Free Republic

ILULISSAT, Greenland (AP) — Fisherman Helgi Áargil no longer knows what to expect on Greenland ‘s fjords, where he spends up to five days at a time on his boat with his dog, Molly, and the ever-changing northern lights in the sky as company. Last year, his boat got stuck in ice that broke off the nearby glacier. This year, it’s been very wet instead. His income is just as unpredictable. An outing could bring him around 100,000 Danish kroner (about $15,700), or nothing at all. The Arctic’s rapidly changing climate is bringing more questions for Greenland, the semiautonomous territory...

Critics, including us, have been warning that New Yorkers’ energy costs are about to soar even higher, thanks to the state’s insane 2019 climate law. Now, a state agency itself is confirming those warnings — and has even put a price tag on the pain: a whopping $4,100 a year extra per household by 2031. That’s just for electricity, reports the New York State Energy Research and Development Agency; the bill for gas for home heating, as well as gasoline costs, are also set to shoot up. At the pump a gallon of gas is expected to go up an...

At least 11 people have been killed after a Bolivian air force cargo plane crashed in the western city of El Alto, according to media reports quoting firefighters. The incident happened at 18:15 local time (22:15 GMT) on Friday as the plane was arriving at El Alto's airport from the city of Santa Cruz, aviation officials said. It reportedly skidded off the runway and hit nearby vehicles. The defence ministry later confirmed its C-130 Hercules was involved and that it had been transporting banknotes to the Central Bank of Bolivia. It did not say how many people were on board,...

Despite being far away from civilization, a melting Antarctic’s “disastrous” consequences will ripple across the world, researchers warn. Scientists have highlighted just how high the stakes are as human-made climate change continues to rapidly warm Antarctica. A new study published in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Science, models the best- and worst-case scenarios for global warming on the Antarctic Peninsula, the northernmost part of the mainland. Researchers warn that the continent’s future “depends on the choices we make today”, arguing that cutting emissions could avoid the most “important and detrimental” impacts of the climate crisis. […] Under the highest emissions...

The furious NYPD on Tuesday released photos of a pair of miscreants it says are wanted for pounding two on-duty cops with snow and ice as the officers responded to a snowball-slinging mob in a Manhattan park. The department is investigating whether there are more suspects in Washington Square Park attack, as well, law-enforcement sources said. One of the suspects in the photos released Tuesday is shown hauling a massive snowball the size of a boulder over his head. The other alleged cop-attacker can be seen packing a smaller handful of snow while standing face-to-face with a uniformed officer. The...

You can now get paid $30 an hour to shovel snow in New York City. New York City is urgently hiring emergency snow shovelers to help remove snow and ice from public areas, including bus stops, crosswalks, fire hydrants, and step streets.

S’no thank you. The Mamdani administration failed for hours to attract any emergency shovelers at one Queens garage Sunday — while planning to try to dig out New Yorkers with a fourth of the force the city used for its last mega-storm. Despite Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s widespread attempted promotion of the city’s public-fueled emergency shoveling program, a sign-up sheet at the Maspeth Sanitation garages was empty, city workers told The Post during a visit late Sunday morning. “I haven’t seen anybody sign up yet today. No, no one,” the employee said. There were also no signs of shovelers lining up...

Millions of acres of farmland across the country are privately owned, but a small share of it is foreign-owned land sitting idle in many areas. That’s according to new U.S. Department of Agriculture data which shows just how much of the nation’s agricultural land is owned by other countries. The USDA‘s online portal reveals that more than 45 million acres of land are owned by foreign countries, with an original purchase value of over $38 billion. Our neighbor to the north, Canada, has the most agricultural acreage in the United States, at 15.35 million acres. John Hewlett, a farm and...

Rescuers are currently weighing the idea of setting off explosives in order to trigger additional avalanches on the mountain where at least eight skiers were killed. The Nevada County Sheriff’s Office has been unable to recover the bodies of the dead skiers since the horrific avalanche Tuesday. In order to make conditions safer for rescuers, officials will now take to the air to decide whether or not they can manually trigger avalanches with explosives. “The objective of the aerial surveys is to visually assess the conditions of the avalanche scene and snowpack as well as to make determinations if controlled...

The city of Malibu slapped Los Angeles and the state of California with a lawsuit over the devastating Palisades fire — saying officials didn’t do enough to stop the deadly blaze that “hollowed out” the oceanside community. Malibu said the city’s “entire character changed” when the wildfire swept through and that it is “still reeling from the destruction it left in its wake,” according to the suit. The 66-page complaint seeks to “recover significant financial losses” resulting from the devastating fire. “This decision was not made lightly,” Malibu Mayor Bruce Silverstein said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “The City...

