http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/carbonoffsets/ en-us Thu, 31 Dec 2009 01:22:44 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418049/posts Agriculture: Already buffeted by rising food prices due to biofuels, consumers face a bigger hike if climate-change legislation is passed. Farming costs will rise, and it may be more profitable to plant trees than crops. If the cap-and-trade provisions of the Waxman-Markey bill become law, you can wave goodbye to those amber waves of grain as America's heartland falls victim to a perverse set of incentives and a process called "afforestation." Soybeans and wheat will give way to elms and oaks. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack wants a review of what amounts to an agricultural impact study of HR 2454, which... Townhall.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418049/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 01:22:44 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2384316/posts Warming: After stifling a report questioning the science behind climate change, the EPA is censoring two of its lawyers for saying the proposed solutions are also problematical. The debate isn't over. It's being suppressed. In the proud tradition of EPA whistle-blower Alan Carlin, whose leaked study blew the lid off the EPA's hyped and flawed science behind climate change, two EPA lawyers, Laurie Williams and Allan Zabel, have produced a Web video titled "A Huge Mistake." In it they say cap-and-trade in general and the Waxman-Markey bill in particular are the wrong answers anyway. Williams and Zabel do not deny... Investors.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2384316/posts#comment Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:13:19 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2317461/posts Al Gore buys them. So do the Grateful Dead, Hollywood celebrities and, increasingly, many climate-conscious executives and consumers. For those who travel the world by air but don't want to contribute to global warming in the process, compensating with so-called carbon offsets has become a fashionable solution. The sale of these credits for environmentally friendly activities, investments in everything from wind energy to carbon stored in forests, jumped from $97 million in 2006 to $331 million worldwide in 2007 – about a quarter of it in the United States. But one global green leader does not offset its travel, even... Sacramento Bee http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2317461/posts#comment Sun, 16 Aug 2009 20:56:22 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2216576/posts Climate: Czech President Vaclav Klaus once called global warming a new religion, a Trojan horse for imposing a global tyranny worse than communism. Details about the Copenhagen Conference prove how right he was.The first of three marathon negotiating sessions designed to hammer out the details of the Copenhagen Accord on climate change to be signed in December began on Sunday, March 29, in Bonn, Germany. From what we know, it will be a surrender to tyranny as significant as another negotiated 71 years ago. A 16-page informational note obtained by Fox News outlines the goals and agenda of the United... IBD Editorials http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2216576/posts#comment Sat, 28 Mar 2009 01:30:59 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2299094/posts ...The idea of sacrificing anything as a country is so mid-20th century and more than a little distasteful. Remember Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson writing about sacrificing at the altar of freedom and refreshing the tree of liberty with the blood of patriots? Seems a bit disgusting now. I mean blood? Icky. And altars…let’s not even get started on religion, it’s not PC to worship anything anymore, even freedom. But don’t worry, you don’t have to take my word for it. Let’s examine some examples: Spending – The stimulus bill embodies this “easy route” attitude. Let’s review, the country is... The DC Writeup http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2299094/posts#comment Thu, 23 Jul 2009 13:12:31 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2297556/posts Have you seen the infomercials for Lipozene? If you haven’t (and thank god you haven’t) Lipozene is a pill that is supposed to cut weight. The hook is that taking this pill will let you cut body fat “without changing your lifestyle.” How remarkable! No personal sacrifices required. No dieting, no exercise. This pill is perfectly targeted at those Wal-Mart shoppers who are so fat that they immediately sink into a motorized scooter upon entering the store. With Lipozene you don’t even have to suffer the indignity of ordering a diet coke with your Big Mac. So you ask, “AJ,... The DC Writeup http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2297556/posts#comment Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:46:38 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2295081/posts You’ve all heard of carbon offsets. You get to use as much energy as you want, then you pay someone in a third-world country to plant a few trees so you don’t have to feel guilty about it. Maybe if the Catholic Church had called its 16th Century products “sin offsets” instead of indulgences, they could have avoided the whole Reformation thing. Al Gore loves offsets. He buys enough of them to make up for the 17,768 kilowatt-hours of electricity he used each month at his Nashville home in 2008. That’s over twenty times more than the average American household.... The DC Writeup http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2295081/posts#comment Fri, 17 Jul 2009 21:08:18 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2279582/posts Fiscal Policy: The House of Representatives is preparing to vote on an anti-stimulus package that in the name of saving the earth will destroy the American economy. Smoot-Hawley will seem like a speed bump...As we've said before, capping emissions is capping economic growth. An analysis of Waxman-Markey by the Heritage Foundation projects that by 2035 it would reduce aggregate gross domestic product by $7.4 trillion. In an average year, 844,000 jobs would be destroyed, with peak years seeing unemployment rise by almost 2 million. Consumers would pay through the nose as electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket, as President Obama once... IBD Editorials http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2279582/posts#comment Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:07:18 