Free Republic

FOREST CITY, N.C. (WSPA) — Police are warning the public after finding razor blades on gas pump handles in Forest City, North Carolina and surrounding areas. The Forest City Police Department said they have located multiple instances of razor blades being placed in gas pump handles. Lt. Brandon Rothrock said the blades These incidents are under investigation by the Department of Agriculture. “[The inspector] made us aware. … He said that he was checking some yesterday and found some in Ellenboro at a Roco Station,” said Rothrock. “So, that led him to check some of our local stations, and he...

Brace yourself for inflation where you least expect itin Pennsylvania’s bathrooms. That was the conclusion state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe came to Monday while chairing a hearing of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, which heard testimony about the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) plan to revise requirements for its Biosolids Beneficial Use General Permit. This is a permit for anyone who deals in the land application of biosolids— livestock manure on farms, and the stuff you flush in the bathroom that ends up in a septic tank or a wastewater treatment facility. Biosolids can be used in mine...

On Jan. 24, 2017, PBS aired a two-hour special on Rachel Carson, the mother of the environmental movement. Although the program crossed the line from biography to hagiography, in Carson’s case, the unbridled praise was well deserved – with one exception. Rachel Carson was an American hero. In the early 1960s, she was the first to warn that a pesticide called DDT could accumulate in the environment, the first to show that it could harm fish, birds, and other wildlife, the first to warn that its overuse would render it ineffective, and the first to predict that more natural means...

Joseph Mahmoud Dibee, 50, was arrested by the FBI and booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center at 4:53 p.m. Thursday. He's been wanted for 12 years, after he was indicted in 2006 on charges of arson, conspiracy and animal enterprise terrorism. In 2008, he was believed to have been living in Syria with family members, and federal officials announced a $50,000 reward for his arrest. (FBI) A fugitive sought for more than a decade and accused of taking part in a string of eco-sabotage attacks across the West is in custody in Portland and was to make his...

...Nobody can doubt that virtually all of the president's political enemies would vehemently defend themselves against a charge of racism. Virtually all of them observe the forms and taboos of political correctness. If any very visible one of their own should insult the president by a recognized racial slur, they would all join in the predictable outrage. But the paramount fact of this moment in the history of racism is that you don't have to denominate the president by a recognized racial slur when his very name can be used as a synonym. This subtilized racism is not only a...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says the Group of Seven wealthy democracies have agreed that the world should phase out the use of fossil fuels by the end of this century. Merkel said Monday that the G-7 leaders committed themselves to the need to “decarbonize the global economy in the course of this century.” That is a technical term for ending the use of oil, gas and coal – but not nuclear power – and replacing them with alternative sources of energy such as wind and solar power.

A drought from 2006 to 2010 was among the triggers for the current uprising in Syria, according to a new study. And climate models and the observational record suggest that the drought was amplified by a century-long, human-forced warming and drying trend.

Forest Service says it's mouse habitatThe Obama administration’s crackdown on Western land use has sparked a furor over the Forest Service’s decision to fence off a creek used by thirsty cattle in drought-stricken Otero County, New Mexico. The Otero County Commission is scheduled to meet Monday to discuss whether to order the sheriff to open the gates against the wishes of Forest Service officials, who have argued that the fence is needed to protect the Agua Chiquita riparian area and habitat for the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse. Otero County Sheriff Benny House said he worries that the increasingly tense...

Predicting the weather -- especially a decade or more in advance -- is unbelievably challenging. What's the track record of those most worried about global warming? Decades ago, what did prominent scientists think the environment would be like in 2010? 1. Within a few years "children just aren't going to know what snow is." Snowfall will be "a very rare and exciting event." 2. "[By] 1995, the greenhouse effect would be desolating the heartlands of North America and Eurasia with horrific drought, causing crop failures and food riots…[By 1996] The Platte River of Nebraska would be dry, while a continent-wide...

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina is joining a growing number of states exploring new fees for hybrid and electric car owners to help make up for revenue those drivers aren’t paying in gas taxes on their fuel-efficient vehicles.

SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah man who infiltrated a sale of federal energy leases in December 2008 to protest U.S. policies about climate change was found guilty by a jury Thursday of disrupting a government auction and faces up to 10 years in prison. The defendant, Tim DeChristopher, 29, became a folk hero to some in the environmentalist movement for taking action against the leases, which provoked protests and demonstrations in the closing days of the administration of President George W. Bush because of the perceived risk to sensitive lands in southern Utah. In his four-day trial in federal...

What causes of autism? Researchers have blamed vaccines, hereditary factors, and certain heavy metals. And now they're adding another suspect to the list: Air pollution. That's right. A new study shows that children in families who live near freeways are twice as likely to have autism as kids who live off the beaten path. Researchers in Los Angeles looked at 304 children with autism and 259 normally developing children and found that those whose moms were living within 1,000 feet of a freeway when they gave birth had a increased risk for autism. The study was published online in...

The event is dubbed "Breakfast of Champions" by Washington Conservation Voters, but a lot of the talk Thursday was of chumps -- lawmakers blocking good deeds in this Washington, and polluters poised for power in D.C. A scorecard highlights "Green Duds" in Olympia, legislators those who thwarted a modest tax on petroleum products, to be earmarked to cutdown stormwater runoff of toxics into Puget Sound.

Nowhere in the Maldives juts more than 10 feet above the Indian Ocean, making it extremely worried about sea level rise. Its president, Mohamed Nasheed, illustrated the point by holding a cabinet meeting under water in the run-up to last year's Copenhagen summit. But a new study shows that global warming is not the only cause of swelling seas. Much comes from "water mining" – the pumping of vast amounts of groundwater from beneath the earth, mainly to irrigate crops. This inevitably ends up in the oceans after it evaporates from farmland and comes down as rain.

An environmentalist was "thoroughly embarrassed" after he caught, cooked and ate a rare crayfish. Christopher Hemsley, 41, claimed he thought he was netting the non-native signal crayfish, which is not protected. South Lakeland magistrates fined Hemsley, from Leeds, £4,000 yesterday.

From seabeds to mountaintops, people around the world were staging a day of demonstrations Saturday to call for urgent action on climate change. The events were being coordinated by a group called 350.org, whose name refers to the parts per million of carbon dioxide it considers the safe upper limit for our atmosphere. The group said it wants to "inspire the world to rise to the challenge of the climate crisis" ahead of the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December. Divers at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and in the ocean off the Maldives...

The Arctic Ocean is becoming acidic so quickly that it will reach corrosive levels within 10 years, a leading scientist has warned. Waters around the North Pole are absorbing carbon dioxide at such a rate that they will soon start dissolving the shells of living sea creatures. The potentially disastrous consequences for the food chain have been highlighted by Professor Jean-Pierre Gattuso of the National Centre for Scientific Research in France. His team of oceanographers have produced startling predictions about the acidity of the Arctic Ocean after research carried out on the Svalbard archipelago, a group of islands half way...

President Obama's energy adviser has suggested all the world's roofs should be painted white as part of efforts to slow global warming. Professor Steven Chu, the US Energy Secretary, said the unusual proposal would mean homes in hot countries would save energy and money on air conditioning by deflecting the sun's rays. More pale surfaces could also slow global warming by reflecting heat into space rather than allowing it to be absorbed by dark surfaces where it is trapped by greenhouse gases and increases temperatures. In a wide-ranging discussion at the three-day Nobel laureate Symposium in London, the Professor...

Claire Garden has lived a modest life. She once resided on a Kansas homestead that was off the grid. There, she lived in a house built of recycled materials and raised organic vegetables. Now, at 71, Garden is thinking about the end of her life and her desire to leave a minuscule footprint on this planet continues to dictate her choices. She wants to be buried on her property in Columbia, Mo., not in a casket, but a canvas shroud, like the one used to bury the character Nate in the television show "Six Feet Under." "I would happily give...

Los Angeles cameraman Dave Chameides reduces his environmental footprint by keeping his garbage for a yearDave Chameides swears he’s not insane, but he’s not surprised some people think otherwise. For the past nine months (since Jan. 1), the lanky Hollywood cameraman has been filling his basement with every single thing he would ordinarily recycle or toss into the trash. For his scientific/social experiment Chameides keeps a running tally of his waste and documents it for all the world to see courtesy of his blog