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Embracing Earth Charter key to environmental salvation Author and U of A professor Colin Soskolne says humans need to smarten up. March 7, 2008 - Edmonton -- Human beings, laments Colin Soskolne, are a "seriously dumb species." Just what kind of defect drives us to destroy the very ecosystems that provide us with sustenance? Why do we turn away from mounting, irrefutable evidence that we are sabotaging our very existence?Such questions are asked in a new collection of essays, called Sustaining Life on Earth: Environmental and Human Health through Global Governance, edited by Soskolne, on the environment and human health."Our...

This act which just passed through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday would commit the next president of the United States -- oh, my gosh, that may be Obama, what a coincidence. It would commit him to working towards the worldwide poverty goals set by the United Nations millennium declaration. These goals may cost America an estimated $845 billion, while making us subservient to a whole array of U.N. treaties and resolutions like the Kyoto Protocol. CLIFF KINCAID, ACCURACY IN MEDIA: That`s right. I found out about it a couple of days ago when it was really secretly put on...

A nice-sounding bill called the "Global Poverty Act," sponsored by Democratic presidential candidate and Senator Barack Obama, is up for a Senate vote on Thursday and could result in the imposition of a global tax on the United States. The bill, which has the support of many liberal religious groups, makes levels of U.S. foreign aid spending subservient to the dictates of the United Nations. Senator Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has not endorsed either Senator Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton in the presidential race. But on Thursday, February 14, he is trying to rush Obama's...

Mark Malloch Brown hadn't even ordered his ermine before he became the most contentious appointment to Gordon Brown's Government of all the talents. While the aid agencies and liberals were still toasting the arrival of "Saint Mark" to Whitehall, the neo-cons on both sides of the Atlantic were throwing darts at photographs of their devil. The former deputy secretary general to the UN divides opinion between those who see him as the great hope for Africa and a principled opponent of the war in Iraq, and those who believe that he is an anti-American egotist who defended Kofi Annan over...

Gordon Brown returned to Downing Street from Buckingham Palace as Britain's new Prime Minister and declared: "I will try my utmost." tanding outside No 10 with his wife Sarah, he promised to be "strong and steadfast" and to govern beyond narrow political interests. Mr Brown told reporters: "This will be a new Government with new priorities. "At all times I will be strong in purpose, steadfast in will, resolute in action in the service of what matters to the British people." The 56-year-old said he would try to meet "the concerns and aspirations of our whole country". Mr Brown promised...

ALMOST three quarters of people believe global warming is a 'natural occurrence' and not a result of carbon emissions, a survey claimed today.

What should conservatives do about global warming? Jim Manzi suggests in his June 25 National Review cover story (“Game Plan”) that conservatives embrace junk science and “manage” global climate change so that they can “peel off” 1 percent of the votes from the “opposing coalition” in some future presidential election. Manzi’s is a recipe for social, political and economic disaster – not just for conservatives, but for everyone, with the possible exception of the misanthropic, back-to-nature socialists among us. "It is no longer possible, scientifically or politically, to deny that human activities have very likely increased global temperatures…,” intones Manzi,...

By Tom DeWeese June 13, 2007 American Policy Center Global warming alarmists are a clever bunch. They have very carefully changed the issue from "global warming" to "climate change." Now any change in weather, be it mild winters or cool summers can be attributed to "climate change." Whatever the weather, the news is very bad. One claim threatens massive storms thrashing our communities. Such a threat was an easy sell in 2005 as Katrina was blamed for nearly destroying New Orleans in a hurricane season that seemed without end. Surely it could not be denied that climate change Armageddon was...

MR. GRIFFIN: I have no doubt that global -- that a trend of global warming exists. I am not sure that it is fair to say that it is a problem we must wrestle with. To assume that it is a problem is to assume that the state of earth's climate today is the optimal climate, the best climate that we could have or ever have had and that we need to take steps to make sure that it doesn't change. First of all, I don't think it's within the power of human beings to assure that the climate does...

This video has strong language. Be advised. It captures an Al Gore supporter taking a sign from the FreedomWorks Panda and tearing it up. He then littered the sidewalk and told the film maker, “F!@# yourself.” The Panda's sign read, "Stop Pandering to Radical Environmentalists." Here is the video.

