Free Republic

The defence of the families of victims who died in A-310 air catastrophe in Irkutsk (Russia) in 2006 is considering a possibility of filing a civil suite against the European aircraft manufacturer – Airbus.

One of the criticisms of Al Gore’s message on climate change is that he exaggerates the imminence of the threat—implying, for instance, that sea levels may rise more quickly than scientists feel comfortable saying. But a few people think Gore is actually sugarcoating the catastrophe predictions. Most prominently, the renowned British scientist James Lovelock thinks that the world is already approaching a tipping point, beyond which temperature rise will run out of control and major ecosystems will collapse. The dying Amazon rainforest would begin releasing carbon, making things even hotter. The permafrost would melt, releasing carbon and causing sea levels...

WHILE the international community readies itself for gradual global warming over the next century, a growing number of scientists are beginning to worry that climate change might come much sooner - and be much more catastrophic - than previously thought. They point out that, in the past, climate change has not been gradual. Europe's climate has switched from arctic to tropical in three to five years and, they warn, it can happen again. Fred Pearce, of the New Scientist, has spent the past two years speaking to climate experts who are studying the possibility of "type 2" climate change -...

PARIS (AFP) - The World Wildlife Fund on Friday warned consumers against buying Spanish strawberries, whose cultivation is having a "catastrophic" impact on wetlands in the south of the country. "By buying Spanish strawberries -- on sale in supermarkets from January to April -- you are supporting the destruction of the Iberian natural milieu because the impact of this cultivation on the environment is catastrophic," WWF's Paris office said. Some 95 percent of Spanish strawberries are grown on an area of 5,000 hectares (12,300 acres) around the Coto Donana national park, which is on the UNESCO world heritage list, WWF...

The seas have been rising for 18,000 years, but the pace has quickened. At the Golden Gate Bridge, the Pacific Ocean crept seven inches higher during the past century, as global warming melted glaciers and expanded ocean waters. Californians are taking notice. In one of the first efforts of its kind in the state, officials are starting to address the threats rising seas pose to the Bay Area. One of the first steps was to compile maps that show what would happen if the sea level rose three feet -- the upper limit for what might occur by 2100, according...

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - An attack on Iran would be catastrophic and encourage it to develop a nuclear bomb, Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said on Thursday. "It would be absolutely counterproductive, and it would be catastrophic," ElBaradei said at a discussion on nuclear proliferation at the World Economic Forum. The Bush administration in recent weeks has toughened its stance against Iran, which the West has accused of seeking to secretly build an atomic bomb, raising fears among political and business leaders that the U.S. plans an attack. President George W. Bush has moved an...

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - An employee working the drive-through window at a McDonald's will have a tale to tell. When the worker went to the open window thinking the car pulling up had already ordered, the people in the car threw a dead cat through the window, police said. Cedar Rapids Animal Control officer Matt McAtee said the black domestic shorthair appeared to have been dead for a while. "It looked like somebody had picked it up off the road," McAtee said. Police were called to the restaurant about 8:45 p.m. Tuesday. The people in the car drove off. A...

Thousands of people have gathered in Trafalgar Square in London to urge the Government to take dramatic action to combat climate change. Organisers put the number of people at today's event at about 14,000 The rally's organisers, the Stop Climate Chaos coalition, want Britain to take the lead at the UN global warming conference which begins in Nairobi next week. They are urging the Government to negotiate an international deal to make sure that global temperatures do not rise more than two degrees centigrade from their current levels, and to introduce a Climate Change Bill that demands annual reductions in...

North Korea warns catastrophe after border incident 1 hour, 4 minutes ago North Korea warned of catastrophic consequences on Sunday if South Korea's military engaged in "unforgivable military provocation" like the weekend skirmish at a heavily fortified border between the two Koreas. South Korean troops fired warning shots on Saturday after North Korean soldiers briefly crossed over the border, adding to mounting tension after Pyongyang said on Wednesday it planned to conduct a nuclear test. "This was an undisguised challenge against us and an unforgivable military provocation," the North's KCNA news agency said in a commentary. "It was only the...

Just over one month ago, the Crystal Ball argued that a larger wave than currently existed at the time would have to build in order for Republicans to lose their congressional majorities. At the time, the race-by-race rather than national dynamic of competitive races pointed more towards a "micro-wave" than a "macro-wave" for out-of-power Democrats. But now, with a quarter of time elapsed between that pulse-reading and the election, surer signs are emerging that something more substantial than a "micro-wave" is heating up this summer. Historical trends and big picture indicators--generic congressional ballot tests and approval ratings of President Bush's...

Al Gore warns of pole shift Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore has been touring the world and making presentations of an impending global pole shift. "The world is in a greater danger now than ever before", Mr. Gore said, "and the time for us to take action is drawing short". "Any time between now and the year 2012 the earth will shift on its axis, causing massive flooding, worldwide suffering and death." Mr. Gore also urged action on the part of his audiences, including massive migration of humans from one continent to another to shift the load on the...

