Free Republic

Sanjay Wagle was a venture capitalist and Barack Obama fundraiser in 2008, rallying support through a group he headed known as Clean Tech for Obama. Shortly after Obama’s election, he left his California firm to join the Energy Department, just as the administration embarked on a massive program to stimulate the economy with federal investments in clean-technology firms. During the next three years, the department provided $2.4 billion in public funding to clean-energy companies in which Wagle’s former firm, Vantage Point Venture Partners, had invested, a Washington Post analysis found. Overall, the Post found that $3.9 billion in federal grants...

Villages buried under 4-5 meters of snow . … and MSN writes of “Wacky & Wonderful Weather Phenomena.” 140,000 trapped by snow – Death toll rises past 550, people tunneling through 15 feet of snow to get out of their homes, hundreds of barns collapse in Italy … and MSN writes of “Wacky & Wonderful Weather Phenomena.” Unbelievable.

Humans may have been causing climate change for much longer than we’ve been burning fossil fuels. In fact, the agrarian revolution may have started human-induced climate changes long before the industrial revolution began to sully the skies. How? Through the clearing of forests, which still remains the second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions from human activity. Sediment cores from the mouth of the Congo River—the deepest river in the world—suggest that humans may have played a significant role in changing the landscapes of Central Africa. That river curves through the world’s second-biggest lingering tropical forest, but it and its tributaries...

... A new mini-report from the environmental group Climate Nexus points out that climate change is poised to wreck Valentine’s Day, or at least change it significantly, by threatening chocolate production. That’s right. Global warming is very bad for chocolate. Research from the International Center for Tropical Agriculture found last year that as temperatures rise, the principal growing regions for cocoa could shrink. Other elements of the Climate Nexus report say similar changes are already affecting the best sugar cane areas of the world, and are partially responsible for a 30% decrease in sugar production in Indonesia in 2011. Also,...

Chu: Expect more loan guarantee failuresBy Ben Geman - 02/10/12 05:47 PM ET Energy Secretary Steven Chu again warned Friday that more recipients of Energy Department green technology loan guarantees will likely collapse even as he touted the strength of the program overall. The warning comes as many Republicans are continuing to assail the green energy loan program as a risky use of taxpayer dollars. “We have always known that there were inherent risks in backing innovative technologies at full commercial scale, and it is very likely that there will be other companies in the portfolio that won’t succeed,” Chu...

Professor Ian Clark just does not see any evidence of oil sands contributing to global warming. That’s quite a stand to take in the face of a global environmental community that considers the development of the Canadian heavy oil industry tantamount to hastening the end of the world.But Prof. Clark can claim to know a bit more about the science behind climate change than the average person. As a professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Ottawa, he focuses on paleoclimatology — the study of changes in climate taken on the scale of the entire history...

STOCKTON - The city has a tentative plan to combat climate change, more than three years after reaching a legal settlement with the Sierra Club and then-Attorney General Jerry Brown. It wouldn't be cheap. If adopted by the Stockton City Council later this year, the plan could cost the city $28.5 million and could cost the private sector $240 million, the document says. The plan itself acknowledges it would require "substantial effort on the part of the entire Stockton community" at a time when people are struggling to pay their bills and keep businesses open.

The world's greatest snow-capped peaks, which run in a chain from the Himalayas to Tian Shan on the border of China and Kyrgyzstan, have lost no ice over the last decade, new research shows. The discovery has stunned scientists, who had believed that around 50bn tonnes of meltwater were being shed each year and not being replaced by new snowfall. The study is the first to survey all the world's icecaps and glaciers and was made possible by the use of satellite data. The melting of Himalayan glaciers caused controversy in 2009 when a report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel...

We enjoyed the letter to the Wall Street Journal last week from 16 scientists who said there’s “no need to panic about global warming,” and of course it drew a response from a warming faction of scientists saying essentially, “yes there is.” Adding some perspective to this they-said/they-said back and forth is yet another letter we saw today from Martin Hertzberg . . .

A team of scientists say that sprawling seagrass in the shallows of the Mediterranean may be the oldest living organisms on Earth, far older than humanity itself. Working off of DNA samples, a team of scientists say clumps of seagrass between Spain and Cyprus could be as old as hundred of thousands of years old. The study comes as scientists have sought to increase studies concerning how various organisms will face the changes from global warming. The team of scientists studying the seagrass say that the organism is facing threats from higher than normal sea temperatures and pollutants introduced by...