A capacity crowd of 1,500 people jammed into Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University last night for Al Gore's speech and book-signing. But the numbers don't matter: Even if Gore were speaking before a sellout crowd at Verizon Center, he would still be the smartest guy in the room. He reminded his listeners of this repeatedly last night. Click here for the rest

EU, Asia Set 2009 Climate Pact DeadlineHAMBURG, Germany (Map, News) - European and Asian foreign ministers agreed to set a 2009 deadline to complete negotiations on a new international climate change pact to limit greenhouse gases, diplomats said Tuesday. Under the agreement, which came during two-day talks here, Asian nations - including China and India - will not have to adhere to binding targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Instead, ministers outlined the responsibilities of richer and poorer nations in combatting climate change, the diplomats said on condition of anonymity.

Fascist Ecology: The "Green Wing" of the Nazi Party and its Historical Antecedents Peter Staudenmaier "We recognize that separating humanity from nature, from the whole of life, leads to humankind’s own destruction and to the death of nations. Only through a re-integration of humanity into the whole of nature can our people be made stronger. That is the fundamental point of the biological tasks of our age. Humankind alone is no longer the focus of thought, but rather life as a whole . . . This striving toward connectedness with the totality of life, with nature itself, a nature into...

Oddly, Bella Pelosi's consiglieres in the Drive-By Media forgot to mention that it was a COLD day in Ilulissat, Greenland when Her Majesty stayed overnight there on Saturday, "observing the global warming". Actually, it was a pretty cold day for May 26 in that part of Greenland ANY year. But I guess it will be a cold day when the MSM actually shares with the peasantry any facts that might throw a monkeywrench in the agenda... May 26 Temperatures for Ilulissat, Greenland high low year 36 30 2007 42 37 2006 35 31 2005 59 41 2004 39 28 2003...

Whether or not blind faith in man-made, catastrophic global warming has become a new religion, many of its adherents, ironically, embrace it with the same type of unquestioning zeal they sloppily attribute to and summarily condemn in Christians. Case in point: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, after leading a congressional delegation to Greenland, declared that she and her fellow travelers saw "firsthand evidence that climate change is a reality, there is just no denying it." Pelosi is also sure the "global warming" is caused by human beings. She said, "It wasn't caused by the people of Greenland; it was caused by...

I Was On the Global Warming Gravy Train By David Evans Posted on 5/28/2007 [Subscribe or Tell Others] [A version of tihs article was previously blogged on Mises.org here, and inspired a spirited debate. The author reworked the piece for the Mises.org front page. The blog item remains the same.] I devoted six years to carbon accounting, building models for the Australian government to estimate carbon emissions from land use change and forestry. When I started that job in 1999 the evidence that carbon emissions caused global warming seemed pretty conclusive, but since then new evidence has weakened that case....

BERLIN - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday she led a congressional delegation to Greenland, where lawmakers saw "firsthand evidence that climate change is a reality," and she hoped the Bush administration would consider a new path on the issue. After meeting with German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, Pelosi praised Berlin for its leadership on the issue. Her trip comes ahead of next week's Group of Eight summit and a climate change meeting next month involving the leading industrialized nations and during a time of increased debate over what should succeed the Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 international treaty that caps...

Rich must pay bulk of climate change bill: Oxfam By Jeremy Lovell 37 minutes ago Coping with the ravages of global warming will cost $50 billion a year, and the rich nations who caused most of the pollution must pay most of the bill, aid agency Oxfam said on Tuesday. The call, barely 10 days before a crucial Group of Eight (G8) summit in Germany which has climate change at its core, is likely to make already tense negotiations even tougher. The United States, which Oxfam says must foot 44 percent of the annual $50 billion bill, is rejecting attempts...

German environment minister Sigmar Gabriel (SPD) sharply attacked the US-government because of its behaviour in the climate politics shortly before the G8-Gipfel. In the "Saarbrücker newspaper" (Tuesday edition), Gabriel confirmed that the USA blocks the German design of a termination explanation previously. The minister gave notice on to hold " the debatable points " if needed open until the conversations in Heilendam. Then the heads of state and heads of the government themselves would have to confess. "If they really want to block, it must become clear, who carries the the responsibility. Gabriel named the climate change a "dramatic danger"...

