Free Republic

Washington - Since the Trump administration released its blockbuster report on the day after Thanksgiving outlining the dire environmental and economic impacts of climate change, it has made a series of policy and diplomatic decisions or statements that appear run counter to all of the warnings in the report. Here's what the administration has said and done since Thanksgiving: Coal rule rollback: The Environmental Protection Agency last week proposed relaxing regulations for newly-built coal-fueled power plants. Combined with another proposal to replace the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, the two rules would overhaul the way coal-fired plants are built and regulated....

New research shows the way the planet is warming up has staggering similarities to the "Great Dying". That mass extinction event 250 million years ago nearly ended life on earth. New research out of University of Washington and Stanford determines, for the first time, the cause. Researchers found that global warming (instead of other factors such as high acidity in the water) was the cause of the Great Dying in the Permian era. Rising temperatures and depleted oxygen levels left animals unable to breath. Justin Penn and Curtis Deutsch of UW's oceanography department authored the study. Deutsch said it's a...

The United States joined a controversial proposal by Saudi Arabia and Russia this weekend to weaken a reference to a key report on the severity of global warming, sharpening battle lines at the global climate summit in Poland aimed at gaining consensus over how to combat rising temperatures. Arguments erupted Saturday night before a United Nations working group focused on science and technology, where the United States teamed with Russia, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to challenge language that would have welcomed the findings of the landmark report, which said that the world has barely 10 years to cut carbon emissions...

Attempts to incorporate a key scientific study into global climate talks in Poland have failed. The IPCC report on the impacts of a temperature rise of 1.5C, had a significant impact when it was launched last October. Scientists and many delegates in Poland were shocked as the US, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Kuwait objected to this meeting "welcoming" the report. Instead they wanted to support a much more lukewarm phrase, that the conference would "take note" of the report. The dispute dragged on as huddles of negotiators met in corners of the plenary session here, trying to agree a compromise...

BRUSSELS - Belgian police detained more than 400 people on Saturday after “yellow vest” protesters inspired by riots in France threw rocks and firecrackers and damaged shops and cars as they tried to reach official buildings in Brussels. In the second violence of its kind in the capital in eight days, a crowd which police estimated at around 1,000 faced riot squads who used water cannon and tear gas to keep people away from the European Union headquarters and the nearby Belgian government quarter. Calm was restored after about five hours. The movement in Belgium, inspired by the “gilets jaunes”,...

More than 1,700 people were arrested across France during the latest "yellow vest" protests, which left 135 people injured and caused widespread damage. Of the 1,723 detained on Saturday, 1,220 were ordered to be held in custody, according to the interior ministry. Despite the security clampdown clashes broke out in several cities across the country, including Marseille, Bordeaux and Lyon and Toulouse, during a fourth weekend of protests against rising living costs and the embattled French President Emmanuel Macron. Paris again saw the worst of the of the violence as protesters, wearing their distinctive yellow safety jackets, set fire to...

(KATOWICE, Poland) - Thousands of people from around the world marched Saturday through the southern Polish city that’s hosting this year’s U.N. climate talks, demanding that their governments take tougher action to curb global warming. Protesters included farmers from Latin America, environmentalists from Asia, students from the United States and families from Europe, many of whom said climate change is already affecting their lives. “Climate change is the thing that frightens me the most,” said Michal Dabrwoski from Warsaw, who brought his young daughter to the march. “I’m a father and it’s kind of crucial that she will have a...

Paris was in lockdown early on Saturday with 'thousands' of French security forces braced to meet renewed rioting by "yellow vest" protesters in the capital and other cities in a fourth weekend of confrontation..... The Eiffel Tower and other tourist landmarks were shut, shops were boarded up to avoid looting and street furniture removed to avoid metal bars from being used as projectiles. About 89,000 police were deployed across the country.

The French government expects the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vest) protests in Paris this weekend could be more violent than ever, despite President Emmanuel Macron buckling on fuel tax hikes. The Élysée Palace, seat of President Emmanuel Macron, announced to French media they are expecting “great violence” on Saturday as Yellow Vest protestors have announced “Act IV” of their nearly four-week-long protest against the Macron regime that was initially sparked by a rise in fuel taxes, franceinfo reports. According to the Élysée, they expect “a hard core of several thousand people” to arrive in Paris on Saturday with the intent to...

If humans continue to pump greenhouse gases at our current rate, “we have no reason to think it wouldn’t cause a similar type of extinction," said Curtis Deutsch, a UW professor and author of the research. More than two-thirds of life on earth died off some 252 million years ago, in the largest mass extinction event in Earth’s history. Researchers have long suspected that volcanic eruptions triggered “the Great Dying,” as the end of the Permian geologic period is sometimes called, but exactly how so many creatures died has been something of a mystery. Now scientists at the University of...

