Free Republic

Louis Rosemont called Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood home for almost 40 years. He was part of one of the first waves of immigrants to build the community after fleeing a violent dictatorship in his homeland. But he has recently found himself exiled again — priced out of his home by rising rents as climate change rearranges the Miami real estate market. Little Haiti is a historically low-income neighborhood that sits inland, on land at double the elevation of wealthier neighborhoods along the beachfront. In Miami, a city often considered ground zero for the impacts of climate change, sea level rise...

The only welcome victim of coronavirus will be the myth of the 'entitled millennial.' Let us hear no more accusations of individualism, selfishness and over-avocado-eating from older generations. Many baby boomers now owe their lives to the selflessness of the young. The civic restrictions introduced across Europe in recent days are intended to slow the spread of COVID-19, and keep hospital beds and respirators available for critical cases. But this lock-down will also rob a generation of education and income. Yet in the midst of these bewildering times, there are signs of hope for the post-corona future. Humans have once...

Coal miners including Consol Energy (CEIX -13.9%) and Contura Energy (CTRA +2.1%) must shut their mines in Pennsylvania by tonight after the governor ordered "non-life-sustaining" to close in an attempt to control the spread of the coronavirus. The state's list of "life-sustaining businesses" included oil and natural gas extraction, steel mills and metal production but specifically excluded coal mining. The move has the potential to remove a large volume of coking coal from the global market. B. Riley FBR analyst Lucas Pipes says the worst-case scenario would have operations down through Q2 but "a shutdown lasting a week to several...

French climatologist Jean Jouzel says the swift global reaction to the coronavirus crisis may bode well for the climate as well: It shows that in a real emergency, nations have the means – and the will – to act. "It is just as urgent to tackle the climate problem," he says. With factories shuttered, airlines grounded and streets cleared in the wake of the coronavirus, there's been a notable reduction in our need for energy from coal and other fossil fuels, both in China and beyond. Experts anticipate the COVID-19 outbreak will lead to a temporary drop in global carbon...

Environmental factors play a critical role in enabling the spread of infectious diseases like Covid-19. President Trump, amongst others, claim warmer summer months may slow down the pandemic. However, though preliminary findings suggest the outbreak may be seasonal, the World Health Organisation argues there is “no reason to believe that this virus would behave differently in different temperatures”. Studies from previous outbreaks speculate that the prolific use of air conditioning would permit pathogens to spread throughout the summer months..... The impact of climate change on ecosystems will affect the behaviour of viruses, augmenting their capability to infect communities worldwide......... On...

In Venice, the often murky canals recently began to get clearer, with fish visible in the water below. Italy’s efforts to limit the coronavirus meant an absence of boat traffic in the city’s famous waterways. And the changes happened quickly. Countries that have been under stringent lockdowns to stop the spread of the coronavirus have experienced an unintended benefit. The outbreak has, at least in part, contributed to a noticeable drop in pollution and greenhouse gas emissions in some nations. Though grim, it’s something that scientists said could offer tough lessons for how to prepare — and ideally avoid —...

As of this writing, 6,400 people all over the world have died from the coronavirus. In the United States, 68 people have died. Some perspective: Chinese deaths (3,217) account for half of the worldwide total. If you add Italy (1,441) and Iran (724), two countries where many Chinese were allowed in until recently, that totals another 2,165. In other words, outside of China, Italy and Iran -- with 5,382 deaths collectively -- 1,018 people have died. There are 7.8 billion people in the world. Regarding Italy, the Jerusalem Post of March 16 reported that according to Nobel Prize-winning chemist Michael...

As the last light of the late-winter sunset illuminates her suburban back garden, Rachel Ingrams is looking at the sky and pondering how long we have left. Her hands shielded from the gusts of February air by a well-worn pair of gardening gloves, Rachel carefully places tree spinach and scarlet pimpernel seeds into brown plastic pots. Over the past year, Rachel, 45, has invested in a greenhouse and four bright blue water butts, and started building a raised vegetable patch out of planks of wood. It's all part of an effort to rewild her garden and become as close to...

The coronavirus pandemic has stoked concerns of a global economic recession as it spreads across the world, igniting one of the sharpest oil price plummets in the last 30 years and causing the biggest stock plunge on Wall Street since the stock market crash in 1987. While the crisis has led to a temporary decline in global carbon dioxide emissions, experts are warning it poses a serious threat to long-term climate change action by compromising global investments in clean energy and weakening industry environmental goals to reduce emissions. The International Energy Agency, or IEA, has warned the virus outbreak will...

