Free Republic

A Canadian company has developed a new, more efficient process to make the alternative fuel ethanol from farm waste. With today's high oil prices, experts hope the new technology could reduce demand on fossil fuels and increase energy security. "In the past, ethanol fuel use has been limited, because the cost of production was too high," said Jim Easterly, a Washington, D.C.-based bioenergy consultant. "Ethanol produced from corn kernels and wheat grain has historically been more expensive than gasoline produced from oil." Producing corn-based ethanol, for example, uses energy from oil and electricity for everything from growing the corn to...

California's tougher mercury-disposal restrictions are opening the way for innovation in mercury containment and transport The California Department of Toxic Substances (DTSC) began enforcing Universal Waste management rules for all waste generators effective Feb. 9, 2006. All businesses and households are now required to properly dispose of batteries and mercury-containing lamps and devices at a certified recycling facility. This is being supported by increased enforcement by state and county environmental personnel. Disposing of even one spent fluorescent lamp in the regular municipal waste supply could result in costly penalties, including up to a $25,000 fine per day and criminal prosecution....

Iran's order that U.N. nuclear surveillance gear be removed from key sites by mid-February may prevent U.N. inspectors from discovering whether Tehran's atomic drive has wholly peaceful aims, diplomats said. The U.N. nuclear watchdog's board of governors voted on Saturday to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council over fears that it secretly wants to build atomic bombs. Iran, insisting it wants only nuclear power, retaliated by halting compliance with a U.N. system of short-notice nuclear inspections. Diplomats said this could make it difficult for Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, to get clear answers for a...

I am a documentary fan. I will even sit through bad documentaries, except anything put out by Mikey Moore, but I stumbled upon a gem a few days ago on television. It is called, Being Caribou. The premise was that these two canucks, male and female, would follow the migration of the Porcupine Herd of Caribou on their migration route in Alaska. No red flags were up yet, but then they said that they were going to do it on foot and I noticed right away that they had a 15" doll of President Bush strapped onto one of the...

Birth control for Canada geese is a reality. A Midwest company's drug-laced goose food, tested in Oregon in spring 2004, has been approved and may be coming soon to a park near you. It's called OvoControl G, developed by Innolytics LLC for distribution to licensed applicators -- local governments, school districts or golf course superintendents already licensed to use chemicals. OvoControl contains nicarbazin, a drug that prevents chicks from forming inside the egg. Its makers say it's safe for geese to eat in formulated pellets, designed to be distributed from feeders put out at the outset of the goose nesting...

DDT Saves Lives - November 8, 2005 It's horrifying enough that malaria -- a preventable and curable disease -- claims one million lives every year and that most victims are Africa's pregnant women and children under five. Compounding this tragedy, however, is the global lobbying effort against the most effective method of combating the mosquito-borne illness: spraying outdoors and inside houses with the insecticide DDT...

Opening today, the documentary Grizzly Man revisits the life and violent death of Timothy Treadwell, a controversial wildlife activist who spent 13 summers living among bears in the Alaskan wilderness. Treadwell was discovered dead and partially eaten by one of his beloved grizzlies at his campsite in Katmai National Park in the fall of 2003. His girlfriend, Amie Huguenard, was also killed. Using Treadwell's own dramatic video footage, the film tells the story of a controversial figure who put a history of drug and alcohol abuse behind him to devote his life to grizzlies. It was an obsession that cost...

LONDON, England (AP) -- Ahead of this week's G8 summit, President Bush says he wants to shift debate on global warming away from limits on greenhouse gas emissions to new technology that would reduce environmental harm without restricting energy use. In an interview with British journalist Trevor McDonald to be broadcast on ITV television Monday, Bush repeated his opposition to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change and said the United States would not sign it or any similar deals limiting gas emissions. "I think you can grow your economy and at the same time do a better job of harnessing...

Wildflower on Development Site Prompts Criminal Investigation (Note: This is likely anything BUT 'unusual,' and will certainly be used by countless 'copycat' self-proclaimed and diseducated 'environmentalists' and 'direct action' domestic terrorism groups, who currently get away with burning ski resorts, luxury car/SUV dealerships, etc., and will certainly not be dissuaded by the possibility -- and a remote one at that -- of a fine or jail time, knowing the current overcrowding of jails.) June 5, 2005 (No author provided at originating website URL.) KCBS - San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose, California CBS 5 855 Battery St. San Francisco, CA 94111-1597 415-362-5550 Fax:...