The crack is 8m-wide in places The largest tear in the Earth's crust seen in decades, if not centuries, could carve out a new ocean in Africa, according to satellite data. Geologists say a crack that opened up last year may eventually reach the Red Sea, isolating much of Ethiopia and Eritrea from the rest of Africa. The 60km-long rift was initially sparked by an earthquake in September. Follow-up observations reported in the journal Nature suggest the split is growing at an unprecedented rate. See the rift in detail We think if these processes continue, a new ocean will...

White farmers facing catastrophe as Zimbabwe reneges on property deal By Stephen Bevan in Pretoria (Filed: 25/06/2006) Zimbabwe's white farmers' union has given warning of an impending "humanitarian catastrophe" after the government reneged on a promise to pay evicted white farmers the full value of the buildings and equipment seized along with their farms, leaving many of them destitute. The government refuses to pay for the land seized from the estimated 3,800 white farmers forcibly evicted since 2000, but it had pledged to pay in full for the "improvements". Last week, however, farmers were outraged to learn that they will...

Despite California's history of disasters, state government is underprepared for a catastrophic earthquake, flood, pandemic or terrorist attack, an independent agency warns. Sweeping changes in the bureaucracy are needed to bolster readiness, the Little Hoover Commission said in a report that was sharply critical of the leadership in Sacramento. "Prevention and mitigation efforts are lacking, California's response plans are inadequate and the state has no recovery plans to guide rebuilding," concluded the commission, an independent state agency that helps make state government more effective. But Eric Lamoureux, spokesman for the state Office of Emergency Services, said the state is already...

TALE OF ARTHUR POINTS TO COMET CATASTROPHE From The Times, 9 September 2000 http://www.the-times.co.uk BY NICK NUTTALL Arthur: myth links him to fire from the sky THE story of the death of King Arthur and its references to a wasteland may have been inspired by the apocalyptic effects of a giant comet bombarding the Earth in AD540, leading to the Dark Ages, a British scientist said yesterday. The impacts filled the atmosphere with dust and debris; a long winter began. Crops failed, and there was famine, Dr Mike Baillie of Queen's University, Belfast, told the British Association for the Advancement...

Giant wind farm will be a 'catastrophe', warns charity FRANK URQUHART CONTROVERSIAL plans to build the world's largest wind farm on Lewis will have an "unprecedented impact" on endangered birds and wildlife and the island habitat that supports them, a major charity said yesterday. In a damning report, published to coincide with a meeting in Edinburgh today between the developers and MSPs, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Scotland claims that the £411 million development, involving the erection of 234 wind turbines across 43km, will have a "catastrophic" effect on more than 6,000 hectares of protected peatland other...

Harriet Miers' Texas law firm, Locke Liddell, was investigated by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for agreeing to write favorable tax opinions for clients regarding Ernst & Young tax schemes that are now under criminal investigation. In August 2005, accounting firm KPMG LLP agreed to pay $465 million in fines and cooperate with federal authorities to avoid criminal prosecutions for popular tax schemes that were aggressively marketed in 1999-2000. Rival accounting firm Ernst & Young, or E&Y, remains even today under federal grand jury examination for similar slick tax avoidance schemes, often marketed in conjunction with banks, during the...

Government officials are evaluating and revising disaster plans around the United States in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, just as they did after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. While war and automobiles kill more people than nature, find out what natural disasters top scientists’ worry lists. #10 Pacific Northwest Megathrust Earthquake Geologists know it’s just a matter of time before another 9.0 or larger earthquake strikes somewhere between Northern California and Canada. The shaking would be locally catastrophic, but the biggest threat is the tsunami that would ensue from a fault line that’s seismically identical to the one that...

Sound from last December's huge tsunami-causing earthquake was picked up by underwater microphones designed to listen for nuclear explosions. Scientists this week released an audio file of the frighteningly long-lasting cracks and splits along the Sumatra-Andaman Fault in the Indian Ocean. The spine-tingling hiss and rumble is an eerie reminder of the devastation and death that is still being tallied in the largest natural disaster in modern times. At least 200,000 people are thought to have died as a result of the magnitude 9.3 earthquake, the tsunami, and the lack of food, drinkable water and medical supplies that followed. The...

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin was wrong when he told his parliament Monday that the collapse of the Soviet Union was "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century." Oh sure, it may have been tragic for the moldy Kremlin apparatchiks who had to give up their dachas in the Crimea and their chauffeur-driven Chaikas, but for the rest of the world, it was a joyous occasion. Putin, a former KGB colonel, is feeling particularly nostalgic these days. The 60th anniversary of the end of the Great Patriotic War (World War II to the rest of us) will be celebrated in Moscow...