Free Republic

If the leaders gathered at this week's World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg really want to save the environment, they should concentrate less on eco-rhetoric, and more on promoting the free-market conditions that permit poor nations to become rich: The simple truth is that countries grow cleaner as they grow wealthier -- no matter whether they've self-consciously dedicated themselves to "sustainable" policies (whatever those are) or not. Singapore, the wealthiest state in Asia, is also its cleanest, despite being one of the continent's largest per capita manufacturers. Canada and the United States -- which Friends of the Earth...

FRESHWATER, Calif. - Though she has spent the past five months living 130 feet up an ancient redwood, Remedy - as the young woman calls herself during these days as a tree sitter - is hardly lonely. People stop by all the time. On Saturday afternoon, when she rappelled about 100 feet down the bulky trunk of the 1,200-year-old tree to talk to a reporter, six supporters happened by, including a couple from down the road who brought two gallons of water, a phone buddy bearing bananas and peaches, and a local environmentalist and two friends from Berkeley who came...

The most important hearing of the year was held on Capitol Hill last week on a critical issue this country faces today. No, you didn't hear about it because there was no press coverage. The information that was presented was so damaging to the left that a petty squabble occurred over the ground rules. This kept the fate of this hearing in doubt until one minute before the witnesses were to be seated. As a result, the press was never alerted, which may have been the point. It was the Democrats' only avenue to prevent this information from getting out....

Lightning Ignites New Fires in Central Oregon 07/24/2002 By AP and KGW Staff Nearly 1,000 lightning strikes hit central Oregon yesterday afternoon and last night igniting several new fires across the state. Firefighters are now chasing the new wildfires, including one that has prompted the voluntary evacuation of campgrounds on Suttle and Blue lakes northwest of Sisters. Heavy lift helicopters are set to begin attacking the Cache Mountain fire this morning, said David Widmark, spokesman for the Northwest Interagency Coodination Center in Portland. Smoke billows skyward and spreads east near Summer Lake, Ore., Tuesday. (AP Photo) The Cache Mountain fire...

National Guard troops mop up Winter Fire to free experienced crews By JEFF BARNARD The Associated Press PAISLEY, Ore. (AP) -- Their cots lined up 12 inches apart, and olive drab tents tautly pitched in a grassy field, National Guard troops tossed footballs, listened to rock and roll and called home on cell phones as they waited to join the battle against forest fires burning across Oregon. Fresh from training after being called up by Gov. John Kitzhaber, 250 members of the 82nd Armored Cavalry out of Redmond were scheduled to begin mopping up hot spots and smoking stumps in...

BREAKING NEWS: Downtown Portland Building in Lockdown 07/08/2002 By TERESA BELL, kgw.com Staff Protestors with the radical environmental group Earth First! forced the closure of a 19-story office building in downtown Portland. Several police officers are on the scene and the high-rise building at 200 SW Market Street is in lockdown. The activists say they are targeting a bank located in the building that they believe funds old growth timber sales in Oregon. Umpqua Bank is located on the 19th floor. At least nine police cars are on the scene and witnesses say it looks as though they have made...

UPPSALA, Sweden — Global supplies of crude oil will peak as early as 2010 and then start to decline, ushering in an era of soaring energy prices and economic upheaval, an international group of petroleum specialists said yesterday. "There is no factual data to support the general sense that the world will be awash in cheap oil forever," said Matthew Simmons, an investment banker who helped advise President Bush's campaign on energy policy. "We desperately need to find a new form of energy." Colin Campbell, a retired geologist who helped organize the two-day conference, said governments are too caught up...

Neither increases in government subsidies to corn-based ethanol fuel nor hikes in the price of petroleum can overcome what one Cornell agricultural scientist calls a fundamental input-yield problem: It takes more energy to make ethanol from grain than the combustion of ethanol produces. The Rest of the Story

World Wrestling Federation Entertainment Drops The 'F' To Emphasize the 'E' for Entertainment STAMFORD, CONN., May 6, 2002 – To further capture a greater share of the global marketplace and to represent the growing diversity of its entertainment properties, World Wrestling Federation Entertainment today announced it is changing its name to World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (WWE). The company’s website, one of the most popular in the world, will now be found at WWE.com. A new logo reflecting the name change will be introduced tonight on WWE’s top-rated television show RAW on TNN at 9 p.m. (ET). “As World Wrestling Federation...

Tree Sitter Dies in Platform Fall By Andrew Kramer Associated Press Writer Saturday, April 13, 2002; 5:37 AM PORTLAND, Ore. –– A tree sitter in the Mount Hood National Forest died after falling 150 feet from a tree she was trying to protect from logging. In a sad twist, the sale of timber the woman was protesting had been canceled three days before her death on Friday. Local rescue crews struggled up snow-clogged dirt roads to reach the tree sitters' camp in the Eagle Creek wilderness area, east of Portland, after a fellow activist called 9-1-1 on a cell phone...