Free Republic

Just one paragraph tucked toward the end of a column. But Judith Warner's words offer a revealing insight into how liberals view economics and the world. In the lefty mindset, making it isn't a matter of doing or making something of value. It comes down instead to contriving to get a piece of the action, a share of the wealth that some undefined other has created in some undescribed way. The gist of Warner's column, Compassion Deficit Disorder, is that Americans have become increasingly cranky and suspicious of how others are gaming the system. She cites Michael Savage's accusations that...

China is preparing to move into Africa on a scale that far outstrips its acquisitions on the continent to date, according to the South African bank that is laying the groundwork.

CONAKRY, July 31 (Reuters) - Guinea and China are discussing a deal which could see billions of dollars of Chinese investment in return for mining rights in the West African country, which has a third of the world's bauxite, a Guinean minister said. A delegation including officials from the Chinese Development Bank recently spent a week in Guinea and is due to discuss a range of investment projects with state and private sector investors back in China, he said. "The first phase has just happened in Guinea. A mission is expected to go to Beijing in the next few months...

China is readying to move into Africa on a scale that far outstrips its acquisitions on the continent to date, according to the South African bank that is laying the groundwork. High-level groups of bankers from Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Standard Bank, respectively China and Africa's biggest banks, are examining potential targets in Africa's oil and gas, telecommunications, base metals and power sectors, executives at the Johannesburg-based lender told the Financial Times.

Buying into 'the petroleum for the next century' ROB CARRICK Friday, June 13, 2008 Looking to jump into an investment in a scarce resource with lots of upside potential? There's a clear case to be made for water. Oil and gas, metals and fertilizers and food are still going strong, while investors have only recently started to talk about water. And yet, water has much the same imbalance between supply and demand as traditional resources. The investment dealer Goldman Sachs recently described water as the “the petroleum for the next century.” Mutual funds and exchange-traded funds focusing on water have...

China consumes more than double what its natural resources can supply... China uses 15 percent of the world's total biological capacity—resources such as water, land and timber... "In the next 10 to 20 years, China's consumption will likely continue to pose threats to China's own ecosystems and place increasing pressures on global biocapacity," Water and electricity are priced below their market value in China, causing it to be inefficiently used ...

A survey of onshore oil and gas resources show public lands contain 31 billion barrels of oil and 231 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, but not all of it is available for development - something the Bush administration would like to change, according to a new report. The so-called Phase III inventory, ordered up as part of the 2005 Energy Policy Act, and released today by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, looks at the potential for energy development, as well as development's obstacles.

The classic definition of socialism is: government control of the sources of production. A bill now before Congress, H.R. 2421, will give the federal government absolute control over all sources of production. This bill, if enacted, will instantly convert the United States into a socialist nation. The debate, however, is not about the merits of socialism over capitalism and free markets; the debate is about water. The bill will give to the federal government control over all water in the United States, and control over all "… activities affecting these waters." Water is essential in the production of virtually everything....

Is this the beginning of water wars? 18:00 11 April 2008 NewScientist.com news service Catherine Brahic As Barcelona runs out of water, Spain has been forced to consider importing water from France by boat. It is the latest example of the growing struggle for water around the world – the "water wars". Barcelona and the surrounding region are suffering the worst drought in decades. There are several possible solutions, including diverting a river, and desalinating water. But the city looks like it will ship water from the French port of Marseilles. The water services authority in Marseille say that no...

Afghanistan is sitting on a wealth of mineral reserves -- perhaps the richest in the region -- that offer hope for a country mired in poverty after decades of war, the mining minister says. Significant deposits of copper, iron, gold, oil and gas, and coal -- as well as precious gems such as emeralds and rubies -- are largely untapped and still being mapped, Mohammad Ibrahim Adel told AFP. And they promise prosperity for one of the world's poorest countries, the minister said, dismissing concerns that a Taliban-led insurgency may thwart efforts to unearth this treasure. Already in the pipeline...

LOS LUNAS, N.Y., Aug. 7 (UPI) -- A waste digester that can separate water from cow manure on a farm in New Mexico is believed to be the first of its kind aimed at restoring clean water. The Raymond L. Jarrett farm, which has 400 cows in Los Lunas, has been awarded $64,686 to treat the cows’ wastewater and reuse it to irrigate fields and recharge aquifers, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported Tuesday. The digester is one eight projects sharing $274,000 in grants from the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service. The other projects include a portable windmill and wireless...

The Western World's dependence on flush toilets could be its environmental downfall. Toilets that use less water, such as the "squat toilet" in which one squats over a hole in the ground, are prevalent in parts of Asia, Europe and Africa, but a new historical study suggests that after decades of flushing, it will take radical innovations for the mainstream West to adopt any new system. "Most people can hardly imagine that other ways of handling human waste have ever existed," said study author Maj-Britt Quitzau, an environmental sociologist with the National Environmental Research Institute of Denmark. "But actually, systems...