Sir David Attenborough has spoken of his "desperate hopes" that a crucial climate change summit hosted by the UK this year delivers concrete action – and is not blown off course by the coronavirus crisis. The 93-year-old said the COP 26 conference in Glasgow carried the hopes of the world, and urged leaders to keep their "eyes on the ball". In an exclusive interview with Sky News, Sir David called on governments to impose a ban on deep sea mining. He said plans by big business to "trash" the sea floor could set back efforts to tackle climate change because...

The United Nations' weather and climate agency is out with its annual State of the Climate report, and it says "the tell-tale physical signs of climate change" are everywhere. The report documents unprecedented heat waves, fires and floods over the past year, and warns that there is likely more to come. In the report, the UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO) cited the historic fires in Australia and the Amazon, record-shattering heat waves in Europe, and soaring levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In a statement released with the report, the leader of the United Nations calls climate change "the...

In an end run around Republican legislators, Oregon’s Democratic governor ordered the state on Tuesday to lower greenhouse gas emissions, directing a state agency to set and enforce caps on pollution from industry and transportation fuels.

COPENHAGEN - Denmark should sharply increase its carbon tax to help meet the cost of reaching its 2030 target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 70% from 1990 levels, the Danish Council on Climate Change said on Monday. The council is the main independent adviser to the Danish government on climate change and its proposal for a much higher carbon tax immediately drew criticism from industry, with business representatives saying some companies would be forced to leave Denmark. “We can make the green transition happen without it costing a whole lot or affecting our welfare to a significant degree,” said...

Climate law rollbacks in the US and Australia have origins in libertarian think tanks that trade in climate denial. Investigative journalists have exposed how one is now trying to strip climate protections in Germany.“The Trump administration frequently asked us for advice,” James Taylor, chief strategist at US libertarian and climate-skeptic think tank, The Heartland Institute, told two journalists posing as PR consultants representing German car and coal companies in late 2019. “What can we get for €500,000?” one of the bogus young PRs asked, offering an anonymous donation to Heartland on behalf of a large German automotive client. Taylor soon...

In 2014, Joe Duggan started reaching out to climate scientists to ask them a question: how did climate change make them feel? “I was just blown away when I started getting the letters back,” he says. Duggan, a science communicator at Australian National University, set up a website and starting publishing the mostly handwritten responses. “[Professor] Katrin Meissner was one of the first, and her letter really hit me. It was so ... unscience-y. Almost poetic.” “It makes me feel sad. And it scares me,” Meissner wrote. “It scares me more than anything else. I see a group of people...

The UK cannot go climate neutral much before 2050 unless people stop flying and eating red meat almost completely, a report says. But it warns that the British public do not look ready to take such steps and substantially change their lifestyle. The report challenges the views of campaign group Extinction Rebellion. It believes the UK target of climate neutrality by 2050 will result in harm to the climate. The claim comes from the government-funded research group Energy Systems Catapult, whose computer models are used by the Committee on Climate Change, which advises government. Its report says: "A number of...

Is Planet Earth warming, cooling, or staying the same? I often challenge advocates for climate alarmism: what is the temperature of the planet today? Or we can use any specific day in recent years for which data are available. We cannot know the temperature of the planet thousands or millions of years ago if we cannot even measure it today. Yes, the question is one single temperature of the entire planet. Not the temperature in Nome, Alaska or Dallas, Texas, or Sydney, Australia or in your home town. One single temperature reading for the entire globe. To put it that...

In 2016, the Commonwealth established a Climate Finance Access Hub, based in Mauritius, and providing regional services as well. The hub helps small and vulnerable countries access international sources of climate finance, has already assisted the financing of several projects in smaller countries, and is there to provide capacity development, knowledge management, and technical expertise. The idea of the hub is excellent, but the ambition clearly needs to be much greater to tackle climate change on a much wider basis with increased support. The climate emergency is predicted to have a major effect on many Commonwealth nations, plus likely huge...

An animation of a GISS (Goddard Institute for Space Studies) climate model simulation made for the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report, showing five-year averaged surface air temperature anomalies in degrees Celsius from 1880 to 2100....

T.S. Eliot, The Hollow MenIt’s all but official, the media has determined COVID-19 to be the tragedy we have been waiting for (Trump’s Katrina!!). We are all doomed.As James Lileks reflects, this could well mark the end of life as we know it…at least for a little while. I suspect this will seem, in retrospect, as the last “normal” week. The one in which there was other news. This doesn’t mean everything will be actually horrible. It means the news will be horrible, in that it gives a sense of a rapidly escalating catastrophe that produces mass unease and uncertainty....