PARIS - France hunkered down for another wave of potentially violent protests on Saturday as embattled President Emmanuel Macron planned to address the nation next week over public fury at the high cost of living, senior allies said. Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said the three-week-old “yellow vest” revolt had “created a monster” and vowed police would have no tolerance for violence, with much of Paris in lockdown and tens of thousands of police deployed nationwide. Castaner warned that radicals would likely again infiltrate the protest movement - a backlash against high living costs but also, increasingly, a revolt against Macron...

Christmas truly is the most wonderful time of the year, because it calls our attention to one of the most beautiful teachings of Scripture — the Incarnation of Christ. When you realize the incredible truths behind the reality that God came and dwelt among us, it can’t help but impact the way you live. Plus, it’s an awesome reminder that God kept His promises from the Old Testament to send a Messiah to rescue His people from their sins.However, since that time, many myths have been added to the greatest story ever told.Here are nine common myths Christians believe at...

While world leaders gather in Katowice, Poland, for the COP24 climate summit, protesters in the streets of Paris have successfully forced French President Emmanuel Macron's hand, undercutting his efforts to impose a carbon tax on French energy sales. Macron has made climate change and lowering greenhouse gases a central component of both his domestic and foreign policies, only to face dramatic failure at the hands of his "yellow vest" countrymen. Macron's popularity has been low in France for months, and has now fallen to just a 23% approval rating. But the rioting across his country sends a frightening signal to...

Now that Democrats will soon control one branch of Congress, President Trump is again signaling that infrastructure could be an area of compromise. We agree, but if the president wanted to earn Democratic support in the Senate, any infrastructure bill would have to include policies and funding that help transition our country to a clean-energy economy and mitigate the risks the United States already faces from climate change. For too long, Congress has failed to act in a meaningful way to combat the threat posed by climate change. It’s impossible to overstate the urgency with which America needs to confront...

PARIS - Vincent Picard describes himself as a “militant ecologist.” But when protesters took to the streets to express their rage over a planned increase in France’s fuel tax, Mr. Picard joined their ranks. He acknowledges that the tax might encourage the conservation considered critical for a healthy planet. But with the nearest train station 35 minutes away, he has to drive to work every day. “I am conscious that we have reached the end of fossil fuels and that we have to modify our habits,” said Mr. Picard, a 32-year-old pastry maker from northern France. But, he added, “You...

The French police forces including the special CRS riot police will be as fully mobilized as possible in Paris and other locations tomorrow as the "yellow vests" protests move into their next phase of mobilization swelled by new supporters. 125-thousand plus were estimated to have protested last Saturday and its quite possible that the protests may be even larger tomorrow. The Prime Minister of France's increasingly unpopular President Emmanuel Macron, Edouard Philippe, appeared on the evening television news Thursday to say 89-thousand police are mobilized for tomorrow's protests....

PARIS - French authorities will close dozens of museums, tourism sites and shops on Saturday, including the Eiffel Tower and Louvre, fearing a recurrence of last week’s violence in Paris, officials said on Thursday. “We cannot take the risk when we know the threat,” Culture Minister Franck Riester told RTL radio, adding that far-right and far-left agitators were planning to hijack rallies by “yellow vest” protesters in Paris. He said the Louvre museum, Orsay museum, the two operas, and the Grand Palais were among the sites that would be closed a week after rioters looted and defaced the Arc de...

PARIS -- The "yellow vests" in France are worrying greens around the world. The worst riots in Paris in decades were sparked by higher fuel taxes, and French President Emmanuel Macron responded by scrapping them Wednesday. But taxes on fossil fuels are just what international climate negotiators, meeting in Poland this week, say are desperately needed to help wean the world off of fossil fuels and slow climate change. Macron said the higher tax was his way of trying to prevent the end of the world. But the yellow vest protesters turned that around with the slogan: "it's hard to...

Human-induced climate change has made the United Kingdom's record-breaking 2018 summer heatwave around 30 times more likely than under normal conditions, the country's meteorological body has said. The UK as a whole endured its joint hottest summer on record in 2018, and the hottest ever for England. "Our provisional study compared computer models based on today's climate with those of the natural climate we would have had without human-induced emissions," said Professor Peter Snott from the Met Office and Exeter University. Snott noted that the "rapidly increasing changes" stem from an increase in the concentrations of carbon dioxide and other...

The government in France put out the word Wednesday night that the fuel tax would be suspended not just for six months, but for all of next year (2019). The leader of the opposition National Rally (former National Front) Marine Le Pen tweeted late Wednesday night that President Emmanuel Macron should pledge on his honor not to reintroduce the tax wit the amended budget in the spring. Whether this apparent concession will help stamp out protests is uncertain. Four have died and hundreds have been injured in the weeks of protests by the "yellow vests" but now high school and...