I've been in Las Vegas this week for an American Membrane Technology Association desalination conference. I'll leave today for home haunts in Mclean, VA. Flying in on Monday from the east coast the old desert valleys of western Utah and Nevada look like old dead lakes. Come to think of it -- they are old dead lakes. Except there's a blue tangle of finger lakes among the carved brown mountains to the south. These mark Lake Powell and Lake Mead. Man made lakes. Both are now half full. There was a legislative breakfast on Wednesday morning. On the panel for...

HUMANS are just one of the millions of species on Earth, but we use up almost a quarter of the sun's energy captured by plants - the most of any species. The human dominance of this natural resource is affecting other species, reducing the amount of energy available to them by almost 10 per cent, scientists report. Researchers said the findings showed humans were using "a remarkable share" of the earth's plant productivity "to meet the needs and wants of one species". They also warned that the increased use of biofuels - such as ethanol and canola - should be...

Prince Charles launched his 'green revolution' with a stark warning that we are all 'living on borrowed time' if we don't stop eating up the world's resources. In a forthright speech in front of leading figures, including Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Prince said: 'We are consuming the resources of our planet at such a rate that we are, in effect, living off credit and living on borrowed time. 'It is our children and grandchildren who will have to pay off this debt and we owe it to them and ourselves to do something about it before it is too...

PHILADELPHIA – If you think the world is on the verge of running out of oil or other mineral resources, you've been taken in by the foremost of seven myths about resource geology, according to a University of Washington economic geologist. "The most common question I get is, 'When are we going to run out of oil.' The correct response is, 'Never,'" said Eric Cheney. "It might be a heck of a lot more expensive than it is now, but there will always be some oil available at a price, perhaps $10 to $100 a gallon." Changing economics, technological advances...

A closed-door meeting of high-level government and business leaders that discussed the merger of North America was designed to subvert the democratic process, charged an attendee of the confab in Banff, Canada. Mel Hurtig, a noted Canadian author and publisher who was the elected leader of the National Party of Canada, provided WND the agenda and attendee list of the North American Forum at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel in Banff, Alberta, Sept. 12-14. Hurtig said the "secret meeting was designed to undermine the democratic process." "What is sinister about this meeting is that it involved high level government officials...

ST. PETERSBURG -- Using natural resources for geopolitical gain may upset the West, but for the man who was helping shape President Vladimir Putin's energy strategy years before he took office, it's merely common sense. "There was a time when salt was the most important resource in the world. Then it was metal of any kind, then later it became gold," said Vladimir Litvinenko, rector of the St. Petersburg State Mining Institute, in an interview last week in his luxuriously appointed office. "In the specific circumstances the world finds itself in today, the most important resources are hydrocarbons," he said....

Separatist fervour hits northern Ontario Residents would rather be Manitobans Mention secession in Canada, and the mind turns to Quebec, and perhaps the restive western provinces. Now add to that list the inhabitants of the northwestern part of Ontario, in the heart of the country. But rather than yearning to leave Canada, they want to leave their province and join Manitoba next door. If they get their way, Ontario would lose 60 per cent of its area, though just two per cent of its people. The ambivalent loyalty of these Ontarians has deep roots. When Canada became a confederation in...

SAO PAULO, Brazil - The state-owned oil companies of Brazil and Bolivia are expected to clinch a deal soon to build a $1.5 billion petrochemical complex along their border, a top Bolivian official said. The plant would be built in the city of Puerto Suarez next to the Brazilian border in an area known as the Pantanal, the world‘s largest marshlands, said Andres Soliz, Bolivia‘s hydrocarbons minister. Soliz said an official announcement was expected within days. Soliz said the Morales administration also expects to finish renegotiating contracts before June with the multinational companies that have been extracting Bolivian natural gas...

It's long been said by people in Newfoundland and Labrador that, "everyone else thinks they know better than we how things should be done." "Outsiders" have given us reams and reams of unsolicited advice for decades, since long before joining Confederation in fact.

As cold-sufferers draw a tissue to their face this flu season, environmental activists say an ethical nightmare awaits their sneeze: How many trees were killed so they can blow their noses and toss away the contents? Changing America's disposable culture is at the core of a campaign by Greenpeace and the Natural Resources Defense Council to encourage people to use recycled facial and toilet tissue. Yet this campaign differs from the many save-the-Earth efforts that have tried to stir up passionate feelings about threatened caribou in far-flung tundra or an ozone hole invisible to the naked eye. Instead, the "Shop...

