Free Republic

America’s largest water district says declining revenues due to increased water conservation are forcing the agency to significantly raise water rates to remain solvent. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which supplies water for 19 million Americans, is raising its rates 8.5% in 2025 and another 8.5% over baseline levels in 2026. The district’s projections include raising rates an additional 11.5% in 2027 and another 11.5% in 2028 to finance an $8.2 billion water recycling plant that could provide enough annual water for 1.5 million people.

Home to the world’s largest elephant population, Botswana has already gifted 8,000 of the animals to Angola and offered another 500 to Mozambique. For the second time this year, Botswana has threatened to send thousands of elephants to Europe. In March, the southern African nation warned it would fill one of London’s parks with the animals. Now, the president has said his country will send 20,000 elephants to Germany. The warnings have been sparked by a diplomatic row as the UK and Germany mull the idea of stricter limits on the import of hunting trophies amid concerns over poaching. Why...

French screen legend, Brigitte Bardot, was born on the 28th of September, 1934, in Paris. She has, in different ways, and for two very different sets of beings, been a great libertarian all her life. I believe her own words prove that: “I’m a girl from a good family who was very well brought up. One day I turned my back on it all and became a bohemian ……. I have been very happy, very rich, very beautiful, much adulated, very famous and very unhappy ……” “It is sad to grow old but nice to ripen ………. I gave my...

Lest we forget the life soldiers died for, we should establish Green Freedom Parks full of memorial trees to remember and respect those who have served for us. Places where culture, environment and heritage unite as one. As an example, I want the vacant 127 hectare Defence Department Site in Maribyrnong, Australia, and adjacent public lands to become a national park. I predict that fusing environmentalism and military heritage will establish conservatives as the best conservationists. God Bless Freedom God Bless Life

As aggressive excavation and submarine construction of over 1,500 offshore wind-farm turbines continues along the east coast of the United States, whales are likewise stranding, beaching and dying at an alarming and perplexing rate. Almost 200 whales have been found dead since 2016, when the wind-turbine rush began, representing a fourfold annual increase over past years. Seven dead whales have been discovered in New Jersey and New York in the past two months. In southeastern Virginia, in one recent week alone, three whales were found dead, just miles from two operational wind farms. Dying species include humpback whales and the...

Decades-long mantras about “vanishing habitat” and ever-growing threats to wildlife have long been used to justify locking up more land through federal ownership or other restrictive measures. The perfect example is the Biden administration’s proposal to conserve 30% of the nation by 2030—aka “30 by 30.” Exactly what the administration envisions is ambiguous, as it hasn’t defined words like “conserve” and “protect,” although insiders at the Department of the Interior say the 30% language is being incorporated into many Interior Department documents.

Teddy Roosevelt pioneered National Parks. Richard Nixon created the EPA Margaret Thatcher, the holder of a degree in chemistry, was a pioneer in voicing concern over climate change. Arnold Schwarzenegger introduced America's first cap on greenhouse emissions. These were not acts of God but human actions of mostly conservative icons. Conservatives can and should lead the way on stewardship of God's gift to us of Creation.

Farmers around the globe are feeling unfairly targeted and unfortunately, they are right. From the Netherlands to Ireland to Canada, nations are increasingly targeting their respective agriculture sectors under the banner of climate change. Going after farmers could not come at a worse time as the war in Ukraine has triggered an international food shortage, which one United Nations official recently stated is “threatening global hunger on an unprecedented scale.” For example, the Netherlands, while a relatively small country, is the second-largest agricultural exporter in the world, the largest exporter of meat among all EU nations, and the third...

Humankind has a responsibility to exercise good stewardship over this creation. Our world is God's gift to us. So we should look to our greatest minds for inspiration in this task. Thomas Paine is one of those intelligences.

Editor's note: This piece was authored by Jeff Luse.Progressives are so determined to get a win in Congress that they’re willing to gamble on America’s economic future. After failing to garner the support of Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema for his Build Back Better plan, resident Biden is narrowing the scope of his social spending, bringing the total cost down to a (still) astounding $1.75 trillion. To many, $1.75 trillion is too much to spend. But to Democrats, who are convinced that the only way to reverse climate change is by spending our way out of it, this price tag...

