Free Republic

LONDON -- The average size of global wildlife populations have declined by 73% in 50 years, a new study by the World Wildlife Fund has found. The study, titled the 2024 Living Planet Report, monitored wildlife populations of 5,495 species of amphibians, birds, fish, mammals and reptiles between 1970 and 2020. Its findings reveal declines in “every indicator that tracks the state of nature on a global scale." “The findings of this report are alarming,” said Anke Schulmeister-Oldenhove, the senior forest policy officer at the WWF. “EU consumption continues to be a major driver of global biodiversity loss, particularly in...

When it comes to exercise for heart health, you don't want to peak too early in life. Recent research suggests that if you want to protect yourself against high blood pressure as you age, you need to play the long game and keep your exercise levels up through middle age. But social factors can make this more difficult for some people to do than others, according to a study of more than 5,000 people across 4 US cities. "Teenagers and those in their early 20s may be physically active but these patterns change with age," study author and epidemiologist Kirsten...

The number of liberal young women has skyrocketed over the past two decades and their views on key issues have swayed further to the left, according to an analysis of more than 20 years of polling data. An average of 40% of women 18 to 29 years old identified themselves as liberal over the past seven years — up from 32% in the prior eight years (the President Obama era) and 28% in the eight years before that (the President Bush era), according to a Gallup study. The demographic has always had the largest number of liberals throughout the analysis,...

Imperial College London research has found limits to how quickly we can scale up technology to store gigatonnes of carbon dioxide under Earth's surface. Current international scenarios for limiting global warming to less than 1.5 degrees by the end of the century rely on technologies that remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from Earth's atmosphere faster than humans release it. This means removing CO2 at a rate of 1–30 gigatonnes per year by 2050. However, estimates for the speed at which these technologies can be deployed have been highly speculative. Now, findings from a new study led by Imperial College London researchers...

The human body doesn’t age steadily throughout middle age and instead goes through bursts of rapid aging typically at around age 44 and again at 60, according to a new study published Wednesday in the academic journal Nature Aging. Stanford University researchers tracked age-related changes in more than 135,000 types of molecules and microbes in samples collected every three to six months from more than 100 adults between the ages of 25 and 75 years old. Researchers gathered more than 5,400 blood, stool, skin nasal swab and oral swabs as part of the study, and as a result were able...

A report released Monday by USC’s Understanding America Study (UAS) suggests the use of hyperbolic terms to describe global warming has no effect on people’s perceptions of the urgency of climate change. The study notes that climate crusaders like the UK’s Guardian newspaper have officially opted for expressions like “climate crisis” and “climate emergency” in an attempt to raise concern and convey urgency, yet it would seem that such efforts are in vain. “Instead of ‘climate change’ the preferred terms are ‘climate emergency, crisis or breakdown’ and ‘global heating’ is favoured over ‘global warming,’ although the original terms are not...

Four key pillars of the global climate are melting in the heat trapped by rising fossil fuel emissions, a new study has found. The relatively stable climate that nurtured human civilization depends in large part on these structures: the ice sheets of Greenland and West Antarctica, the Amazon rainforest and the Atlantic currents that warm Europe. Under current policies, the world faces a scenario in which those pillars have roughly even odds of either surviving or collapsing during the next three centuries, according to results published Thursday in Nature Communications. The scientists warned that if the pillars are fatally undermined...

Nearly half of the nation's National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer centers required universal masking in key clinical areas during the winter 2023–2024 COVID-19 surge, according to a study by Tulane University researchers. Overall, 41.8% of these 67 centers required some universal masking, according to the study, which was published in JAMA Network Open. Further, 12 NCI-designated centers (18%) required universal masking in all areas. Masking policies were even more common in northeastern states and in centers with longer NCI designation, more funding and higher care rankings. Those with cancer face higher risks from COVID-19 infections, long COVID, infection-related delay of...

People who own cryptocurrency are more likely to be narcissistic, psychopathic sadists, according to a study. Cryptocurrency, which has exploded in popularity in recent years, is digital 'money' which lies beyond the control of central banks and governments. The global market is worth about £1.3 trillion and around five million adults in the UK have invested. But now a study suggests that those who own online currency - such as Bitcoin - are more likely to have 'dark tetrad' personality traits. Investors are also more likely to be men, rely on fringe social media sources, believe in conspiracy theories and...

The world's two most populous nations, China and India, have the highest numbers of students studying overseas.Statista's Anna Fleck reports that, according to data published by UNESCO, more than one million Chinese students were studying abroad in 2021. India’s total was close to half of this, with around 508,000 students living in other countries.Following some way behind come Vietnam, Germany and Uzbekistan.You will find more infographics at StatistaThe United States was the largest destination country for students studying abroad with over 833,000 there in 2021. It was followed by the United Kingdom (nearly 601,000), Australia (around 378,000), Germany (over 376,000)...