The full extent of the Palisades Fire report cover-up has been revealed. The California Post has obtained the first draft of the Palisades After-Action Fire Report — before it was quietly altered and released to the public. Newly uncovered edits show sweeping changes to the 92-page document that was meant to deliver a warts-and-all account of the disaster, putting more pressure on Mayor Karen Bass to explain whether her office played a role in softening the language to blunt criticism of the city’s response to a fire that killed at least 31 people and destroyed more than 16,000 structures. Mayor...

Weather agencies and climate scientists have pointed to the possibility of an El Niño forming in the Pacific Ocean later this year – a phenomenon that could push global temperatures to all-time record highs in 2027. Both the US government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology have said some climate models are forecasting an El Niño but both cautioned those results came with uncertainties. Experts told the Guardian it was too early to be confident, but there were signals in the spread of sea surface temperatures in the Pacific that suggested an El Niño could...

A North Carolina veterinary technician has been charged and fired from her job after she rescued a dog that was abandoned in the cold winter weather — but failed to hand the pooch over to animal control. Dason Garner has been left “completely broken” as she faces charges for keeping a stray animal, failure to surrender and interfering with law enforcement over her deed, according to WRAL. Garner says she was punished for her act of compassion in rescuing the pooch from the brutal conditions after a harsh snowstorm barreled across Wilson, NC, over the weekend.

SANTA FE — The highest-profile climate change bill under consideration during this year’s 30-day legislative session passed its first Senate committee hearing Tuesday, but only after weathering a broad blast of opposition from business and industry groups. After five hours of public testimony and debate, the Senate Conservation Committee voted 5-4 to advance the Clear Horizons Act to its next assigned committee. The vote on the legislation, Senate Bill 18, broke down largely along party lines, with Sen. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, joining the committee's three Republican members in casting "no" votes. He voiced concern the legislation could lead to...

Sustained snow since late January has left residents struggling to leave home and forced schools and businesses to close. Japan warned of possible avalanches in the country's northern regions on Wednesday (Feb 4), as the mercury suddenly rose after two weeks of extreme snowfall that paralysed traffic and collapsed houses. Sustained snow since late January has buried northern communities, such as Aomori, under drifts of around 2m that have left residents struggling to leave home, and forced schools and businesses to close. But the temperature rose on Wednesday, reaching 8 degrees Celsius in Aomori, increasing the risk of chunks of...

A new study published today (February 2) in Nature Geoscience finds that shifts in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) closely followed changes in marine algae growth in the Southern Ocean during past ice ages. However, the relationship did not work in the way scientists long assumed. The link centers on iron-rich sediment carried into the ocean by icebergs breaking away from West Antarctica. Iron typically acts as a nutrient that supports algae growth. But when researchers examined a sediment core collected in 2001 from the Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean, taken from more than three miles below the...

Tourists are flocking to view the partially frozen Niagara Falls, despite frigid temperatures, with visitors praising the winter spectacle as a striking sight.

Orlando International Airport was forced to ground all flights on Sunday afternoon after “extreme cold” sparked an emergency in the air traffic tower. The FAA issued an alert about the ground stop due to a “possible fire” at an air traffic control tower early Sunday afternoon, but the order was lifted at 4:15 p.m. after the cause was determined. In reality, the extreme cold — currently 43 degrees — caused a spinkler head in the fire suppression system at the facility to activate. The agency had sent out a bare-bones “fire alarm/safety” advisory that a tower was evacuating due to...

The Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium has been postponed to Wednesday, Feb. 4 at 6 p.m. ET on FOX due to historic snowfall in North Carolina over the weekend. The National Weather Service reported Winston-Salem, North Carolina, received 8-10 inches of snow Saturday while the Charlotte area — roughly 80 miles south of Bowman Gray and home base for most NASCAR Cup Series drivers and teams — received 11 inches of snow, according to local television affiliate WCNC. Out of an abundance of caution due to hazardous road conditions, NASCAR and the City of Winston-Salem agreed to move...

The last time temperatures in Tampa, Florida, reached or dropped below 32°F was on January 13, 2011. During that event, temperatures dropped to 29°F, causing ice to form on the Veterans Expressway. While a significant cold blast occurred in January 2018, the most recent official 32-degree (or lower) reading for the city occurred in 2011. That was fifteen years ago.