the planet uninhabitable. The stark warning comes from scientists who are working on the final draft of a new report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The report, due to be published this week, will draw together the work of thousands of scientists from around the world who have been studying changes in the world’s climate and predicting how they might accelerate....

You know what makes me nervous about President Bush? It's not his facial expressions. Nor his verbal clumsiness. I don't care about his alleged weakness at the podium. What concerns me more than anything else is his demonstrated weakness at our borders. Immigration enforcement is the six-ton elephant in the room. Barely two sentences were devoted to border control in the first presidential debate, despite the fact that the major issue of the showdown was leadership on national security. Both President Bush and Sen. Kerry bloviated about throwing more money at the Department of Homeland Security, while ignoring the fundamental...

Editor's note: This is the second in a three-part series on oil by MarketWatch columnist Paul Erdman. See Part 1 HEALDSBURG, Calif. (CBS.MW) -- Before considering the effect of surging global demand for energy on the price of crude, I would like to discuss the potential structural change in the supply of oil. This change will have deep-seated implications beyond the cyclical supply/demand crisis we are experiencing at present. In 1956, M. King Hubbert, an American geophysicist working at the Shell Oil research laboratory in Houston, came up with a startling prediction: Oil production in the United States would peak...