Free Republic

Yes, kids, science is a wonderful thing. But not nearly as wonderful as climate modeling, which can perform supernatural miracles. Honest! Climate modeling can raise the level of the oceans (even without Obama's intervention), it can burn up the planet a hundred years from now, and Shazzam! -- the models can save us again -- all without leaving your video games, and without the benefit of the real-world data that you need for boring old regular science. At least, that's what Nature -- the oldest science journal in the world, going back to Isaac Newton -- now claims. According to...

A federal ban on ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), to conform to the Clean Air Act, is, ironically, affecting 22.9 million people in the United States who suffer from asthma, says Scientific American. Generic inhaled albuterol -- the most commonly prescribed short-acting asthma medication that requires CFCs to propel it into the lungs -- will no longer be legally sold after December 21, 2008. As more patients see their prescriptions change and costs go up -- the reformulated brand-name alternatives can be three times as expensive, raising the cost to about $40 per inhaler -- many question why this ban must begin...

Large amounts of ozone -- around 50% more than predicted by the world's state-of-the-art climate models -- are being destroyed in the lower atmosphere over the tropical Atlantic Ocean. This startling discovery was made by a team of scientists from the UK's National Centre for Atmospheric Science and Universities of York and Leeds. It has particular significance because ozone in the lower atmosphere acts as a greenhouse gas and its destruction also leads to the removal of the third most abundant greenhouse gas; methane. The findings come after analysing the first year of measurements from the new Cape Verde Atmospheric...

hello i just try to log in to my firefox and didn't have no results can u help me with that theres no way i can opend my firefox and before i could opend and now i can't is there any way u can help

June 21, 2008 Over the past several days, I have gone through several emotions, confusion, disgust, disappointment, and finally anger. At first my confusion and disgust were aimed at the arrogance of our State Legislature. Now, I find anger has overtaken my disappointment for my Governor, Bobby Jindal. My anger also extends to the national media, which includes the press and conservative radio talk show host that have long touted the “savior of the Republican party’s future.” Since Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana has made the national news and exposed the corrupt and inept leadership in Baton Rouge. The impression the rest...

Two refrigeration engineers have been convicted by a New Zealand court for depleting the ozone layer. The country's Ministry for Economic Development prosecuted the two men in the first ever case taken under a 1996 law protecting the ozone layer.

FRIDAY, May 30 (HealthDay News) -- Asthma inhalers that contain the drug albuterol to relax the airways also contain chemicals that harm the ozone layer. And these inhalers won't be available after this year, so U.S. health officials are urging patients to switch to alternative inhalers now. Chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, are widely used to propel inhaled drugs into the lungs. However, products containing CFCs are being phased out, because the chemicals damage the Earth's protective ozone layer. CFC inhalers are being replaced by inhalers powered by HFAs, or hydrofluoroalkanes, which are ozone-friendly. The change to HFA-powered inhalers has been in...

While carbon dioxide has been getting lots of publicity in climate change, reactive forms of nitrogen are also building up in the environment, scientists warn. "The public does not yet know much about nitrogen, but in many ways it is as big an issue as carbon, and due to the interactions of nitrogen and carbon, makes the challenge of providing food and energy to the world's peoples without harming the global environment a tremendous challenge," University of Virginia environmental sciences professor James Galloway said in a statement. "We are accumulating reactive nitrogen in the environment at alarming rates, and this...

Enlarge ImageOut of the frying pan.Studies show that pumping sulfur into the atmosphere could seriously damage the ozone layer.Credit: Ross J. Salawitch [via Science] The ozone layer protects all life on Earth, but it's frustrating scientists' attempts to curb global warming. Take geoengineering: Researchers have proposed that injecting sulfur particles into the stratosphere might counter the effects of greenhouse gas buildup, but a new study suggests that the approach could thin the planet's already fragile ozone layer. Leaving the ozone layer alone comes with its own risks, however. A second study warns that the gradual recovery of the Antarctic...

"Unfortunately, the recovery of the ozone hole has a dark side: The return of a thin, suspended blanket of stratospheric ozone will raise temperatures over the southern polar region, according to a new study by scientists at the University of Colorado at Boulder, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The scientists, who relied on a NASA computer model for their predictions, also report that the healing of the hole will weaken winds that currently shield the Antarctic interior from warmer air masses to the north. Antarctica may not be the only continent affected: The...

