Free Republic

Washington (AFP) - Climate change and sea level rise are threatening historic US landmarks, from the Statue of Liberty to NASA's coastal rocket launch sites, and the nation needs to prepare, scientists said. "The range and scale of impacts are alarming," said the report by the Union of Concerned Scientists that listed more than two dozen landmarks endangered by wildfires, coastal erosion and flooding -- events scientists say are being made worse by global warming. They include the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island in New York Harbor, which was the entry point for 14 million immigrants from 1886 to...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. veterans criticized President Barack Obama's lengthy review of Afghan war strategy, saying on Thursday the drawn-out debate in Washington was a direct threat to troops and the nation's defense. The head of Veterans of Foreign Wars, a group representing 1.5 million former soldiers, issued a tersely worded statement urging Obama to follow the advice of his military commanders, who want more troops for the eight-year war. "The extremists are sensing weakness and indecision within the U.S. government, which plays into their hands," said Thomas J. Tradewell Sr., a Vietnam veteran and head of VFW. This was...

Global warming could rob the U.S. economy of $1.4 billion a year in lost corn production alone, a national environmental group estimated in a report released Thursday. The Environment America study, based on government and university data, projects that warming temperatures will reduce yields of the nation's biggest crop by 3% in the Midwest and the South compared with projected yields without further global warming. Iowa would be hit hardest, losing $259 million a year in corn revenues, followed by Illinois at $243 million. California, which leads the country in agriculture but doesn't grow much corn, would take an estimated...

Beijing smog endangers Olympic countdown By Richard Spencer in Beijing Last Updated: 1:56am BST 08/08/2007 Athletes competing at next year's Olympic Games in Beijing were told yesterday to avoid the city until the last moment because of its notorious smog, and once there to eat only in the Olympic village. The IOC's John Coates said that Beijing's pollution was a 'prevailing worry' The warning, from the head of Australia's Olympic Committee, is an unwelcome shock to the organisers of the Games, which begin a year today. John Coates, who is also a member of the International Olympic Committee, said that...