One of the fathers of Germany’s modern green movement, Professor Dr. Fritz Vahrenholt, a social democrat and green activist, decided to author a climate science skeptical book together with geologist/paleontologist Dr. Sebastian Lüning. Vahrenholt’s skepticism started when he was asked to review an IPCC report on renewable energy. He found hundreds of errors. When he pointed them out, IPCC officials simply brushed them aside. Stunned, he asked himself, “Is this the way they approached the climate assessment reports?” Vahrenholt decided to do some digging. His colleague Dr. Lüning also gave him a copy of Andrew Montford’s The Hockey Stick Illusion....

LONDON -- Meteorologists say ice-free seas in the arctic caused by global warming could explain a chill wind covering much of Europe that has killed more than 300 people. Experts said they believe complex wind patterns are being affected as melting arctic sea ice has exposes huge areas of normally frozen ocean to the atmosphere above, bringing bitterly cold weather to Britain and the rest of Europe. The loss of arctic sea ice could be influencing high-pressure weather systems over northern Russia that bring very cold winds from the arctic and Siberia to Western Europe and the British Isles, scientists...

They found the Ark of the Covenant where Moses placed the 10 Commandments, in a cave under Golgotha. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior. Who would have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. 1 Tim 2:3-6 Rom 3:28-30 Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes of the...

Environmentalists are torn over the high cost of breaking reliance on fossil fuels. Industrial-scale solar development is well underway in California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. The federal government has furnished more public property to this cause than it has for oil and gas exploration over the last decade — 21 million acres. In the fight against climate change, the Mojave Desert is about to take one for the team. "I have spent my entire career thinking of myself as an advocate on behalf of public lands and acting for their protection," said Johanna Wald, a veteran environmental...

JournalTimes.com No danger to students, authorities say as investigation continues Deputies: Parkside student confesses to creating list CHRISTINE WON and MICHAEL BURKE christine.won@journaltimes.com, mburke@journaltimes.com | Posted: Friday, February 3, 2012 4:16 pm SOMERS — Following days of reported hate crimes and heightened security at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, a student has confessed to creating the list threatening black students because she wanted greater attention to the issue, according to authorities Friday night. The suspect, whose identity was being withheld for her protection, reportedly told authorities she created the fliers — which listed 13 black students by name and threatened they...

Insurance commissioners in California, New York and Washington State will require that companies disclose how they intend to respond to the risks their businesses and customers face from increasingly severe storms and wildfires, rising sea levels and other consequences of climate change, California’s commissioner said Wednesday. “Our experience and other states’ experience as regulators is you get a far better response rate if you require response to be provided than if you just allow companies to decide when and how they will respond,” said Dave Jones, the California commissioner. “Our goal is to have the most complete, best and accurate...

The severe cold weather currently gripping Eastern Europe has now spread to Italy and as far south as Turkey. As many as 80 people have died, mainly in Ukraine and Poland, as the death freeze settles over the continent. The Ukraine has suffered the most fatalities as emergency ministries confirmed 43 people had perished in minus-28 degree temperatures. Forecasters have confirmed that this area of high pressure has come from Siberia.

Reminiscent of film Cool Runnings, Bruno Banani, the son of a Tongan coconut farmer, was destined to slide into the history books as Tonga's first Olympic competitor in the sport. [snip] A German underwear company was helping the 24 year-old fulfil his lifelong ambition with sponsorship due to an odd coincidence – he bore the same name as their brand. Alas, all was not as it seemed. German magazine Der Spiegel has unmasked the mischievous luger, whose catchphrase was "coconut-powered", as a hoax – his identity being the clever craftsmanship of a marketing company in Leipzig. ....... Semi, an IT...

The supposed ‘consensus’ on man-made global warming is facing an inconvenient challenge after the release of new temperature data showing the planet has not warmed for the past 15 years. {snip} Based on readings from more than 30,000 measuring stations, the data was issued last week without fanfare by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit. It confirms that the rising trend in world temperatures ended in 1997. {snip} ‘If temperatures continue to stay flat or start to cool again, the divergence between the models and recorded data will eventually become so great that the...

There's a great piece by David Rose in the Mail On Sunday nicely summing up what a lot of us here knew already: that the thing we really need to fear right now is not global warming but global cooling. And that, on current evidence, it's global cooling we're going to get. The supposed ‘consensus’ on man-made global warming is facing an inconvenient challenge after the release of new temperature data showing the planet has not warmed for the past 15 years. The figures suggest that we could even be heading for a mini ice age to rival the 70-year...