Limited nuclear war would decimate ozone layer 22:00 07 April 2008 NewScientist.com news service Catherine Brahic Apart from the human devastation, a small-scale nuclear war between India and Pakistan would destroy much of the ozone layer, leaving the DNA of humans and other organisms at risk of damage from the Sun's rays, say researchers. Michael Mills of the University of Colorado at Boulder, US, and colleagues used computer models to study how 100 Hiroshima-sized bombs would affect the atmosphere. They say that their scenario – in which each country launches 50 devices of 15 kilotons – is realistic, given the...

WASHINGTON - Big industries are waging an intense lobbying effort to block new, tougher limits on air pollution that is blamed for hundreds of heart attacks, deaths and cases of asthma, bronchitis and other breathing problems. The Environmental Protection Agency is to decide within weeks whether to reduce the allowable amount of ozone — commonly referred to as smog — in the air. A tougher standard would require hundreds of counties across the country to find new ways to reduce smog-causing emissions of nitrogen oxides and chemical compounds from tailpipes and smokestacks. Groups representing manufacturers, automakers, electric utilities, grocers and...

Deadly Ozone From Drive-Thru ManiaBy Kellie Hastings Edmonton's drive-thrus contribute 750 tons of Green House Gases into the atmosphere in one month alone. In one year that's 9000 tons from one city! Is it possible that the time has come for us to re-evaluate the importance of what we're actually breathing in here? Should we re-consider the consequences of this unnecessary convenience just to eliminate that simple walk? This alarming discovery was given immediate attention by CTV news and revealing these startling estimated statistics May 30 2007 the source came from the University of Calgary. Their research was based on...

Another tactic that didn't work is illegal immigration. Before Election Day both sides talked it up. ...“I am tough on illegal immigration,” Dr. Mike Breiner said during a WSLS interview. The day before the election Virginia GOP Party Chair John Hager said, “Illegal immigration and our plan to deal with that seems to have had a lot of impact, particularly in Northern Virginia.” But, that didn't pan out when people actually started casting votes. “It probably kept some races closer in nova, but it was not the magic bullet that republicans thought it was going to be to save any...

WASHINGTON - The Antarctic ozone hole is back to an average size, shrinking about 16 percent from last year's record high, NASA said Friday. But it's still the size of North America. The ozone hole in mid-September reached a maximum size of 9.7 million square miles, down from its peak of 11.5 million square miles last year, said NASA atmospheric scientist Paul Newman. Human produced gases, containing chlorine and bromine, damage the Earth's protective ozone layer, forming a hole over the South Pole and into the Southern hemisphere. Because the ozone layer protects life on Earth by blocking ultraviolet rays,...

On February 6th 2008, Americans will turn on their televisions, open up newspapers, and/or turn on the radio to discover that their choices for the 2008 election will be Hillary Clinton and Rudolph Giuliani. A few hours later, James Dobson or Randy Thomasson of “Focus on the Family,” and “Save California,” respectively will announce their plan to run for president, under the Christian Freedom Party, or the so-called Constitution party. Social Conservatives and Liberals alike will orgasm simultaneously at the moment of this event. Come November 8th 2008 Hillary will win the election, with 46% of the popular vote, Giuliani...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: From Houston up first, this is Shannon, and welcome to the EIB Network. Hello. CALLER: Sweet southern mega dittos from a longtime listener, Rush. I've been listening to you since 1989, and I'm really proud to talk to you. RUSH: Thank you very much, sir. CALLER: I wanted to talk to you really quick about the "hole" in the ozone layer theory and manmade global warming and all of that. My dad works for the national scientific balloon facility in Palestine, Texas, and they are the folks that send down the weather balloons to Antarctica and do...

