Free Republic

Atmosphere Above Japan Heated Rapidly Days Before Earthquake Politics / Environmental Issues May 18, 2011 - 01:15 PM By: Chris Kitze Infrared emissions above the epicentre increased dramatically in the days before the devastating earthquake in Japan, say scientists Geologists have long puzzled over anecdotal reports of strange atmospheric phenomena in the days before big earthquakes. But good data to back up these stories has been hard to come by. In recent years, however, various teams have set up atmospheric monitoring stations in earthquake zones and a number of satellites are capable of sending back data about the state of...

Cars will be banned from London and all other cities across Europe under a draconian EU masterplan to cut CO2 emissions by 60 per cent over the next 40 year. The European Commission on Monday unveiled a "single European transport area" aimed at enforcing "a profound shift in transport patterns for passengers" by 2050. The plan also envisages an end to cheap holiday flights from Britain to southern Europe with a target that over 50 per cent of all journeys above 186 miles should be by rail. Top of the EU's list to cut climate change emissions is a target...

Nancy Pelosi has "no regrets," after serving as one of the most flamboyant Speakers in American history. I have regrets. I recall her saying back in 2007, when she took over the House, that she, "had the gavel now," and "the power." It was a very dark day in American history when Ms. Pelosi was elected by the very same media and socialist electorate who would later, unthinkably, promote Barack Obama to the Presidency of the United States. Let's all take a breath and a sigh of relief as we watch our American Evita return to her 25 million...

Cancer is a man-made disease fuelled by the excesses of modern life, a study of ancient remains has found. Tumours were rare until recent times when pollution and poor diet became issues, the review of mummies, fossils and classical literature found. A greater understanding of its origins could lead to treatments for the disease, which claims more than 150,000 lives a year in the UK. Michael Zimmerman, a visiting professor at Manchester University, said: 'In an ancient society lacking surgical intervention, evidence of cancer should remain in all cases. 'The virtual absence of malignancies in mummies must be interpreted as...

... almost everyone else, missed the real story: migrants and drug smugglers (marijuana, mainly) are attracted to parts of Arizona for a specific reason. On these federal lands, environmental regulations prevent the Border Patrol from doing its job. That's what the mainstream media won't report. .... The U.S. side of the border with Mexico is about 60 percent private land and 40 percent federal. "Almost all" of the migrants and drug smugglers come across federal lands, protected by stringent "wilderness" designations or endangered species rules. The Mexicans are all but invited to come in and trample down the wilderness, which...

PITTSBURGH -- An intelligence bulletin from the Pennsylvania Office of Homeland Security is circulating on the Internet, and it quotes the FBI as saying that "environmental extremists" are likely to become an increasing threat to energy companies. Gov. Ed Rendell's press secretary, Gary Tuma, confirmed to Channel 4 Action News on Thursday that the document is real. "Five acts of vandalism over the last two weeks," Tuma said. "Two of those involved firearms -- firing of shotguns that put holes in equipment at Marcellus Shale drilling sites." He cited incidents of trespassing, theft and vandalism, including shots fired at Marcellus...

Authorities in Venice have removed about a dozen RVs from one neighborhood after complaints about human waste being dumped on the street. HazMat crews cleaned up the area around Rose and Third avenues Tuesday night after receiving complaints from Venice residents and activists. The LAPD then made the owners of about 12 RVs move them out out of the area. A local activist known as "Boston Dawna" said no one was cited. She said the RVs were back in the same spots by Wednesday morning. A woman who allegedly uncapped a sewage tank on an RV on Pacific Avenue near...

If not for an elusive, antelope-like creature in the Arizona desert, the Department of Homeland Security might have a much easier time cracking down on illegal immigration in hotbeds along the border. The Sonoran Pronghorn, which roams in Arizona, is an endangered species on the verge of extinction. As a result, environmentalists and governmental stewards have been repeatedly blocking Customs and Border Protection from expanding border technology in their habitat -- despite complaints that illegal immigrants are taking advantage of the security gap and doing plenty of harm to the environment in the process. Concerns about a host of species...