A SUNY Canton faculty member says behaviorism could be instrumental in providing new solutions to global warming. Professor Stephen F. Ledoux’s article in the January-February 2012 issue of American Scientist, “Behaviorism at 100,” says changing people’s behavior is key to tackling the effects of human behavior on the climate. “Natural scientists are working to solve problems like global warming within the limited time frame available before we must experience its worst effects,” Ledoux said. “In that process, scientists note that solutions require changes in human behavior, yet they have lacked definitive access to a natural science of behavior. We now...

The pharmacist seemed sympathetic to my plight. Sadly, he explained that Primatene Mist (an over the counter inhaler for asthmatics) had been taken off the market. I was not surprised. Certainly many doctors have warned people of Primatene’s potential side effects. Oddly enough, medical concerns had nothing to do with its removal. Instead the pharmacist started talking about Global Warming. In denial, I jumped on the internet, hoping against hope that the pharmacist had somehow been mistaken. Instead I found an AP article from late 2011. “Asthma patients who rely on over-the-counter inhalers will need to switch to prescription-only alternatives...

New map for what to plant reflects global warmingupdated 1/26/2012 1:48:29 PM ET WASHINGTON - The government's official map of colorful planting zones is being updated for a warmer 21st century. **SNIP** It's the first time the government map has been updated since 1990 and much has changed. Nearly entire states, such as Ohio, Nebraska and Texas, are in warmer zones now.

The California Air Resources Board (ARB) today approved a historic package of vehicle polices that will reduce air pollution and the adverse public health impacts of cars and trucks. The package of initiatives will save Californians $22 billion through 2025, according to ARB analysis. By 2025, the program will create 21,000 new jobs across the state as consumers spend less on gasoline and shift that money to more productive parts of the economy. Individual consumers will save $4,000 over the life of the typical car sold in 2025, even after paying for clean car technology. The added cost of the...

Climate change — that topic that makes you bang your head against the wall when talking to your obstinate brother-in-law — is the new battleground in science education in middle and high schools. While courts have held that some criticism of evolution in public schools is a violation of the separation of church and state, deniers of climate change argue that they are simply pushing academic freedom. Eugenie Scott, the executive director of the National Center for Science Education, told the LAT it will be harder to use the courts to protect climate science education, since climate change denial is...

Planting zones are retreating north all over the country, but the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) won’t state the obvious: the shift is a rock solid indicator of climate change. Although these zones, which serve as a guide to the kinds of plants that can grow, have shifted north in most areas, USDA shied away from making a climate change connection. “The map is not a good instrument for determining climate change,” said Kim Kaplan, a spokeswoman for the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service. “It’s not that there hasn’t been global climate change it’s that the map isn’t a good...

What happened to “climate change” and “global warming”? The Earth is still getting hotter, but those terms have nearly disappeared from political vocabulary. President Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday was a prime example of this shift. The president said “climate change” just once. By contrast, Obama used the terms “energy” and “clean energy” nearly two dozen times. A recent Brown University study looked specifically at the Obama administration’s language and found that mentions of “climate change” have been replaced by calls for “clean energy” and “energy independence.” Graciela Kincaid, a co-author of the study, wrote: “The phrases ‘climate...

Hundreds of people have been laid off by a local company that was supposed to create new jobs in the Valley. Amonix officially opened in North Las Vegas in May of 2011. 200 of it's 300 employees got pink slips this week. The company makes solar panels and was expected to create new jobs and nearly $600 million in economic development.

A cat belonging to an Arkansas Democratic campaign manager was found dead on Sunday night with the word "Liberal" spray-painted across its side, the campaign manager said. The cat was a pet of Jake Burris, who manages Democrat Ken Aden's bid for Arkansas' 3rd Congressional District. Aden is running against incumbent Republican Representative Steve Womack. Burris was returning to his Russellville, Arkansas home with his four children when he found the cat on his doorstep, the Aden campaign said in a press release on Monday. The mixed-breed Siamese cat had one side of its head bashed in to "the point...

When it comes to climate change, open-mindedness is the wrong approach. I study the history of climate science, and my research has shown that the think tanks and institutes that deny the reality or severity of climate change, or promote distrust of climate science, do so out of self-interest, ideological conviction or both. In my travels, I have met many, many people who have told me that they are not in denial about climate change; they simply don't know enough to decide. Since the mid-1990s, there has been clear-cut evidence that the climate is changing because of human activities: burning...