European Space Agency Date: October 4, 2007 2007 Ozone Hole 'Smaller Than Usual' Science Daily — The ozone hole over Antarctica has shrunk 30 percent as compared to last year's record size. According to measurements made by ESA’s Envisat satellite, this year’s ozone loss peaked at 27.7 million tonnes, compared to the 2006 record ozone loss of 40 million tonnes. Ozone hole over Antarctica measured in September 2007 by Envisat. The ozone loss in 2007 peaked at 27.7 million tonnes, compared to the 2006 record ozone loss of 40 million tonnes. (Credit: KNMI - ESA) Ozone loss is derived by...

QUESTION: Does anybody here on FR have a subscription at NATURE.COM? I have been furiously trying to find the article: "Chemists poke holes in ozone theory" that RUSH referenced on his show today about the OZONE depletions may NOT be caused by CFC's after all! Every Google link I find is tied back to NATURE.COM and no excerpts are found.............. If you have a NATURE.COM subscription, please post the article, if possible......

Delegates from 190 countries plus the European Commission have agreed to accelerate the freeze and phase-out of hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), chemicals that were used to replace the more ozone-damaging chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). The decision, made at the 19th Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol, follows mounting evidence that HCFCs contribute to global warming. The agreement freezes production of HCFCs in 2013 at the average production levels in 2009-2010 and brings forward the final phase-out date by ten years. Developed countries will reduce production and consumption by 75% by 2010 and by 90% by 2015—final phase out is in 2020. Developing...

Thin blue line. Earth's protective ozone layer is still hurting, but measurements of hydrogen chloride in the atmosphere (bottom, years 1970-2007) show a decline in levels of one destructive chemical.Credit: (Top) NASA/GSFC/SVC; (Bottom) L. Wallace and W. C. Livingston, Geophysical Research Letters, 34 (17 August 2007)The nations of the world might be deadlocked over what to do about greenhouse gases, but one important agreement reached 20 years ago seems to have produced tangible benefits for the atmosphere and Earth's inhabitants. Researchers tracking one of the chemicals that is most destructive to the ozone layer have found that its levels...

Kyoto's carbon-credit system subverted via cheating: Chemical producers in Kyoto "poor countries," seeking to double their salable CO2 credit allotments, are scamming the UN's Kyoto carbon credit system. In addition to this intentional cheating, the byproducts are ozone-depleting chemicals, counter-productive to Montreal Protocol's goal to preserve ozone layer. By intentionally exploiting loopholes in the credit allotment scheme to combat certain refrigerants classified as greenhouse gases, chemical firms in Kyoto "poor nations" get paid to destroy the very chemicals they're intentionally manufacturing in their clever shell game. Kyoto can be seen as a scheme that has inadvertently accelerated globalization. With carbon-credit...

Page 46, July 30, 2007 Issue of Star Magazine has a picture of Lindsay Lohan sitting on what looks to be a tall bar stool. Her legs straddle that stool and its legs. The lightening is low. The magazine states that it is Lindsay at the Pussycat Dolls in Las Vegas at the PURE night club on July 14th. What they failed to see..............

i HAVE A MULTIPLE CHOKE SHOTGUN. I WOULD LIKE TO SHOOT 3 INCH OO BUCKSHOT. WHAT CHOKE SHOULD I USE

<p>I recently found this video blog posted by independent film maker and independent art advocate, Lloyd Kaufman. He addresses the recent Hilary Clinton parody video that gained momentory media attention. Although the attention it originally got was positive, Kaufman's attention is certainly not. What do you all think? Are his claims warranted and are his concerns legitimated?</p>

Has anyone else noticed he has been saying horrible things about Ann Coulter, for example he said she is screwing up the country and so forth. I don't know about y'all but I won't be buying any of his books.

"thanks to the Bush administration's new standards, our military's collective IQ may not be above 100"

How can I buy a gun for protection in California? what are the steps? please help! I know nothing ... it would be great if you could also advise the model you would recommend too. thank you

The largest solar flare in the last 500 years may have shredded Earth's ozone layer to a greater extent than human-made chemicals have in recent decades, new research suggests, but the effect was only temporary. If such a flare occurred today, it would likely be even more damaging to the ozone and could increase the rate of skin cancer around the world. On 1 September 1859, the Sun expelled huge quantities of high-energy protons in a 'superflare'. The event was seen on Earth by an observer who noticed a white spot on the Sun suddenly brighten for about five minutes....