Former Nevada Attorney Adam Laxalt is vying to be the 51st Republican Senator should he flip the U.S. Senate seat this November. If Laxalt clinches the Republican nomination, he’ll face incumbent Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), a vulnerable Democrat, in the general election. As of this writing, Cook Political Report rates the Nevada Senate race as a “Toss-Up.” The odds are greatly in his favor given the endorsements he’s raked in and his campaign’s sizable war chest. He has secured endorsements from former President Donald Trump, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO), Senator Tom...

In an effort to discourage wasteful water practices such as hosing off driveways or allowing irrigation water to run down streets, California water officials have imposed new drought rules for cities and towns throughout the state. The regulations, adopted Tuesday by the State Water Resources Control Board, prohibit overwatering yards, washing cars without a shutoff nozzle, hosing down sidewalks or watering grass within 48 hours after rainfall.... Violators could face fines of up to $500.

I recently caught up with Congressman Bruce Westerman (R-AR), the current House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member. If Republicans retake the House in 2022, he’s expected to take the gavel from current chair Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ). Naturally, the avid angler phoned in from the 2021 Bassmaster Classic in Houston, TX, and said the event was a nice change of pace from D.C. “When I was a kid, I thought that was what my calling in life was: I was going to be a professional bass fisherman,” the lone registered forester in Congress recounted in an interview for Townhall.com. During...

Without proper stewardship by all mankind (this means you too, "People's Republic" Of China), pollution and greed can do enormous damage to the precious gift from our God of this glorious creation. Is the Judeo-Christian and Abrahamic intellectual framework of the Western and other traditions enough, or do we also need to go back to earthier pagan ideas?

The state’s plan to build three massive toll roads through rural swaths of Florida were scrapped Tuesday, when the House of Representatives cast the last vote needed to repeal the controversial projects and send the legislation to the governor for final review. But the repeal isn’t exactly a total repeal: The legislation still authorizes new toll roads and highways, including expansion and “road upgrades” along 130 miles of scenic U.S. 19 between Citrus County and I-10 in north Florida, which could impact sensitive parts of Florida. It’s now in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ hands, following the Legislature’s action on 330 miles...

A $48-million contract awarded March 23 to AECOM to study impacts of widening 34 miles of the most rural southern part of the 117.2-mile New Jersey Turnpike has upset state environmental activists who say the project conflicts with the state's push to combat climate change; officials say construction remains at least five years off. The contract is the latest step in the overall $1.1-billion turnpike expansion plan outlined last year that focuses on addin a third lane in each direction to the section stretch between exits 1 and 4 through Camden County. But it also renewed criticism from advocates who...

A torrent of media stories from 2013-2014 presented frightening tales of “unprecedented” colony collapse disorder (CCD) among honeybees, conjuring up visions of a “bee-pocalypse” and “a world without bees,” a world in which flowers and agriculture would be decimated.Many articles blamed neonicotinoid pesticides, while others added climate change and biotech (GMO) crops as likely culprits. Some mentionedVarroa destructor mites and various viruses and diseases as possible causes. Virtually none suggested that organic food industry chemicals could also be implicated in bee deaths. The overall tone was “deep concern,” bordering on hysteria. But it sold papers and air time.Over the next...

It may no longer be enough to protect species like Australia's marsupials from predators – we may have to assist in their evolution if they are to survive the 21st Century. "I spent 15 years removing cats from fenced reserves and national parks," says Katherine Moseby. "And then, all of a sudden, I was putting them back in. It felt very strange to be doing that." ..... "A lot of the focus has been on trying to come up with methods of killing cats better," says Moseby, who holds a PhD in reintroduction biology. "And we sort of started looking...

....Significant changes are also in the works at the Interior Department, where Biden instructed the agency to review three national monuments that were altered during the Trump administration. The review of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante monuments -- where former President Trump reduced the amount of protected land -- and the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monuments, which Trump opened to commercial fishing, is supposed to determine whether it “would be appropriate” to restore the previous “boundaries and conditions.”... ....The Biden administration has also listed dozens of Trump-era environmental rules across several agencies that it plans to review,...

Conservatives conserve what's good. God's gift of life is good. What other basic principles would underpin a conservative environmentalism?