This revealing note, with sickening photographs, is making the email and message board rounds this week. I don’t know the source, but after my uncle-in-law (who lives in Tuscon) sent the email version to us, I found the message here and here (and, no, that last one isn’t brought to you by striPPers … but by strIpers, as in fisherdoods). It’s about the degradation of Arizona soil (and yours will be next) by thousands, if not millions, of illegal aliens who cross the border into this country via the Sonora Desert, not that pResident Barack “The Zero” Obama would do...

BP officials desperate to stem a huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico are considering stuffing the well with golf balls and tyres, it was revealed. BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said the so-called "junk shot" of debris was one option after previous attempts to stem the flow failed. A growing slick from the BP-leased rig is threatening an environmental disaster along US coasts.Some 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons) of oil a day are flowing into the sea. Mr Suttles said it may be possible to stem the flow by blocking the well's failed blowout preventer. "We have some...

MMS Approved 27 Gulf Drilling Operations After BP Disaster 26 Were Exempted From Environmental Review, Including Two to BP Salazar's "Moratorium" on New Drilling Permits Allows Continuation of the Same Flawed Environmental Exemption Process that Allowed the BP Catastrophe TUCSON, Ariz.— Even as the BP drilling explosion which killed eleven people continues to gush hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil per day into the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. Department of Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) has continued to exempt dangerous new drilling operations from environmental review. Twenty-seven new offshore drilling projects have been approved since April 20, 2010;...

Dan Calabrese, writing in The North Star National, sees the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion and the resulting oil spill as a good test of spine stiffness for the GOP. One Republican, he says, has passed the test, and it’s Sarah Palin, as usual, but Calabrese is not encouraged by the signs he's seeing from others in the Shy Elephant Party: A day after pundit Charles Krauthammer declared “drill, baby, drill” to be history in light of the spill, and two days after the Obama Administration halted all domestic drilling (gee, what a surprise), Palin came out and invoked her moral...

Liberal unethical democrats are using a massive disaster like this to attack Palin over Drill Baby Drill which Palin is right and we still need to continue doing so. Calling disaster in the Gulf of Mexico 'Lake Palin' is a opportunity to smear not just her but tie the whole Petroleum Industry to her which is unfair and shows that they see her as a greatest threat to Obama in 2012. This is going to far and Palin had absolutely nothing to do with this. On all political websites and liberal blogs, liberals are taking the opportunity to attack Palin's...

And this is the mentality of our lawmakers representing us? No wonder this country is in shambles. These are the brilliant people regulating our industry folks. This is a must see video of what our politicians are lacking in Washington, and that's common sense and education. I am at a loss for words for this fine displacement of intellect. Watch the video, especially at the 1:20 mark:

Cap & Tax for North Little Rock Some more video of the North Little Rock Council Meeting and the decision of Ward 3.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPPfNzmangk _________________________________ On January 11th, the North Little Rock City Council approved R10-01, the Integrated Resource Plan to be implemented immediately. A presentation was made by Mike Russ of the North Little Rock Electric Department. The presentation was made quickly and had no handouts for the public, but there were slides of their plan shown at the meeting. The plan involves creating a "smart grid" adding "smart meters" "programs to control powerload", and ways NLR can "reduce it's...

PEOPLE on Kenya's northern coast have one thing to thank Somali pirates for – better fishing. In the past illegal commercial trawlers operated off Somalia's coast and scooped up the fish. Now fishermen from neighbouring Kenya say the trawlers are not coming because of pirates. "There are a lot of fish now. There is more fish than people can actually use because the international fishermen have been scared away by the pirates," said Athman Seif, the director of the Malindi Marine Association in the coastal city of Malindi. On one early morning four fishermen jumped out of their boat and...