"And the idea was, the shark comes to the nearest man, that man, he starts poundin' and hollerin' and screamin', sometime's the shark goes away, sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometime's that shark, he looks right into ya, right into your eyes. And another thing about that shark. He's got lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, he doesn't seem to be livin'. Until he bites you." Quint from Jaws

KINGSPORT, Tenn. Motorists are warned to watch their speed on Interstate 81 after they cross into northeast Tennessee. The speed limit has dropped there, starting today. The Tennessee Department of Transportation is posting new lower speed limit signs. The speed limit for truckers will drop from 70-to-55 miles per hour. The new speed limit for everyone else will be 65 miles per hour. The reductions will affect more than 22 miles on I-81 and 12-and-a-half miles on I-26, from the Tennessee-Virginia border to the Sullivan-Washington county line. Local officials requested the change to help bring the county into line with...

Elected officials, business leaders and environmental watchdogs, invited by the editorial board, recently met at The Dallas Morning News to discuss clean air issues. This is the first of three excerpted transcripts from the roundtable. The speakers quoted: Colleen McCain Nelson, editorial writer; Margaret Keliher, Dallas County judge through 2006; Richard Greene, regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency; Tom "Smitty" Smith, director of Public Citizen's Texas office; Jim Schermbeck, Downwinders at Risk board member; Todd Campbell, director of public policy for Clean Energy and mayor of Burbank, Calif.; Al Armendariz, assistant professor, SMU School of Engineering; Robert Cluck, Arlington...

I found this unbelievable. Even with all this snow, mean temperatures in Denver, CO are not lower than usual. Fascinating.

You can be prayed into heaven if you're not a mormon, but if you are a morman you take the chance of going to hell. Why would you be a mormon?

David Hofman and Susan Solomon, two scientists who had helped alert the world to the existence of a menacing hole in the stratospheric ozone layer above Antarctica, recently reported that this worrisome feature of the atmosphere appears to have stopped widening. After the hole was discovered in 1986, international agreements were reached to end the use of ozone-depleting chemicals (chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs), and these measures may allow the hole to "heal" completely sometime over the next century.

Volcanic eruptions destroy ozone and create 'mini-ozone holes', according to two new studies by researchers at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford. The new research, spearheaded by Dr Genevieve Millard at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, discovered that volcanic gases released during eruptions accelerate reactions that lead to ozone destruction. The researchers found that even relatively small volcanic eruptions can destroy ozone and create localised 'holes' in the stratosphere. Previously, scientists had concentrated on the climatic effects of the tiny particles of volcanic sulphate created from the sulphur dioxide gas emitted during an eruption. For the first...

NASA and NOAA scientists report this year's ozone hole in the polar region of the Southern Hemisphere has broken records for area and depth. The ozone layer acts to protect life on Earth by blocking harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun. The "ozone hole" is a severe depletion of the ozone layer high above Antarctica. It is primarily caused by human-produced compounds that release chlorine and bromine gases in the stratosphere... "From September 21 to 30, the average area of the ozone hole was the largest ever observed, at 10.6 million square miles," said Paul Newman, atmospheric scientist at NASA's...

"That hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica is back -- and bigger than ever, scientists said Wednesday. Not to worry. The environmental nightmare of the '80s, which once seemed intent on killing every living thing on the planet, has become a toothless blowhard these days, expected to shrink to virtually nothing in a mere six decades." "Scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, Colo., who issued the latest measurements, said the ozone hole expanded this year mainly because of an extended cold spell at the South...

PARIS (Reuters) - A satellite has detected record losses of ozone over Antarctica this year, the European Space Agency (ESA) said on Monday, further damaging the shield that protects the Earth from cancer-causing ultraviolet rays. In the past decade, the level of ozone in the Earth's atmosphere has fallen by about 0.3 percent, increasing the risk of skin cancer, cataracts and harm to marine life, ESA added. The presence of a hole in the ozone layer over the Antarctic was first recognized in 1985. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said earlier this month that the hole was nearing its record...