Pepper-sprayed Humboldt activists awarded $1 each by jury By JUSTIN M. NORTON, Associated Press Writer Thursday, April 28, 2005 Humboldt County and Eureka law enforcement officers were found liable Thursday of using excessive force when they swabbed pepper spray on the eyes of nonviolent logging protesters during a 1997 protest. The jury only awarded the eight plaintiffs $1 each in the case. The was the third trial after the first two ended in deadlocked juries in 1998 and 2004. The plaintiffs laughed and hugged in the courthouse hallways after the verdicts were read and applauded when jurors left their chambers....

EAST BRUNSWICK — Why did the salamander cross the road? In the township’s case, it’s to get to the vernal pool on the other side and mate. March is when the spotted salamanders that live in East Brunswick make their annual trek across Beekman Road for the purpose of procreating. And the town has taken notice — in fact, so has neighboring South Brunswick — by agreeing to shut down the road to make sure the small critters make it safely across. David Moscowitz, of the East Brunswick Environmental Commission, said the town was able to get its neighbor to...

The US Senate has given its de facto approval to a plan to open up a remote wildlife refuge in the northern state of Alaska to oil drilling. Senators voted 51-49 against an amendment which would have struck the measure from the federal budget. The plan has long been a key part of President Bush's energy plan, as a means to reduce US reliance on imports.

WASHINGTON - Amid the backdrop of soaring oil and gasoline prices, a sharply divided Senate on Wednesday voted to open the ecologically rich Alaska wildlife refuge to oil drilling, delivering a major energy policy win for President Bush (news - web sites).he Senate, by a 51-49 vote, rejected an attempt by Democrats and GOP moderates to remove a refuge drilling provision from next year's budget, preventing opponents from using a filibuster — a tactic that has blocked repeated past attempts to open the Alaska refuge to oil companies. The action, assuming Congress agrees on a budget, clears the way for...

Action Alert! Oppose the President's Funds For More Nuclear Weapons. Tell your representative. On Monday, President Bush submitted his 2006 budget request to Congress. The request eliminates dozens of domestic programs, including funding for education, environmental protection, and grants to local police, firefighters and emergency rescue services. Not surprisingly, the administration proposes significant spending increases for the military—an indication that average Americans will suffer the costs of unilateral military policies and new nuclear weapons programs for years to come—unless we act now. Write your member of congress Encourage your representative to challenge President Bush’s 2006 budget request. If concerned citizens...

Last Wednesday the Kyoto Protocol kicked in and Greenpeace decided to mark the event in Britain by storming London's International Petroleum Exchange, the world's second-largest energy market, with the modest ambition of closing down trading for the day. Around 35 dolphin-huggers stormed the exchange just after the 2 pm resumption of trading. The sortie was well-planned. One male protester lurked around the door to the building. When he spotted an employee about to use his swipe card to exit, he accidentally dropped some coins and bent to pick them up and, as the employee, not noticing him, strode out onto...

DALLAS -- Global warming is hot! -- pun fully intended. Within the space of a year, a blockbuster action movie and now a sure-to-be best-selling novel have both focused on the perils and political intrigues surrounding the question of whether, or to what extent, humans are causing the planet to overheat with all manner of apocalyptic results. Though the Fox Studio disaster flick "The Day After Tomorrow" was panned by scientists who pointed out its portrayal of climate science was wildly inaccurate, it won praise from environmentalists and some politicos for "focusing attention on the important topic of human-caused global...

The article "Environmentalism or Ecoterrorism?" seeks to seperate extreme environmentalism from reasonable environmentalism.

The image of peaceful environmentalists tree-sitting or sign-waving is a romantic one. But it's a completely false notion in the case of the radical Earth Liberation Front, or ELF. According to the FBI, ELF the nation's largest domestic terrorist group along with sister organization, the Animal Liberation Front, have been responsible for more than $43 million in damage to scientists, universities, farmers, developers, government agencies and businesses in recent years. Last week's arson attacks in a new community in suburban Maryland, south of Washington, DC have reminded us of the dangers of eco-terrorists. The arson attacks destroyed a dozen half-million...

Holding Fast Greenpeace action director sees the forest and the trees - Sam Whiting Sunday, December 12, 2004 Mateo Williford, 32, was just another tree-sitter for Greenpeace until he turned up in the last photo essay compiled by the late portraitist Richard Avedon. The 33-page montage, titled "Democracy 2004," appeared in the Nov. 1 New Yorker issue. . ............. Have you put yourself in harm's way? Absolutely. At Vandenberg Air Force Base, I ended up with a gun in my face. We snuck in to attempt to stop the Star Wars missile test. I got caught by an 18-year-old soldier....

AMSTERDAM (Reuters)-Scientists said on Monday they have come up with a cell phone cover that will grow into a sunflower when thrown away.