PANAMA CITY BEACH — The Jimi Hendrix version of the Star Spangled Banner was playing out of one of the vessels and it was a cool, clear day on the Bay near Hathaway Bridge but Saturday’s gathering of charter boat captains was not a party. It was their last stand, local captains and their supporters said. See photos from the protest >> New regulations from the National Marine Fisheries Service of amberjack and red snapper are destroying the local fishing industry, the captains said. About 50 boats, including small two-man skiffs, large pleasure boats and mid-size trawlers took part in...

U.S. scientists in the Gulf of Mexico unexpectedly netted a 19.5-foot (5.9-meter) giant squid off the coast of Louisiana, the Interior Department said on Monday, showing how little is known about life in the deep waters of the Gulf. Not since 1954, when a giant squid was found floating dead off the Mississippi Delta, has the rare species been spotted in the Gulf of Mexico. The squid, weighing in at 103 pounds (46.7 kg), was caught July 30 in a trawl net more than 1,500 feet underwater as it was pulled by a research vessel. The giant squid, which did...

So, the full-frontal-nudity-enviro proganda assault begins. Are we really surprised by such a one-sided propaganda flick? If an alternative docu-drama was made, care to guess what lame excuse(s) ABC would give not to show it?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 09-83 Governor Palin Testifies on Outer Continental Shelf April 14, 2009, Juneau, Alaska – Governor Sarah Palin today testified before Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar in a federal hearing in Anchorage, urging the Obama administration to stand by Salazar’s confirmation hearing statement favoring “wise, responsible use of conventional fuels,” such as the oil and gas resources found in abundance in the Outer Continental Shelf. “Alaska has consistently supported oil and gas development in our OCS,” Governor Palin testified. “We have done so recognizing that certain areas should be exempted from leasing, or have seasonal drilling...

WASHINGTON -- A popular but star-crossed public lands bill that would have extended additional protections to 200,000 acres in Oregon and millions more nationwide was defeated in the House Wednesday by a mere two votes. The measure earned a lopsided 282-144 vote but failed nonetheless because it did meet the required two-thirds majority. Under House rules, the bill needed 284 affirmative votes to pass based on the total number of lawmakers voting. The defeat was a bitter setback to supporters who labored for years and felt confident of victory after the Senate passed the bill in January. In the past,...

....a case against Washington State (WCI) Cap & Trade In an effort to take a leadership role in the WCI the state legislature is holding committee hearings on House Bill 1819 and its companion bill, Senate Bill 5735. This is in general a Statewide Cap & Trade “market” system for greenhouse emission on manufacturing & industry designed to meet the standards of a regional cap and trade program. Washington State is in partnership with six other states and four Canadian provinces, under a coalition called the Western Climate Initiative (WCI). The basic idea of a Cap & Trade system is...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 09-19 Governor Palin Releases Statement on Defenders of Wildlife Campaign February 3, 2009, Juneau, Alaska – Governor Sarah Palin released the following statement today in response to attacks by the Defenders of Wildlife: “It is reprehensible and hypocritical that the Defenders of Wildlife would use Alaska and my administration as a fundraising tool to deceive Americans into parting with their hard-earned money. “The ad campaign by this extreme fringe group, as Alaskans have witnessed over the last several years, distorts the facts about Alaska’s wildlife management programs. Alaskans depend on wildlife for food and cultural practices...

Some home builders already struggling in Florida's dismal housing market are facing another headache: The Chinese-made drywall they used is causing unpleasant odors and possibly leading to electric problems in dozens of homes constructed during the housing boom.

You think solar electrical generation is going to save you or the Planet? Think again. While it is true that photovoltaic solar panels do not pollute while they are producing electricity -- what about the manufacturing process? What happens when these panels reach the end of their projected lifecycle in twenty-five years? (This is, by the way, an optimistic view of their useful life.) Those questions are addressed in a study by the watchdog group Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. "Green Power" is being hyped as the "Safe Solution." It is anything but safe -- when all factors are considered. Here...

