Free Republic

ROME — Pope Francis has signed an interfaith statement asserting that humanity faces a “global climate crisis” that demands phasing out fossil fuels. The Abu Dhabi Interfaith Statement for COP28 manifests the signers’ “shared concern for the escalating climate impacts that imperil our cherished planet, as well as our common commitment to jointly address this global crisis.”

Judges ruled on Tuesday that bumble bees can be classed as fish under California environmental laws. This unlocks protections for the state's four endangered bumble bee species. The ruling clarifies the state's confusing classification in its environmental protections. A trio of judges in California said on Tuesday that bees can be legally classed as a type of fish as part of a ruling that brings added conservation protections for the endangered species. "The issue presented here is whether the bumble bee, a terrestrial invertebrate, falls within the definition of fish," the judges wrote in their ruling. And, they concluded, it...

Even as the bruising health-care battle draws to a close, the Obama White House is pushing an ambitious agenda for the midterm election year. Next up: climate change. This week marks the final phase of the battle over health-care reform, a fight that has occupied the White House since the earliest days of Barack Obama's presidency. Given the political capital expended on the legislation, the administration could be forgiven for patting itself on the back, talking up jobs creation—and otherwise trimming its sails as it readies for what promises to be a rough midterm campaign. For a time, in the...

WASHINGTON — After two centuries of an epic infestation, Alaska's Rat Island finally may merit a name change. The island, part of a national wildlife refuge in the sprawling Aleutian chain, appears to be pest-free for the first time since rats overran it after a Japanese sailing ship wrecked there in the late 1700s. Scientists stopped by in early August to check on the progress of the $3 million eradication. So far, "no sign of rats whatsoever," said Steve MacLean , the polar marine program director for The Nature Conservancy in Alaska , one of the partners in the rat-ridding...

Note: this is the Google automatic translation. The original is in Italian (at the link)     June 9 2009 - It is the proposal of Nobel Peace Prize in 1980, the Argentinean Adolfo Perez Esquivel, who through the 'International Academy of Environmental Sciences (IAES), which he chairs, has launched in recent days in Rome, the international campaign to collect signatures "Justice for Planet ", an initiative to support the creation of a European criminal court and international environmental havoc against the environmental equivalent to crimes against humanity (to participate in the petition, click here). The IAES, to which belong...

Gov. Sarah Palin has signed her Alaska Gasline Inducement Act. Alaska is home free for more revenue. Right? Wrong. Some wonder whether any company will offer to build the gas line from Prudhoe Bay, not for fear of rising construction costs but for fear of the cost of political clout needed to obtain construction permits. A strong new industry has sprouted up to oppose development of any kind in Alaska. It's the professional environmentalists — the Sierra Club, the Alaska Coalition, the Wilderness Society, Southeast Alaska Conservation Council and others. One of the newest and most influential is the Alaska...

ANCHORAGE - Polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea may be turning to cannibalism because longer seasons without ice keep them from getting to their natural food, a new study by American and Canadian scientists has found. The study reviewed three examples of polar bears preying on each other from January to April 2004 north of Alaska and western Canada, including the first-ever reported killing of a female in a den shortly after it gave birth. Polar bears feed primarily on ringed seals and use sea ice for feeding, mating and giving birth. Polar bears kill each other for population...

...U.S. companies, unlike their counterparts based in most other industrialized countries, are not required to cut emissions because President George W. Bush backed out of the Kyoto Protocol early in his first term. The pact went into force this year...

I'm teaching an Environmental Science course in a NYC high school. The textbook I'm using is about 10 years old, so it has some stuff about off-road vehicles, but not so much about gas-guzzling SUVs. I've come right out and told my students that some things that appear in the book look like they were written by whackos who care for the environment first and people second, and I've told them that I would let help them separate fact from hype. So I was stunned when I saw the following passage in the textbook. It was in a sidebar article...

After attending a rally against drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Polly Andrews said a visit to the refuge lets people know that there are things on the planet that are bigger than themselves. The 20-year-old Fairbanks woman has visited the refuge a half-dozen times. "As far as the eye can see, there is nothing to remind you of others," she said after attending the Rally For the Refuge on Thursday. "No cities, no pop cans, no cigarettes, no traffic," she said. "You can go out there and empty your mind." She was one of an estimated...

Find alternative to cutting trees Editor: When I saw the article headline “No need to take a bow for switch to using alternative Christmas tree” in the Dec. 8 edition of the Reading Eagle, I thought I would read about an alternative to cutting live trees. Instead, the article extolled the qualities of an open-branched live tree which could display more ornaments than the machine-sheared variety. At a time when increasing numbers of us bemoan the loss of beautiful trees, this season still represents the wholesale slaughter of many millions of them. People who buy live cut trees rave about...

LONDON, Nov 25 (AFP) - Gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles, the increasingly popular all-terrain cars, should be forced to sport labels just like cigarette packs announcing their terrible health and environmental impact, a British think tank said Thursday. Just like smokers in the European Union buy tobacco marked with "Smoking Kills" and other dire warnings, New Economics Foundation (nef) offered its own slogans for super-stickers which they said should be slapped onto the hoods and sides of cars. "Global warming kills," "Climate change can seriously damage your health" or even "Driving seriously harms you and others around you" were among the...

When Cayce Mell was a child she came home one day to find her mother in tears looking through photographs of Korean dog markets, the places where dogs are slaughtered, hung in trees and sold for food. The photos horrified Mell so much that she set out with the pictures in hand and canvassed the neighborhood for donations to stop the practice. She collected 78 cents and immediately sent it off with a note to a then fledging organization. A couple weeks later, Mell received a return note thanking her for her donation, saying it would be put to good...

<p>BERKELEY -- To some, she was an environmental Joan of Arc, patron saint of the Save the Redwoods movement and tree-sitting bane of the Northern California timber industry.</p> <p>To Berkeley writer Kate Coleman, she was a fascinating cross between nuclear whistle-blower Karen Silkwood and the late anarchist Emma Goldman.</p> <p>Environmental activist Judi Bari died of breast cancer six years ago in a Mendocino County cabin. She was 47.</p>

Do the preachers of doom and gloom have you worried about everything? Have I got a show for you! Friday at 9 p.m. Eastern Time (8 p.m. Central -- right before "20/20") I update my "Tampering With Nature" hour. This is the show that so angered some "activists" that they persuaded parents to withdraw permission for us to use interviews we did with their children. We re-shot the interviews with other kids, but the activists still managed to get newspapers to write about "Parents vs. John Stossel." In the show, we point out that while "being at one with nature"...

GENEVA (AP) -- A U.S. scientist was voted off an international climate panel Friday after what campaigners claimed was pressure from the oil industry and Washington, a claim rejected by the United States. Atmospheric scientist Robert Watson was seeking re-election as head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He has been vocal in warning governments about the danger of fossil fuel emissions contributing to global warming. Watson was defeated by Indian challenger Rajendra Pachauri, who was backed by the United States and 75 other nations. Watson received 49 votes in the ballot, said World Meteorological Organization spokeswoman Mo Lagarde....