Free Republic

Dr. Ann Maest is a managing scientist at Straus Consulting, and she’s the go to expert on all things groundwater. In the press release announcing her reappointment to the National Academy of Sciences, they mention that she is focused on the environmental effects of mining and petroleum extraction and production, and, more recently, on the effects of climate change on water quality. Maest is in high demand as an expert for those looking to stop oil and mineral exploration. She’s also heavily used by the federal government, even though after new details about her past work are coming to light...

A high-level British offer of help to clean up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill was rebuffed by America shortly after the accident, fuelling fresh fears of political tension between the two countries over the disaster. A few days after the BP-leased rig sank on April 22, the Cabinet Office made a direct offer to the US State Department to airlift half of Britain’s 1,200-tonne stockpile of chemical dispersants, The Times has learnt.

Swedes left with a monster problem THE placing of a mythical monster on Sweden’s endangered species list, in an apparent fit of bureaucratic zeal, has caused an administrative problem for the country’s authorities. "During a routine inspection of the environment court in Jaemtland recently, we came across a decision that attracted our interest," said Nils-Olof Berggren, a Swedish parliamentary ombudsman. "The court had turned down an application from a man who wanted to search for and hatch the monster’s eggs, probably believing [the application] was just a joke." However, Mr Berggren found there was an actual decision from 1986 placing...

According to the Orange County Register, "A new analysis of atmospheric temperatures recorded by satellites suggests that there has been significant global warming in the past two decades, a finding contrary to earlier studies." Despite the new satellite findings, Cato Institute climatology and global warming expert Patrick Michaels warns that the science behind the new study is anything but. "For years, the reluctance of satellite-measured temperatures of the lower layers of the atmosphere to warm dramatically has been held up as evidence that climate models for future warming are unrealistic," Michaels said today. "In a new twist on this argument,...

<p>Once upon a time in the Land of Make Believe, a man named Scott Angus says he spotted a turtle basking in the late afternoon sun.</p> <p>After picking up the animal and seeing its reddish, orange legs and the small pyramid-shaped designs on its shell, Angus concluded the critter was no ordinary turtle, but a wood turtle -- a threatened species in New Jersey.</p>