  Mironov Tells Kyoto Experts The World Is Getting CoolerBy Simon ShusterStaff WriterSergei Mironov ST. PETERSBURG -- It was a failure from the start. Russia's biggest conference on the Kyoto Protocol, which aims to fight global warming, began with a speech from a top official who denied that global warming even exists. "In reality, the scientific basis for the protocol is fairly weak," Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov told a crowded opening session of the two-day conference Thursday, which drew more than 200 environmental experts and carbon market participants from around the world. "In the opinion of many experts, the...

Press Releases Contact: Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami 202-226-7616 For Immediate Release 05/26/2007 Pelosi to Lead Bipartisan CODEL on Global Warming Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi today announced that she is leading a bipartisan Congressional Delegation trip to Greenland, Germany, Great Britain and Belgium to meet with leading scientists and political leaders working on solutions to combat global warming. “Scientific evidence and real-world examples tell us that global warming is an international crisis that must be solved with international cooperation and innovative solutions,” said Speaker Pelosi. “As we begin to craft legislative solutions to address this international crisis, Members of Congress...

U.S. Carbon Emissions Fell 1.3% in 2006 By Juliet Eilperin Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, May 24, 2007; A14 U.S. carbon dioxide emissions dropped slightly last year even as the economy grew, according to an initial estimate released yesterday by the Energy Information Administration. The 1.3 percent drop in CO{-2} emissions marks the first time that U.S. pollution linked to global warming has declined in absolute terms since 2001 and the first time it has gone down since 1990 while the economy was thriving. Carbon dioxide emissions declined in both 2001 and 1991, in large part because of economic slowdowns...

Meteorologist Likens Fear of Global Warming to 'Religious Belief' By Marc Morano CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer December 02, 2004 Washington (CNSNews.com) - An MIT meteorologist Wednesday dismissed alarmist fears about human induced global warming as nothing more than 'religious beliefs.' "Do you believe in global warming? That is a religious question. So is the second part: Are you a skeptic or a believer?" said Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Richard Lindzen, in a speech to about 100 people at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. "Essentially if whatever you are told is alleged to be supported by 'all...

As many as 5,000 businesses and public-sector bodies would be forced to buy greenhouse gas permits under plans for a mandatory carbon-trading scheme to be proposed this week by ministers. A white paper, which is to be published on Wednesday and which will take forward Tony Blair’s plans for new nuclear power stations, is expected to commit the government to a world-leading emissions trading scheme going far beyond a European Union-wide system and plans by US states. It is understood there will be a fresh period of consultation on the proposals – known as the Energy Performance Commitment – that...

With $20 billion per annum in public funding the modern earth cult can easily spend some nickels to attract cult members. I can well imagine that soon, on prime time TV, [or a gay sitcom], will be the tax-payer funded eco-cult recruitment, 'You must join us' advert. It will show a wide expanse of meadow populated by masses of automatons with arms outstretched resembling a fuehrer cult rally. Their laconic voices will repeat the intonation, 'save the earth goddess...save the earth goddess...' The camera will sweep in and out showing mindless, fixated faces with dilated pupils staring upwards, saliva seeping...

FEDERAL Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd has defended Labor's plan to intercept Japanese whaling vessels after the Government said the idea was doomed to fail. Under Labor's plan, unveiled yesterday, Australian navy ships would be sent to intercept and board whaling vessels in the Southern Ocean. Labor would also make formal representations to Japan about its whaling program and take the country to international courts such as the International Court of Justice or the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull today called the plan dangerous, reckless, counterproductive and "clearly not thought through". He said it...

US President George W. Bush has been told to prepare for British U-turn on Iraq once Gordon Brown becomes prime minister, The Sunday Telegraph newspaper said. Mr Bush has been briefed by White House officials to expect an announcement on British troop withdrawals during Brown's first 100 days in office, the weekly said. The president was advised on how to handle the aftermath of a British pullout and the end of steadfast support from London, said the broadsheet, citing senior officials. Outgoing Prime Minister Tony Blair is due to step down on June 27 after a decade in power, with...

