Free Republic

California’s experiment with global warming regulations reminds me of a story about a foolish, old dog who lost his bone in the water when he tried to grab its reflection. Similarly, California’s leaders risk sacrificing the jobs and industries we have today on a hope and a prayer that the “green jobs” and “green industries” of the future will be better and more plentiful than those we already have. When Governor Schwarzenegger signed AB 32, California’s Global Warming Solutions Act, into law more than three years ago, he declared that the sweeping new regulations imposed by the measure would be...

New data show that the balance between the airborne and the absorbed fraction of carbon dioxide has stayed approximately constant since 1850, despite emissions of carbon dioxide having risen from about 2 billion tons a year in 1850 to 35 billion tons a year now. This suggests that terrestrial ecosystems and the oceans have a much greater capacity to absorb CO2 than had been previously expected. The results run contrary to a significant body of recent research which expects that the capacity of terrestrial ecosystems and the oceans to absorb CO2 should start to diminish as CO2 emissions increase, letting...

For at least a decade, intimately connected with energy use, have been claims on climate change. Richard Lindzen, arguably the world's most renowned climate scientist, describes our understanding of the science of climate as "primitive." Yet many in the media persist in treating alarmist "climate experts" as "all-knowing." But then the same media have a long history of taking up "end is nigh" scaremongering. It's good for ratings. We have had a litany of warnings that "billions could die" when AIDS, Avian flu, SARS, Ebola, mad cow disease, the millennium bug -- the list is endless -- hit the headlines....

Mississippi is joining the ranks of states whose cities are observing Earth Hour. Select businesses and government buildings in Tupelo will be dimming their lights in observation of Earth Hour this coming Saturday at 8:30 p.m. local time. Tupelo will be joining cities around the world that have pledged to participate in this event designed to curb carbon emissions and bring awareness to so-called "manmade global warming." Travis Hunsicker is the sustainability director for Tupelo and the main organizer of the local event. OneNewsNow asked Hunsicker what his stance was on the issue of climate change. "Um, really, I steer...

Thank God winter is almost over. It has been another cold one. I hope Al Gore wore his hat and brought along his galoshes whenever he made an appearance against global warming....scientists have not been able to measure any increase in global warming since the end of 1998....Over the last two years temperatures have actually dropped by more than 0.5 degrees Celsius. Button up! I mention all this because (1) it is always amusing to kid Mr. Gore and (2) the price tag for Prophet Obama's climate plan has just jumped to $2 trillion. That is 3 times the White...

First it was a proposed ban on plastic bags. Now, a member of the influential Madison Plan Commission wants to ban the restaurant drive-through -- or at least restrict the ubiquitous symbol of America's auto-centric lifestyle.

MOUNT ST. HELENS – Standing on Mount St. Helen’s southern rim, Cynthia Gardner sees much more than a smoldering volcano. Like her colleagues at the U.S. Geological Survey, Gardner sees an enormous gift basket packed with scientific marvels. She finds the ongoing eruption and burgeoning lava dome fascinating enough, but she sounds almost giddy when she talks about the crater’s glacier. “The glacier is mind-bogglingly cool,” said Gardner, a USGS geologist, “maybe even more interesting than the eruption.” Ever since St. Helens rumbled back to life in 2004, geologists have curiously watched the dichotomy of fire and ice play out....

In a thought-provoking statistical analysis, Dr. Peter Tsigaris of Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, BC, Canada, concludes that whether or not climate change can be wholly attributed to human factors, it makes strong economic and environmental sense to treat it as human-caused and take action now. Despite the fact that the hundreds of scientists and reviewers on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change announced Feb. 2 in Paris that global warming is "very likely" caused by human activity, governments and other policy-makers may still justify inaction because of naysayers like Danish weather scientist Henrik Svensmark, who maintains that global climate...

In Friday's Washington Post, South Carolina Governor (and Republican) Mark Sanford wrote an opinion piece on climate change and politics that inderectly insults his fellow conservatives.

From: Internation Bureau of Weather and Enviroment Dated: 14/02/07 (1800) Be advised that the heat generated by the human body when shoveling show contributes to Global Warming. If you must shovel, an individual must wrap him/her self in sufficient clothing to prevent heat transfer to the atmosphere. If not, you must bear the guilt for all man-made global warning. The heat police will be watching, so button up.