A report about why global warming due to carbon dioxide is flawed hypothesis based off of crappy math models. Some of these guys are from the UN's IPCC who left because they so strongly disagreed. Oh, also to give you an idea of how many scientists that is compared to those who think global warming is occurring thanks to carbon dioxide: "The over 650 dissenting scientists are more than 12 times the number of UN scientists (52) who authored the media hyped IPCC 2007 Summary for Policymakers. " Here's the senate.gov link to where these quotes come from: http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=2158072e-802a-23ad-45f0-274616db87e6 Here...

NCPA: Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs Not Worth Cost and Trouble Report Says Government Should Not Force CFLs on Consumers DALLAS (Dec. 10, 2008) - Although touted by many as the smart energy choice, compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs are not suitable for many common uses and should not be required by the government, according to a new report by the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA). The Environmental Protection Agency states that CFLs will reduce energy use and will last longer than standard bulbs. However, NCPA Senior Fellow and report co-author Sterling Burnett argues: "For many uses, compact fluorescent bulbs...

<p>NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Snow is falling in the New Orleans area.</p> <p>The National Weather Service says a mixture of sleet and snow is falling Thursday morning from Baton Rouge east across much of southeastern Louisiana.</p> <p>The winter weather closed some schools and created hazardous driving conditions.</p>

Enviro Group Lawsuits, Cost Concerns, Climate Regulation Uncertainty Cited As Major Obstacles To Grid Improvements Denver, CO (Oct. 1, 2008) -- A new study released this week highlights what experts have been saying for years: the U.S. faces significant risk of power brownouts and blackouts as early as next summer that may cost tens of billions of dollars and threaten lives. The study, "Lights Out In 2009?" warns that the U.S. "faces potentially crippling electricity brownouts and blackouts beginning in the summer of 2009, which may cost tens of billions of dollars and threaten lives." "If particularly vulnerable regions, like...

Tire companies, big box stores, and the government are putting the brakes on the use of lead wheel weights. Through EPA's National Lead-Free Wheel Weight Initiative, partners have agreed to phase-in the use of lead-free alternative wheel weights and reduce the amount of lead released into the environment by 2011. "Our partners have pledged to reduce or eliminate their use of lead wheel weights," said Susan Parker Bodine, assistant administrator of EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. "Their efforts will remove millions of pounds of lead from the environment and the waste stream." Eliminating lead wheel weights is...

Cats with a fondness for gourmet meals are threatening fish supplies, an Australian scientist says. Deakin University scientist Dr Giovanni Turchini has discovered an estimated 2.48 million tonnes of forage fish - a limited biological resource - is consumed by the global cat food industry each year. "That such a large amount of fish is used for the pet food industry is real eye-opener," Dr Turchini said. "What is also interesting is that, in Australia, pet cats are eating an estimated 13.7 kilograms of fish a year which far exceeds the Australian average (human) per capita fish and seafood consumption...

A Spokane woman was sentenced Tuesday to three years in federal prison in the May 2001 firebombing of the University of Washington Center for Urban Horticulture. Lacey Phillabaum, 33, of Spokane, is one of five people -- members of a domestic terrorist group called the Earth Liberation Front -- who were accused by federal prosecutors of the arson attack that destroyed the building along with precious samples of rare and endangered plants species being cultivated for reintroduction into the Cascades. The ELF cell, dubbed "The Family," acted on the erroneous belief that a scientist at the center was doing the...

Is this a political harbinger? As the Democrats are about to gather in Denver, the famed Climate Impacts Center in neighboring Boulder is being shut down by its parent organization, the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Does this represent the “Tipping Point” as Climate Change alarmism reaches its zenith and enters a period of decline? What is remarkable is that this is happening BEFORE we know whether Al Gore will be named Climate Change Czar in an Obama administration.