FIRST ON FOX -- Americans who rely on evening newscasts from ABC, CBS or NBC for information are likely unaware that elected officials going after former President Trump are Democrats, according to a new study from the Media Research Center. "The network coverage of the Trump prosecutions routinely and fraudulently implies that they are nonpartisan public officials. It’s Trump versus the New York Attorney General, or the Manhattan District Attorney. They’re not just Democrats, they’re elected Democrats, building a career on taking down Trump. Leaving that out of the story is irresponsible," NewsBusters executive editor Tim Graham told Fox News...

An interesting article popped up in the journal Nature last week and I wanted to bring it to your attention despite the fact that some of the science involved goes well over my head. It deals with an ongoing study in the field of human genetics and the title should give you a good indication of where this topic is heading. It's called "‘All of Us’ genetics chart stirs unease over controversial depiction of race." The project involves collecting DNA samples from a diverse group of one million Americans and collating the results to identify patterns. The paper includes a...

A Harvard professor published a study that found no evidence of racial bias in police shootings – then "all hell broke loose," and he needed police protection. In 2016, Harvard Economics Professor Roland Fryer published a study to explore racial differences in the use of force by police. The study examined racial differences in non-lethal uses of force, such as "putting hands on civilians (which includes slapping or grabbing) or pushing individuals into a wall or onto the ground." The study found that Hispanics are more than 50% more likely to have an interaction with police that involves any use...

I know an individual whose child died at the age of twelve. She discussed with me if I thought her son had reached the age of accountability. I assured her that I thought her son was in heaven. Only God knows exactly when an individual arrives at the age of accountability─that moment when the individual knows right from wrong, good from evil and becomes accountable to sin. Each individual matures at a different pace but there are verses in the Bible that do indicate there is an age of accountability, although the phrase “age of accountability” appears nowhere in the...

A recent study conducted by scientists at the University of Surrey suggests that climate change could be linked to increased prevalence of the common diarrhea illness campylobacteriosis in humans, as reported in MedicalXpress. Campylobacteriosis is caused by bacteria from the Campylobacter genus, with the species C. jejuni and C. coli posing a significant risk to human health. Transmission of Campylobacteriosis The research focused on investigating the impact of elevated temperatures, longer days, and increased humidity - consequences of ongoing climate change - on the transmission of campylobacteriosis. The study's findings indicate a notable association between the warming planet and the...

Nearly 6 in 10 American workers saw their wages grow more quickly than inflation in the past year, according to a new analysis from the Center for American Progress (CAP), a left-leaning think tank. Some 57 percent of workers earned higher inflation-adjusted wages in November compared to one year earlier, the analysis found. This represents a larger share of workers than the average before the COVID-19 pandemic, between 2017 and 2019. “In fact, real wages for a typical worker stand at about the level expected if there had been no pandemic or recession in early 2020 and if they had...

Internet traffic cop NewsGuard has gotten worse. A new MRC Free Speech America analysis shows the notorious leftist media ratings organization is more biased against the right than ever before. MRC Free Speech America investigated NewsGuard for a third year in a row, finding that its 0/100 ratings scale has once again overwhelmingly favored left-leaning outlets over right-leaning ones. “NewsGuard is just another leftist group trying to censor conservatives,” said MRC President Brent Bozell. “We have the proof.” Using the media list provided by AllSides that classifies publications based on their “right” to “left” bias, MRC researchers determined that NewsGuard...

Asmall and preliminary study published Monday seems to indicate that patients receiving the drug Paxlovid are far more likely to experience Covid rebound than those who did not take it. That conclusion runs counter to previous statements by Pfizer, which makes Paxlovid, and by researchers at the Food and Drug Administration who have argued that while it is not uncommon for people with Covid to have symptoms reemerge after they seem to have recovered, it is not clear that Paxlovid increases the risk of this occurring.

A bombshell new study is raising major concerns about the widespread use of Covid mRNA shots after linking the injections to 17 million sudden deaths around the world. The study, published by Correlation Research in the Public Interest, analyzed data related to all-cause mortality across 17 countries. The researchers quantified the vaccine-dose fatality rate (vDFR) across all ages. VDFR measures the ratio of vaccine-induced deaths to the total number of vaccines administered to the population. The researchers found that the mean of all-ages fatal toxicity by injection of the vDFR of 1 death per 800 injections across all ages and...

While prescribed burns are a critical tool in wildfire prevention, warming climate conditions are restricting the window of time in which they can be safely deployed, a new study has found. Kindled by highly trained firefighters, these controlled blazes help clear away excess dry plant matter that could otherwise catalyze what the study authors described as “a raging inferno.” Such fires can only occur safely when the weather is not so damp as to prevent combustion, but also not so dry or windy that more vegetation would burn than planned, the authors noted. But climate change is now reducing the...