Timothy Ball is no wishy-washy skeptic of global warming. The Canadian climatologist, who has a Ph.D. in climatology from the University of London and taught at the University of Winnipeg for 28 years, says that the widely propagated “fact” that humans are contributing to global warming is the “greatest deception in the history of science.” Ball has made no friends among global warming alarmists by saying that global warming is caused by the sun, that global warming will be good for us and that the Kyoto Protocol “is a political solution to a nonexistent problem without scientific justification." Needless to...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is poised to sign landmark legislation to curb emissions of greenhouse gases that many scientists believe are heating the planet. But don't expect fellow Republicans from northern San Diego and southern Riverside counties to get up and cheer when he pulls out his pen. Local GOP lawmakers voted against the legislation, Assembly Bill 32, when it came up for consideration late last month in Sacramento. The area's senators and Assembly members say they worry that the bill, while perhaps crafted with good intentions, will exact a devastating toll on the California economy ---- and for little environmental...

Reviews by Democratic activists of "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore's documentary on global warning: raves on content, not so favorable on the principal actor. Democratic politicians who have seen the movie that accompanies Gore on his current tour say it is the most effective presentation yet about global warming. But they contend there is "too much Gore," including aspects of his personal life that have nothing to do with the environment. A footnote: Many critics of Gore are acknowledged supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for president. They view the former vice president as her potentially most serious opponent. (snip)MINIMUM...

This time it's Wilma, howling across the Gulf of Mexico toward a predicted landfall tomorrow on the southwest Florida coast, threatening residents still rebuilding from a battering by four hurricanes last year. Wilma is this season's 21st named tropical storm and its 12th hurricane -- tying records on both counts. And No. 22 -- Tropical Storm Alpha -- formed yesterday afternoon. Wilma is the third storm to hit the top of the hurricane intensity scale. Katrina, Rita and Wilma all reached Category 5 at sea, each with top sustained winds of 175 mph. That, too, appears to be an Atlantic...

Venus Express set for liftoff Venus Express, the European Space Agency's first mission to explore Earth's closest neighbour, will be launched next Wednesday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The ESA gave the prospective launch time as 0443 GMT. The 1.27-tonne unmanned spacecraft, which will be taken aloft by a Russian-made Soyuz-Fregat rocket, is expected to arrive at Venus on April 6. Venus Express, equipped with seven instruments, is intended to map the Venusian surface and weather system, looking at temperature variation, cloud formations, wind speeds and gas composition. Its main goal is to help understand why Venus fell prey...

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) Why I Am Marching The scientific consensus is clear: human activities are increasing the concentration of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, causing our planet to warm. If we don't act soon to reverse this trend, future generations will pay the price. There are cost-effective measures we can take now to begin to address this critical issue, but Congress has been unwilling to lead. So I thank you for joining this virtual march. Together, we can send a strong message that it is time to act to stop global warming.

Former Vice President Al Gore will give a speech in Portland on Tuesday on global warming.

The UN finally got what it wanted. The Kyoto Climate Change treaty becomes international law this month on Wednesday. The treaty went into full effect with the approval by the Russian Federation, even without the support of the United States. Time will tell if and when the treaty will begin to affect the U.S. economy. What is certain is that truth and reason had no part in the process. Global warming has become a new religion. No one is supposed to question whether it is a fact. I did in the December 2004 issue of The DeWeese Report (“There is...

Big Bear mountains go from fire to ice Area burned in blazes last year relieved by snowfall. By Tim Molloy Associated Press BIG BEAR LAKE — A sign welcoming visitors to the San Bernardino National Forest features a panicked Smokey the Bear with a wall of flames raging behind him. "All because of a little match!" the sign warns visitors, invoking the near-constant fire threat in the drought-choked mountains east of Los Angeles. But this week, the sign was covered with snow. After months of worries that this could be the worst fire season ever, the danger has been buried...

<p>An article in the latest issue of the Washington Monthly blames global warming for severe thunderstorms and hail at President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, during a recent visit by British Prime Minister Tony Blair.</p> <p>"But that possibility apparently seemed as remote to Bush as the likelihood that the storm was a sign from God," said Stephanie Mencimer, an editor at the magazine.</p>

<p>LEICESTER, England - Thousands of the world's most exotic species of sea animals from spiders the size of dinner plates to giant woodlice face extinction if Antarctic sea temperatures rise as predicted, a scientist said Monday.</p> <p>"If the models are correct, we are likely to lose large populations of scallops, giant isopods, bivalve molluscs and giant sea spiders among others," scientist Lloyd Peck of the British Antarctic Survey told reporters.</p>