If all nations were to use the same services enjoyed in developed nations, even the full extraction of metals from the Earth's crust and extensive recycling may not be enough to meet metal demands in the future, according to a new study. To investigate the environmental and social consequences of metal depletion, researchers looked at metal stocks thought to exist in the Earth, metal in use by people today, and how much is lost in landfills. Using copper stocks in North America as a starting point, the researchers tracked the evolution of copper mining, use and loss during the 20th...

WE are not running out of oil - not yet. "Shortage" is certainly in the air - and in the price. Right now, the oil market is tight, even tighter than it was on the eve of the 1973 oil crisis. In this high-risk market, "surprises" ranging from political instability to hurricanes could send oil prices spiking higher. Moreover, the specter of an energy shortage is not limited to oil. Natural gas supplies are not keeping pace with growing demand. Even supplies of coal, which generates about half of the country's electricity, are constrained at a time when our electric...

Most timber wars between tree-huggers and tree-harvesters occur in Oregon or Washington. But as Sam MacDonald writes in his new book "The Agony of an American Wilderness," environmentalists and loggers are engaged in a fierce and potentially precedent-setting struggle in the Allegheny National Forest in northwestern Pennsylvania. Allegheny National Forest's 513,000 acres had been clear-cut by 1923, when it became a federal forest and was known as the "Allegheny Brush Heap." Over the last 80 years, however, it has been turned into a vast and profitable ocean of black cherry, a hardwood valued for making furniture. It also has more...

Former colonial power Britain is one of the biggest donors among nations that contributed almost $850 million to government coffers in 2003-2004, about 48 percent of Uganda's budget. Since 1987, rich nations have bankrolled Uganda's economic recovery, which has been based on stability, market liberalisation and improved security in a country haunted by bloody memories of the late Idi Amin's dictatorship. Uganda's economy has grown by about 6 percent a year for more than a decade. British budget support is linked to reforms, officials say, including setting up rules for multiparty competition and separating state organs from Museveni's "no-party" Movement...

CANBERRA Tony Moloney needed no convincing to move his family last year to Mount Isa, an Australian mining town 18 hours by car from the nearest big city. His employer, Xstrata, can afford to pay him twice the average national wage at its Mount Isa copper mine as sales to China surge. . "We moved here because the job opportunities were full-on and the town is booming," says Moloney, a father of two who earns 108,000 Australian dollars, or $83,446, a year as a plumber at Xstrata's Mount Isa mining complex. The Moloneys bought a 200,000 dollar house in...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Why the Environmental Protection Agency must be abolished -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: January 21, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com The Environmental Protection Agency must be abolished because it is destroying the rights of Americans, it's another monumental waste of money and America doesn't need it. Like the unconstitutional federal Department of Education which employs almost 4,500 people and will suck up a colossal $63.3 billion dollars for 2005, the EPA with its 18,000 employees, will gobble up $7.76 billion dollars this year. Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution does not authorize Congress to legislate in the...

BILLINGS, Mont., Dec. 29 (AP) - Thirty-one grizzly bears in and around Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana have died this year as a result of human actions, the largest total in any year since grizzlies were listed as a threatened species three decades ago and about double the number killed in 2003. Seven were hit by trains or cars. Ten were killed illegally, often shot and left to die. Thirteen were killed by wildlife officials because they had menaced humans or otherwise become a nuisance. One was killed in self-defense. State and federal wildlife officials attribute the rise in...

German Defense Minister Peter Struck has added a new dimension to the future of the EU's international military engagement. A key aim must be to secure Europe's access to energy and raw materials, he said in Berlin this week. As if that wasn't clear enough, Struck added that Europe's own interests should be the measure for the global deployment of its soldiers. This may come as a surprise to those who still associate Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's Social Democratic-Green coalition with the old slogan “No blood for oil.“ Postwar German military activity has always been wrapped in moral cotton: peacekeeping and...

Russia's gold and oil economic efficiency will be exhausted in 2011, Yury Trutnev, the Minister for Natural Resources stated at a recent session of the Russian government. The minister noted that the time when the reserves of certain kinds of mineral wealth would be exhausted in Russia was drawing near. Trutnev specified that the resources of crude, uranium, copper and gold would end in the country already in 2015.

Wake Up Call!! Memories of the days when trees were thinned from national forests are not that distant. We have witnessed the destruction of the timber industry and the results of forests grown thick with timber and dieing from beetle infestations and forest fires. I have pasted some information below for your review. The Timber industry has been desecrated and now the ranchers and livestock producers are in jeopardy of suffering the same fate. Will you stand with your fellow citizens and support their freedom and the right to a free market? Will you help them address problems created by...