LONDON -- On Wednesday, June 27, there are going to be a lot of very disappointed people in Britain's Labour Party. That is the day Gordon Brown "kisses hands" with the Queen at Buckingham Palace and receives the seals of office that Tony Blair will have returned to her earlier that morning. (Mr. Brown won't actually put his lips to the monarch's hands, a practice that has sadly fallen into abeyance.) It is also the day that millions of Labour voters hope he will announce Britain's withdrawal from Iraq. In the 2003 movie "Love Actually" there is a scene in...

So how did it become required classroom viewing? Even climate change experts say many of the claims in Al Gore's film are wrong. Kevin Libin, National Post Published: Saturday, May 19, 2007First it was his world history class. Then he saw it in his economics class. And his world issues class. And his environment class. In total, 18-year-old McKenzie, a Northern Ontario high schooler, says he has had the film An Inconvenient Truth shown to him by four different teachers this year. "I really don't understand why they keep showing it," says McKenzie (his parents asked that his last...

International Law: Why does an administration that says we don't need a "permission slip" to defend ourselves seem determined to sign away our freedom of the seas to the United Nations? The question is as valid today as it was when we asked it two years ago. We were grateful then that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., had successfully defeated an attempt by Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., to revive the flawed treaty vetoed by President Ronald Reagan more than two decades earlier. During her confirmation hearings for secretary of state in January 2005, Condoleezza Rice was asked by Foreign...

No response is more predictable than the reflexive squawk of the greenhouse fearmongers that anyone questioning their claims is in the pay of the energy companies. A second, equally predictable retort contrasts the ever-diminishing number of agnostics with the growing legions of scientists now born again to the "truth" that anthropogenic CO2 is responsible for the earth's warming trend. Actually, the energy companies have long since adapted to prevailing fantasies, dutifully reciting the whole catechism about carbon neutrality, repositioning themselves as eager pioneers in the search for alternative fuels, settling comfortably into new homes, such as British Petroleum's Energy Biosciences...

April 26, 2007 Poll Finds Majority See Threat in Global Warming By JOHN M. BRODER and MARJORIE CONNELLY Americans in large bipartisan numbers say the heating of the earth’s atmosphere is having serious effects on the environment now or will soon and think that it is necessary to take immediate steps to reduce its effects, the latest New York Times/CBS News poll finds. Ninety percent of Democrats, 80 percent of independents and 60 percent of Republicans said immediate action was required to curb the warming of the atmosphere and deal with its effects on the global climate. Nineteen percent said...

BANGKOK, Thailand — After two reports predicting a warmer Earth where life is fundamentally changed, a U.N.-sponsored scientific panel next month will issue a third study describing how a united world can avert the worst, by embracing technologies ranging from nuclear power to manure controls. Under a best-case scenario for heading off severe damage, the global economy might lose as little as 3 percentage points of growth by 2030 in deploying technologies to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, says the panel's draft report, obtained by The Associated Press. But it won't be easy. "Governments, businesses and individuals all need to be pulling...

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Some of the world's wealthiest are going green, spending their own greenbacks to protect the environment and fight global warming. In honor of the 37th annual Earth Day this Sunday, we are highlighting our picks for the 11 greenest billionaires. These moguls have made significant commitments to the environment, whether through investment in technology, commitment to earth-friendly living or simply by raising the world's environmental awareness. Among the green billionaires are high-profile folks like Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT) co-founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen. Gates' investment firm invested $84 million in California's Pacific Ethanol (nasdaq: PEIX), which makes ethanol from corn;...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Thursday that the U.S. and other countries should enter into a new international greenhouse gas reduction pact similar to the Kyoto Protocol that President Bush has opposed and the U.S. has never ratified. Schwarzenegger, speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, said he supports an idea by British Prime Minister Tony Blair to bring all of the Kyoto holdouts into a new worldwide agreement to lower greenhouse gas emissions. "I think the problem is getting so serious now that those countries have to participate, everyone has to participate," Schwarzenegger said. "Including China, including...