When God made the world, He sprinkled it liberally with a soft, heavy, dull gray metal called lead. Humankind did the rest, finding countless uses for the abundant element. During the latter half of the 20th century, however, people began to grasp that certain applications of lead, particularly in gasoline and paint, posed a health hazard. The rest is history. Leaded gasoline came off the market in favor of low-lead, and finally unleaded. Paint manufacturers stopped using lead in pigments in 1978. But the stuff is still around, in homes, businesses, on old cars and trucks, and in public places...

PENSACOLA, Fla. -- Oil companies once viewed drilling in the deep waters off Florida as cost prohibitive. Politicians feared even the slightest sign of support would be career suicide. No more. Record crude oil prices are fueling support for oil and natural gas exploration off the nation's shores. In Florida, movement was underway even before President Bush called on Congress last month to lift a federal moratorium that's barred new offshore drilling since 1981. The early activity here stems from a 2006 Congressional compromise that allows drilling on 8.3 million acres more than 125 miles off the Panhandle _ an...

Motorists in southeastern Wisconsin pay an average of 14 cents more a gallon for gasoline billed as cleaner for the environment, but the government and air quality experts now question how much the gas actually cuts pollution.

I cannot diagnose James Hansen as being "mad" according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association, but he has been one mad, or angry, dude in his dislike for human beings and their welfare. Dr. Hansen, chief of NASA's Goddard Institute For Space Studies, may have been traumatized early in life as the son of a bar tender living on a tenant farm. Hansen may still be angry that his boy, John Kerry, did lose a presidential campaign. Possibly, because NASA's space programs have suffered some failures and have become irrelevant, Dr....

ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. -- Neighbors Jo Ellen Sharp and Kristin Jenkins stood beside each other after a day on the beach of this barrier island, divided by the thought that Florida's corner of the Gulf of Mexico could some day be dotted by gigantic oil rigs. This is such a big part of our economy and our lifestyle; nobody is going to come here if there is drilling," said Ms. Sharp, 39 years old, who runs a marketing firm with her husband. Ms. Jenkins quickly cut in. "Do what you've got to do," the 35-year-old schoolteacher said. "If it's...

KAYFORD, West Virginia (AFP) - The traditional lifestyle of the Appalachian peaks of West Virginia is under threat from mining companies who blow the summits off mountains to reach the coal deposits that lie beneath the surface. "They are killing off the culture of the mountain people," said Maria Gunnoe, who lives on a hillside which has had its insides dug out to expose a huge mine called Jupiter. "We are fighting not only for right now but also for yesterday and tomorrow," she said. Mountaintop removal mining, or MTR, is not only affecting traditions, but also polluting drinking water...

A false balance is an abomination to the LORD, but a just weight is his delight. I must apologize in advance to all my conservative friends for planning to vote for John McCain, who has preordained himself to lose, for President. Ron Paul,Bob Barr, Alan Keyes, Chuck Baldwin and the rest have, for the most part, real conservative bones, but the Dems and Repubiclicans, as Mark Levin calls them, have virtually shut out third party candidates since Ross Perot gave them a run for their money (which most of them love more than life itself). Adding to his defeatist platform...

Lieberman Hopeful, Despite Global Warming Bill's FailureBy JESSE A. HAMILTON | Washington Bureau Chief June 7, 2008 WASHINGTON — - It wasn't really about winning, anyway. So nobody's crying over the Friday defeat of a Senate bill to counter global warming. Not even Sen. Joe Lieberman, whose name was on it. The bill to slash industrial carbon emissions — a massive and deep-reaching piece of legislation known as the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act — was the 2008 shot at doing something about the climate warming trend. As expected, it burned out. But the politics is in the details, and in...

THE history of left-wing politics is a history of unintended - and invariably negative - outcomes. Glorious workers’ revolutions lead to tyranny. Welfare causes misery. Government-funded tertiary education ends up subsidising the same proportion of private school and state school students as previously attended universities under full fees. Public broadcasting evolves into elite programming funded by people who never watch or listen to it. Decades of state film funding gives us films nobody pays to see. I could go on. Hey, I will: Environmentalism Thanks to its capture by leftists - degenerates from a positive save-the-critters movement into a freaky...