<p>When citizens in Vallejo mobilized to reject a terminal for import of liquefied natural gas last year, they joined a tidal wave of local opposition to these plants. Similar citizen movements in Tijuana, Harpswell, Maine, and Eureka have sent the LNG industry running for cover, all within the last few weeks.</p>

SEATTLE (AP) - The Bush administration on Tuesday eased restrictions on logging old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest, completing a rules change that will allow forest managers to begin logging without first looking for rare plants and animals. Instead, the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management will rely on information provided by Washington, Oregon and California to decide whether to allow logging, controlled forest fires, and trail- or campground-building, agency spokesman Rex Holloway said. Environmentalists decried the change, saying it would double logging on federal land in the region and have disastrous consequences for rare species. Regna...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. ANCHORAGE--Possible plans to reorganize the School of Mineral Engineering at the University of Alaska Fairbanks is causing heartburn among people in the state mining industry. UAF officials are considering the consolidation of all six engineering disciplines into a new department, university officials said. That possibility raised the ire of the Alaska Miners Association. "We see elimination of the School of Mineral Engineering as a huge slap in the face," wrote executive director Steve Borell in a letter to university President Mark Hamilton. "A decision to eliminate the School of Mineral Engineering...

Saturday, November 29, 2003 Energy Measure Tested Domenici By Michael ColemanJournal Washington Bureau    WASHINGTON— A few hours after Sen. Pete Domenici watched his energy bill crash and burn on the Senate floor last week, he slipped out of the Capitol and took his wife, Nancy, to dinner.     They went to a quiet restaurant near their Capitol Hill home and discussed what had gone wrong.     They had a lot to talk about.     Just four days earlier, on Nov. 18, the House had passed the national energy policy legislation overwhelmingly and sent it over to the Senate. It appeared...

LONDON (AP) - Iraq plans to invite executives from as many as 60 foreign oil companies to a Baghdad conference to discuss ways of developing the country's vast oil resources, the first event of its kind since the ouster of Saddam Hussein. The meeting, scheduled for December, would be "a brainstorming session" for companies hungry for investment opportunities and for Iraqi oil officials eager to acquaint themselves with key players and technologies long denied them under U.N. sanctions, the event's organizer, Paul Bristol, said Thursday. The Iraqi Oil Ministry has hired Bristol, an independent, London-based oil consultant, to arrange the...

Can you hear the sucking sound of Big Business extracting millions of gallons of water from our lake? To the residents of Mecosta County and the surrounding areas in central Michigan, water is a ubiquitous backdrop. They fish for trout and watch ospreys and eagles feeding in the streams. They spend warm days by the ponds and small lakes that dot the woodlands. And of course the Great Lakes, which hold a fifth of the world's fresh water, are a constant presence. So when a huge multinational bottled water company decided to move in and start pumping more than half...

<p>APOLLO BEACH, Florida (AP) -- The Tampa Bay area's burgeoning population of nearly 2 million people is tapping a new source for its drinking water -- salty Tampa Bay itself.</p> <p>The nation's first sea water desalination plant built to serve as a primary source of drinking water is providing water to Tampa, St. Petersburg, New Port Richey and surrounding cities.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON(AP) - Richard Pombo was in just his third year in Congress when the new Republican leadership looked past more experienced lawmakers and handed him the task of rewriting the law to protect endangered species.</p> <p>Now, after 10 years in office, the 42-year-old Republican from Tracy, Calif., is taking over a job usually reserved for a more seasoned lawmaker, chairmanship of the House Resources Committee. The panel oversees 700 million acres of public land, including national parks and forests, energy development, federal waterways and American Indian issues.</p>

Despite long odds,Cubin runs for committee head By Allison Fashek Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle CHEYENNE – Rep. Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo., will meet with a group of 28 members of the House of Representatives in the Capitol this afternoon to present her vision for the chairmanship of the congressional Resources Committee. If she is named chairwoman in Wednesday’s vote, Cubin said she would work to revive energy policies, take a closer look at mining laws that need to be reauthorized and, most important, bring with her the knowledge of what it’s like to live in a state with a federal...

Cougar sightings go beyond the zoo By Jill Dobson, News 3 Reporter (NEWS 3) - Are wild cougars on the prowl in Michigan? Cougars have been blamed for a recent attack on farm animals in Kalkaska County. Most people have only seen cougars roaming in the zoo. But researchers at Michigan Wildlife Habitat Foundation say they've had reported sightings including in areas near Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, Holland, Three Rivers and Cassopolis. Researchers say cougars prey on four-legged animals, and are highly unlikely to attack humans. Emmett Township resident Cyndy Ackley says she and her daughter were shocked to see a...

Thursday, July 11, 2002 10:00 a.m. 1334 Longworth House Office Building  (Walter B. Jones Hearing Room, Live Audio Available.)Subcommittee on Forests and Forest HealthOversight Hearing on: Wildfire on the National Forest: An update on the 2002 Wildland Fire Season. Does anybody have an "inside ear" As to who and what all was said in todays meet? I tried the audio and receive nothing on my computer.Todays meet may have far-reaching effects on the west in ALL NATURAL RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT AND ACTIVITY and our futures.