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2273817/posts The Lower Mainland's health authorities will have to dig more than $4 million a year out of their already stretched budgets to pay B.C.'s carbon tax and offset their carbon footprints. Critics say the payments mean the government's strategy to fight climate change will further exacerbate a crisis in health funding. "You have public hospitals cutting services to pay a tax that goes to another 100 per cent government-owned agency," NDP health critic Adrian Dix said. "That just doesn't make sense." The Fraser Health Authority will pay $616,000 in carbon tax this year, rising to $821,000 next year, officials there... Surrey Leader http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2273817/posts#comment Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:15:27 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2190031/posts LONDON (Reuters) - Air travelers are paying vastly differing prices to offset their contribution to climate change, in some cases three times market levels, despite efforts to increase transparency in an unregulated market. Under a regulated carbon market, countries and companies buy offsets to help them meet binding international climate targets. Prices have halved in recent weeks as recession reduces industrial output and expected emissions. But prices which consumers pay in an unofficial market have lagged behind those falls. Carbon offsetting is offered to tourists and business travelers by many airlines and offset developers so as to allow people to... Reuters http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2190031/posts#comment Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:21:20 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2145971/posts Abstract: President-elect Barack Obama said attacking global climate change is a "matter of urgency" that will create jobs as he got advice from Al Gore, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work on the issue. Obama made clear he would adopt an aggressive approach to global warming when he takes over the White House on January 20. He and Vice President-elect Joe Biden met for nearly two hours with Gore at Obama's presidential transition office in Chicago. Obama hopes addressing climate change can create the kind of jobs that will help pull the U.S. economy out of a... Reuters http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2145971/posts#comment Wed, 10 Dec 2008 05:16:23 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2145808/posts Until recently, the USA's foot-dragging was about the only thing stopping the Western World from jumping off a cliff over the increasingly preposterous global warming hoax. But with the last grownups scheduled to leave Washington next month, Europeans have been forced to drop the sanctimonious posturing and defend sanity. Chancellor Angela Merkel has been keen to promote herself as a tough actor on climate change, but with a new EU climate deal in the making, she's issued a new caveat: It must not jeopardize German jobs. Merkel used to exploit the hoax with the worst of them, even traveling to... Right Wing News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2145808/posts#comment Tue, 9 Dec 2008 23:51:01 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2096625/posts Sneaky: Current credit bailout bill contains carbon tax provisions! If you look at page 180 of the 451-page monster bailout bill that easily passed the Senate yesterday (PDF here), you will see that it includes at Section 116 language about the tax treatment of “industrial source carbon dioxide.” It also provides, at Section 117, for a “carbon audit of the tax code.” What could a provision about the tax treatment of “industrial source carbon dioxide” and another provision about doing a “carbon audit” of the tax code possibly have to do with restoring confidence in Wall Street’s troubled credit and... Watts Up With That http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2096625/posts#comment Fri, 3 Oct 2008 14:24:02 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2093707/posts Keeping track of your carbon footprint could become as simple as slipping a mobile phone in your pocket: a London-based start-up company has developed software for mobile phones that uses global positioning satellites to work out automatically whether you are walking, driving or flying and then calculate your impact on the environment. Carbon Diem's inventors claim that, by using GPS to measure the speed and pattern of movement, their algorithm can identify the mode of transport being used. It can therefore calculate the amount of carbon dioxide that a journey has emitted into the atmosphere – without any need for... The London Guardian http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2093707/posts#comment Tue, 30 Sep 2008 04:47:58 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2082678/posts Results of a program using Aspen’s Canary Initiative to sell carbon offset credits to Democratic National Convention attendees are a little underwhelming. The program, set up by the DNC Host Committee through the Denver Convention and Visitors Bureau and rolled out about a week before the convention started, raised a total of $18.34 worth of Canary Tags... Aspen Daily News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2082678/posts#comment Mon, 15 Sep 2008 14:22:55 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2048900/posts On Thursday, former U. S. vice-president Al Gore delivered a major address calling on his country to abandon all fossil fuels within 10 years. By 2018, U. S. electricity and fuel should come entirely from "renewable energy and truly clean, carbon-free sources," he said. Tickets to the event encouraged attendees to "please use public transit, bicycling or other climate-friendly means" to reach the lecture hall. So how did Mr. Gore and his retinue arrive? In two Lincoln Town Cars and a full-sized SUV that sat idling with the air conditioners blasting while the Gore party was inside. It was 34... The National Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2048900/posts#comment Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:11:42 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2029815/posts The next US president must improve America's car-dominated cities by levying London-style congestion charges and cracking down on sprawl, British researchers said yesterday. Barack Obama or John McCain must end eight years of "laissez faire" urban policy under the Bush administration and take on