I am a conservative Republican, and due to circumstances, I currently recieve SSI, AFDC, and food stamps. I voted for Bush twice and would do so again as he really is a compassionate conservative. Have any other conservatives here ever received government benefits?

Socialism is best because under socialism. No one has to worry about being poor or starving to death. No one is poor, unemployed, discriminated, everyone is equal reguardless or race or creed. Today such ideas are condemned as evil. Any attempt to protest against slavery and genocide and human rights violations are met with the cries of COMMUNISM! By the religious right and then they conjure up stories about Stalin, Gulags, tortue, police state etc. So therefore we must stick with the current system of sweat shop slavery, poverty and racism while rich people who already have all they will...

Cool your home, warm the planet. When more than two dozen countries undertook in 1989 to fix the ozone hole over Antarctica, they began replacing chloroflourocarbons in refrigerators, air conditioners and hair spray. But they had little idea that using other gases that contain chlorine or fluorine instead also would contribute greatly to global warming. CFCs destroy ozone, the atmospheric layer that helps protect against the sun's most harmful rays, and trap the earth's heat, contributing to a rise in average surface temperatures. In theory, the ban should have helped both problems. But the countries that first signed the Montreal...

Reading A Greener Faith: Religious Environmentalism and Our Planet's Future (Oxford University Press, 2006, 288pp.) reminds one of the advocates of civil religion: it’s important that Americans believe in God, whichever one they choose. Roger S. Gottlieb, a philosophy professor, wants believers to be green, and Greens to be believers, whichever God they choose. The book offers a read that is simultaneously entertaining and surreal. Perhaps no surprise, Gottlieb is suffused with all of the usual liberal nostrums. The environment is under catastrophic attack; capitalism is environmentally destructive; globalization wreaks havoc around the world; only draconian regulatory mandates can save...

The most visible male homosexual lobbyist in the Massachusetts State House has been arrested for soliciting oral sex from college students at the University of Massachusetts, according to newspaper reports. William Conley works for the Massachusetts Gay & Lesbian Political Caucus and has been the point man for coordinating legislative support for funding homosexual programs (including the new "Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth") in the public schools, as well as same-sex "marriage", repeal of the sodomy laws, and other homosexual-related legislation.Conley has been a member of the "Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth", and has now become a...

At New York's Kennedy airport today, an individual later discovered to be a public school teacher, was arrested trying to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a setsquare, a slide rule, and a calculator. At a morning press conference, Attorney General Gonzales said he believes the man is a member of the notorious al-gebra movement. He is being charged by the FBI with carrying weapons of math instruction. "Al-gebra is a fearsome cult," Gonzales said. "They desire average solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on tangents in a search of absolute value....

Social Conservatism Posted 8/1/06 (By Travis)Social Conservatism8/1/06 Neoperspectives.com In principle, Conservatives and Libertarians see eye to eye in regards to economic freedom. They believe that individual Americans will collectively spend their own money much more efficiently and benefit society more than government spending. They believe burdensome regulations limit prosperity and harms business. They understand the harmfulness of socialized health care and retirement schemes.      However, there seem to be differences in scope between the two ideologies. Conservatives don't seem to have the same degree of, for lack of a better word, anti-governmentism. They don't seem to realize the degree which government...

Michael Moore says he is even more popular these days and Repbulicans come up to hug him. Even if you could fit your arms around him, would you want to hug this guy?

As someone who was (unfairly?) zotted oh so many moons ago because as a n00b I didn't understand the point to which some mods didn't understand sarcasm, I would like to put forward the (perhaps heretical) notion that we shouldn't be quite so quick on the zot. Recently, a FReeper put forward the notion of a "probationary period" before being allowed to post. I would argue that as long as the posts are rated "PG" (I understand that this is a family chat board) we should allow ALL viewpoints to be presented here. There are a couple of good reasons:...

Sick of people ripping on Smoke

I am sorry for my first thread to be a vanity. I have lurked so long here and have enjoyed the give and take. I just graduated HS, and I know I am not as learned as most of you out there but I have a question...... Why not just open up to NK? The worst possible thing that douche would want is open borders. Let ustrade, and our allies trade with NK and then the people there will see what the truth is and rise up. I knoe this seems over simplified, but this nut in NK scares me.