"105° tomorrow? We'll be sending you out live," the television producer informed me. Like most TV Meteorologists, I loathed the heat wave live-remotes. I would much rather work in a controlled environment, complete with air conditioning and a green Chroma-key screen. And during extreme weather events, the studio lent itself to professionalism rather than playing on emotion. "Let me guess, the bank in Walnut Creek?" I said sarcastically. I had been through this drill many times. "Perfect location. Plus, a lot of viewers with ratings meters out there." Walnut Creek is an upscale town 30 miles east of San Francisco....

The dirty secret of the environmental movement is how indifferent it can be to the poor. Consider the widespread ban on DDT. As environmental groups celebrated the recovery of bald eagles, parents in poor countries buried 20 million children who died from the ensuing malaria outbreak. Now we see another crisis looming from the fight against global warming. Food riots are breaking out in poor countries as motorists in wealthy countries burn grains and oils in gas tanks. We are green for one simple reason: We can afford it. But what if that changes? What if the pain of going...

While the three remaining presidential candidates try to out-green each other, the rest of the world is rebelling at the astronomical costs involved. “Somehow” this rebellion has received little U.S. media attention. This explains how Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain can still advocate government- and tax-heavy approaches with straight faces. Meanwhile, my nearly daily emails from the indefatigable Benny Peiser of CCnet, whose assemblages of environment and science links and summaries are essential for anyone who wants to keep up with worldwide environmentalist mischief, tell me that: Governments elsewhere are balking at meeting mandatory targets for reducing so-called...

The Senate's leading climate-change bill, while aiming to combat global warming by reducing carbon dioxide in the air, actually poses "extraordinary perils" for Americans and the economy, according to a new study from The Heritage Foundation. The study, produced by Heritage's Center for Data Analysis (CDA), forecasts severe consequences—including crushing energy costs, millions of jobs lost and falling household income—if Congress enacts the so-called Lieberman-Warner bill. What follows are 50 state-by-state breakouts of the impact the bill would have on jobs and the economy.

Gore a former US vice president who has become a leading international voice in the cause against global warming, was co-winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize. Gore's effort was highlighted by his Oscar winning documentary film An Inconvienent Truth. Klaus, an economist, said he opposed the 'climate alarmism' perpetuated by environmentalism trying to impose their ideals, comparing it to the decades of communist rule he experienced growing up in Soviet-dominated Czechoslovakia. 'Like their (communist) predecessors, they will be certain that they have the right to sacrifice man and his freedom to make their idea reality,' he said. 'In the...

In his climate speech on Monday, Mr. McCain exhibited (as the press usually does) a complete lack of consciousness of the fact that evidence of warming is not evidence of what causes warming. Yet policy must be a matter of costs and benefits, adjusted for the uncertainties involved. Which brings us to today's irony: He who finds a six-figure earmark an affront to humanity is prepared to wave through a trillion-dollar climate bill without, as far as anyone can tell, a single systematic thought about costs and benefits. He who sees "corruption" behind every campaign check goes all compliant when...

Some 3,000 scientific robots that are plying the ocean have sent home a puzzling message. These diving instruments suggest that the oceans have not warmed up at all over the past four or five years. That could mean global warming has taken a breather. Or it could mean scientists aren't quite understanding what their robots are telling them. This is puzzling in part because here on the surface of the Earth, the years since 2003 have been some of the hottest on record. But Josh Willis at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory says the oceans are what really matter when it...

Dr. Frank Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, says the secular media has erroneously reported the intent of a document dealing with climate change that he and other prominent denominational leaders endorsed. One of many high-profile Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) leaders, Dr. Page signed the document entitled, "A Southern Baptist Declaration on the Environment and Climate Change." The dissertation was written by Jonathan Merritt, a student at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and son of a former SBC president. (See earlier article) The statement challenges the denomination's response to environmental issues, calling them too timid and seen by the outside...