Rising human carbon dioxide emissions may be affecting the brains and central nervous system of sea fishes with serious consequences for their survival, an international scientific team has found. Carbon dioxide concentrations predicted to occur in the ocean by the end of this century will interfere with fishes' ability to hear, smell, turn and evade predators, says Professor Philip Munday of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University.

Institutional investors with a collective $26 trillion under management have opened a new front in the fight against climate change, urging the private sector to mobilize and find new technologies to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The pricing of planet-warming carbon emissions, which underscores the EU’s Emissions Trading System, is “nice” but not essential, says Kevin Parker, global head of Deutsche Asset Management. “It's not going to be long before an investor looking to roll out a new energy plant has to take solar and wind and other forms of renewables very seriously,” Parker said on the fringes of a UN...

GOP candidates urged to accept climate change by scientistsBy Andrew Restuccia - 12/29/11 11:49 AM ET Fifty New Hampshire scientists Thursday called on the Republican presidential candidates to accept the “overwhelming” scientific evidence behind climate change. The scientists issued the joint statement just weeks before the Jan. 10 New Hampshire primary, a key early test for the GOP White House hopefuls. “We urge all candidates for public office at national, state, and local levels, and all New Hampshire citizens, to acknowledge the overwhelming balance of evidence for the underlying causes of climate change, to support appropriate responses to reduce the...

BREWSTER – The woman who allegedly mailed a hoax weapon of mass destruction package to State Senator Gregory Ball’s regional office last month has been shot and killed by police in Georgia, a spokeswoman for Ball’s office said Monday. He is the chairman of the state Senate’s Homeland Security Committee. Ball spokeswoman Brittany Oat said Jameela Barnette was killed on Christmas day when a police officer for the Cobb county Police responded to the Bexley Apartments in Marietta and was assaulted by Barnette shortly after he opened the door. Officer shot the woman, later identified as Barnette, who died at...

Harsh Political Reality Slows Climate Studies Despite Extreme YearBy JUSTIN GILLIS Published: December 24, 2011 At the end of one of the most bizarre weather years in American history, climate research stands at a crossroads. Scientists say they could, in theory, do a much better job of answering the question “Did global warming have anything to do with it?” after extreme weather events like the drought in Texas and the floods in New England. But for many reasons, efforts to put out prompt reports on the causes of extreme weather are essentially languishing. Chief among the difficulties that scientists face:...

In Fox Business Network interview, ex-Alaska Guv plays coy on whether she's still mulling a presidential bid. Palin: "It's not too late for folks to jump in. Who knows what will happen in the future."

Mother Arrested For Tattooing Baby So I’ve seen parents tattoo there child’s name on them that’s a common thing. I have also even seen portraits of their kids face, or even the baby’s footprint tatted on them. But this one definitely caught my attention to the point I had to ask myself ‘Is this chic serious’? A women from Albany, New York – A local New York State resident, Franny Trokerns was arrested early this morning after being turned in by her babysitter. After the babysitter noticed the child was constantly screaming as if the baby was pain she took...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Gov. Jerry Brown railed this morning against politicians who doubt climate change, calling "political lemmings" the chief obstacle in combating global warming. "The main thing we have to deal with in climate change is the skepticism, the denial and the cult-like behavior of the political lemmings that would take us over the cliff," Brown said at a high-profile conference on climate change at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. The Democratic governor said climate change has lengthened the state's fire season and quickened its snowmelt, affecting agriculture and taxing public infrastructure. He acknowledged that Californians...

The United Nations' top climate change official is in San Francisco to join California Gov. Jerry Brown at a conference addressing the costs associated with preparing for the effects of a warming world. [snip] Brown vowed to continue investing in renewable energy and infrastructure projects to protect coastlines from sea-level rise and homes from increased flooding from faster snow melts and longer wildfire seasons. Brown opened the conference by calling for people to wake up to these threats, and called skeptics of global warming a well-funded "cult."

Should we act on climate change now or wait? While an international majority of scientists believes climate change is real, a minority of scientists and majority of politicians want you to wait. After all, behavior change should not be mandated or government regulated - especially without proof. UBS Wealth Management, a financial services company working with high/ultra high net worth clients, published a comprehensive report to its investors in January of 2007 titled "Climate Change: Beyond Whether." Its findings suggest we can follow one of three paths: 1) Take a wait-and-see approach 2) Act now and risk investment if nothing...

