Free Republic

There is a paradox at the heart of our changing climate. While the blanket of air close to the Earth’s surface is warming, most of the atmosphere above is becoming dramatically colder. The same gases that are warming the bottom few miles of air are cooling the much greater expanses above that stretch to the edge of space. This paradox has long been predicted by climate modelers, but only recently quantified in detail by satellite sensors. The new findings are providing a definitive confirmation on one important issue, but at the same time raising other questions. The good news for...

Opposition leader Yair Lapid warned Sunday morning that Israel is "losing the US" as a result of the government's actions. "The Americans talk to me all the time and they are horrified by what is happening," Lapid said in an interview with Kan Reshet Bet. He dismissed claims that the US is interfering in Israel's internal affairs, saying: "We ask the US to interfere [in our affairs] every day, from aid to funding the Iron Dome. The Americans say clearly that our alliance is based on our shared democratic values, and if you don't maintain them, then the alliance will...

MK Matan Kahana calls for urgent talks between the coalition and the opposition on the reform of the judicial system. "We are just before falling into the abyss. When it happens, it really won't matter who is to blame. We must talk now - coalition and opposition. It is necessary and possible. We must preserve our common home,"...

Sierra Nevada snowpack stands at 165 percent of average, a level not seen since 1995 and one that puts the 2010-2011 winter near the top of the record lists. "This year's snowpack counts as one of the big ones -- there aren't many of them," said Maury Roos, veteran meteorologist with the California Department of Water Resources. During their monthly snow depth survey in a field near the Sierra-at-Tahoe ski resort, department officials Wednesday morning found 124 inches of the powdery, white stuff. A staggering 740 inches of snow have fallen at Donner Summit this winter -- one of only...

000 WTNT34 KNHC 042023 TCPAT4 BULLETIN TROPICAL STORM IVAN ADVISORY NUMBER 9 NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL 5 PM AST SAT SEP 04 2004 ...IVAN GRADUALLY BECOMING STRONGER OVER THE TROPICAL ATLANTIC... AT 5 PM AST...2100Z...THE CENTER OF TROPICAL STORM IVAN WAS LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 9.1 NORTH...LONGITUDE 40.8 WEST OR ABOUT 1450 MILES...2335 KM...EAST-SOUTHEAST OF THE LESSER ANTILLES. IVAN IS MOVING TOWARD THE WEST NEAR 20 MPH...32 KM/HR...AND THIS MOTION IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE FOR THE NEXT 24 HOURS. SATELLITE IMAGES INDICATE THAT THE MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NOW NEAR 60 MPH... 95 KM/HR...WITH HIGHER GUSTS. A CONTINUED GRADUAL...

The collapse of the Earth's magnetic field, which both guards the planet and guides many of its creatures, appears to have started in earnest about 150 years ago. The field's strength has waned 10 to 15 percent, and the deterioration has accelerated of late, increasing debate over whether it portends a reversal of the lines of magnetic force that normally envelop the Earth. During a reversal, the main field weakens, almost vanishes, then reappears with opposite polarity. Afterward, compass needles that normally point north would point south, and during the thousands of years of transition, much in the heavens and...

An interview with scholar James Bovard will be broadcast tonight on C-SPAN's Booknotes program at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. EST.Mr. Bovard will be speaking about his new book, Terrorism and Tyranny: Trampling Freedom, Justice, and Peace to Rid the World of Evil.The publisher's blurb for the book posted on C-SPAN's Website will surely provide fodder for a lively, hopefully thoughtful discussion here on FR:""The war on terrorism is the first political growth industry of the new Millennium." So begins Jim Bovard's newest and, in some ways, most provocative book as he casts yet another jaundiced eye on Washington and...

UPPSALA, Sweden (AP) -- Global supplies of crude oil will peak as early as 2010 and then start to decline, ushering in an era of soaring energy prices and economic upheaval -- or so said an international group of petroleum specialists meeting Friday. They hope to persuade oil-dependent countries like the United States to stop what they view as a squandering the planet's finite bounty of fossil fuels. Americans, as the biggest consumers of energy, could suffer a particularly harsh impact on their lifestyle, warned participants in the two-day conference on oil depletion that began Thursday at Uppsala University in...