America's car-loving public, employing vehicle charging in places such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, says a joint report by the UK's Centre for Cities think-tank and the US Brookings Institution. It urges a new incumbent of the White House to emulate policies that have been credited with improving British cities, including limits on building... The London Guardian http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2029815/posts#comment Thu, 12 Jun 2008 02:04:33 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1978987/posts MONTEREY, California (AFP) - A scientist who mapped his genome and the genetic diversity of the oceans said Thursday he is creating a life form that feeds on climate-ruining carbon dioxide to produce fuel. Geneticist Craig Venter disclosed his potentially world-changing "fourth-generation fuel" project at an elite Technology, Entertainment and Design conference in Monterey, California. "We have modest goals of replacing the whole petrochemical industry and becoming a major source of energy," Venter told an audience that included global warming fighter Al Gore and Google co-founder Larry Page. "We think we will have fourth-generation fuels in about 18 months, with... Yahoo! News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1978987/posts#comment Sun, 2 Mar 2008 00:17:06 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1970109/posts David Suzuki's recent suggestion that politicians who fail to march in his environmental crusade should be imprisoned has inevitably attracted much comment. Although he subsequently declared that his remarks should not be taken literally, they raise ever-recurring questions over Dr. Suzuki's objectivity, and whether those who follow him really comprehend his core beliefs, and their political implications. One unlikely group of recent converts to Suzuki-ism is the National Hockey League Players Association, NHLPA, whose members are hardly known for their hairshirt lifestyles. Nevertheless, a large number of players have -- at Dr. Suzuki's behest -- secured places for themselves in... Financial Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1970109/posts#comment Thu, 14 Feb 2008 06:36:13 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1961130/posts As government waste goes, $89,000 will barely register on the meter. However, it did provide a relatively inexpensive demonstration on the costliness of political fads and the vacuousness of carbon-offset markets as a solution for purported anthropogenic climate change. It also, once again, demonstrated the connection between contributors and policy: The House of Representatives has presumably learned that money cannot buy love or happiness. Now, it turns out it's not a sure solution to climate guilt, either. In November, the Democratic-led House spent about $89,000 on so-called carbon offsets. This purchase was supposed to cancel out greenhouse-gas emissions from House... Captain's Quarters http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1961130/posts#comment Tue, 29 Jan 2008 01:34:30 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1958774/posts Recent evidence shows "the climate crisis is significantly worse and unfolding more rapidly than those on the pessimistic side of the IPCC projections had warned us," climate campaigner and former US vice-president Gore said. snip Breitbart http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1958774/posts#comment Thu, 24 Jan 2008 14:55:07 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1958964/posts aving climate campaigner Al Gore round to your house is to open yourself to a self-flagellating guilt trip, Irish rock star Bono confessed Thursday. Sharing a stage with the former US vice president at the annual gathering of world movers and shakers in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, the U2 frontman joked that their friendship was a source of pressure on the domestic front. "He's been round my house and it's like... here's the recycler Al, you know... I've got a posh car, but it runs on ethanol Al," Bono said. Acknowledging that a career in rock music was... BreitBart http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1958964/posts#comment Thu, 24 Jan 2008 19:24:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1950931/posts Corporations and shoppers in the United States spent more than $54 million last year on carbon offset credits toward tree planting, wind farms, solar plants and other projects to balance the emissions created by, say, using a laptop computer or flying on a jet. But where exactly is that money going? The Federal Trade Commission, which regulates advertising claims, raised the question Tuesday in its first hearing in a series on green marketing, this one focusing on carbon offsets. As more companies use offset programs to create an environmental halo over their products, the commission said it was growing increasingly... New York Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1950931/posts#comment Wed, 9 Jan 2008 19:17:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1947049/posts The overriding environmental issue of these times is the warming of the planet. The Democratic hopefuls in the 2008 campaign are fully engaged, calling for large — if still unquantified — national sacrifices and for a transformation in the way the country produces and uses energy. The Republicans do not go much further than conceding that climate change could be a problem and, with the notable exception of John McCain, offer no comprehensive solutions. In 2000, when Al Gore could have made warming a signature issue in his presidential campaign, his advisers persuaded him that it was too complicated and... The New York Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1947049/posts#comment Wed, 2 Jan 2008 09:02:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1944517/posts Earlier this month Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson refused to briefly answer a question about global warming at a debate in Iowa, suggesting 30 seconds wasn't long enough to lay out his views on the issue. During a recent telephone interview with Radio Iowa, Thompson was given an unlimited amount of time to talk about global warming. He said it was a problem. "We don't know the extent to which it's warming. We don't know whether or not it's part of a cycle. We've had cooling periods in our country. We don't know the extent to which man-made causes are... Radio Iowa http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1944517/posts#comment Thu, 27 Dec 2007 01:20:30 GMT