Two top U.S. hurricane forecasters, revered like rock stars in Deep South hurricane country, are quitting the practice because it doesn’t work. William Gray and Phil Klotzbach say a look back shows their past 20 years of forecasts had no value. The two scientists from Colorado State University will still discuss different probabilities as hurricane seasons approach — a much more cautious approach. But the shift signals how far humans are, even with supercomputers, from truly knowing what our weather will do next. Gray, recently joined by Klotzbach, has been known for decades for an annual forecast of how many...

FORMER Prime Minister John Howard has launched a controversial book teaching students to be climate change sceptics. Climate change sceptic Ian Plimer's book "How to Get Expelled from School: A Guide to Climate Change for Pupils, Parents and Punters" arms children with 101 questions to challenge their teachers. It has been billed as an "anti-warmist manual for the younger reader". Mr Howard attacked the one-sided teaching of climate change in schools. "People ought to be worried about what their children are being taught at school," he said. "It's a matter of real concern". Prof Plimer said said he had a...

This guy (Headmaster Rob Benzie) has become Scrooge in England, except he doesn’t provide even one lump of coal, because, well that would mess up his “carbon footprint”. This is just too bizarre not to pass on, thanks to The Daily Bayonet who writes: A headmaster at a British school decided a great lesson in sustainability would be to turn off the heat for a day. In December: Pupils at Ansford Academy in Castle Cary, Somerset, were forced to grip their pens through thick gloves and wear their coats and hats in class as temperatures dropped to 1C. The school’s...

Two trailer park residents in Dayton, Ohio are going to be battling this out in court over the next few months. Tattoo artist, Ryan L. Fitzgerald was hit with a $100,000 lawsuit last week by his ex-girlfriend Rossie Brovent. She claims that her boyfriend was supposed to tattoo a scene from Narnia on her back but instead tattooed an image of a pile of excrement with flies buzzing around it. Apparently Ryan found out that she had cheated with a long-time friend of his and this was his way of getting even. Originally Rossie tried to have Ryan charged with...

It seems just like yesterday when a number of manmade Climate Warming scientists were caught fudging figures to benefit their Globalbaloney warming theories. Penn State's Michael Mann (Hockey Stick Graph) was caught two years ago manipulating data, but Penn State President, Graham Spanier, defended Mann's cheating faster than the time it takes Jerry Sandusky to take shower - who was also protected by Spanier. Mann is again in the news as more hacked email, compliments of the Russians, have been released, and may be even more damning than the original email dump from two years ago. In the confiscated emails,...

Climate change was the lesson for Peck School students recently in a program that featured formation of a giant “350.” The number refers to a threshold: Some scientists say people must work to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide from its current level of 392 parts per million in the atmosphere to below 350 parts per million, which is considered the stable and safe upper limit. To cap the climate-change lesson plan in late September, 600 students, teachers and other staff at the school gathered in a field outside the 1916 Northampton St. school. They divided into three groups of...

Many plant and animal species around the world are shrinking, thanks to climate change, National University of Singapore researchers say. Increasing temperatures, they claim, have had far-reaching effects on the body size of organisms from plants to polar bears. Over the last hundred years, animals from toads to deer have started to shrink, they say. The shrinkage can be explained by metabolic changes, they say.

Murió Hugo Chavez

Europeans believe that the dangers of climate change represent a more serious problem than the current financial turmoil, according to a major new poll. The Eurobarometer poll (pdf) found that the majority of the public in the European Union consider global warming to be one of the world's most serious problems, with one-fifth saying it is the single most serious problem. Overall, respondents said climate change was the second most serious issue facing the world, after poverty. Connie Hedegaard, European climate commissioner, said: "This is encouraging news. The survey shows that the citizens of Europe can see that economic challenges...

Dan Rather opened a CBS Evening News broadcast in 1991 by declaring, “One in eight American children is going hungry tonight.” Newsweek, the Associated Press, and the Boston Globe repeated this statistic, and many others joined the media chorus, with or without that unsubstantiated statistic. When the Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Agriculture examined people from a variety of income levels, however, they found no evidence of malnutrition among those in the lowest income brackets. Nor was there any significant difference in the intake of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients from one income level to another. That...