Latest Environmental skepticism Stories

Economically, the steps taken to reduce global climate change will not be a wise investment if money is solely aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions, according to a study conducted by researchers in the U.S. and Ireland.Researchers presented a plan on Thursday that they said would help people adapt to droughts or rising seas cased by global warming, while funding research of new technology and curbing emissions.  They estimate the plan will cost $800 billion over the next 100 years,...

By pioneering the science of seasonal hurricane forecasting and teaching 70 graduate students who now populate the National Hurricane Center and other research outposts, William Gray turned a city far from the stormy seas into a hurricane research mecca.But now the institution in Fort Collins, Colo., where he has worked for nearly half a century, has told Gray it may end its support of his seasonal forecasting.As he enters his 25th year of predicting hurricane season activity, Colorado State...

WASHINGTON - Climate scientist Michael Mann runs down the list of bad global warming news: The world is spewing greenhouse gases at a faster rate. Summer Arctic sea ice is at record lows. The ice sheets in Greenland and West Antarctica are melting quicker than expected.Is he the doomsayer global warming skeptics have called him?Mann laughs. This Penn State University professor - and many other climate scientists - are sunny optimists. Hope blooms in the hottest of greenhouses.Climate...

WASHINGTON -- Coal-burning utilities are passing the hat for one of the few remaining scientists skeptical of the global warming harm caused by industries that burn fossil fuels.Pat Michaels - Virginia's state climatologist, a University of Virginia professor and senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute - told Western business leaders last year that he was running out of money for his analyses of other scientists' global warming research. So last week, a Colorado utility organized a...

By Timothy Gardner NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Colorado electricity cooperative is urging other power groups to support global warming skeptics and has donated $100,000 to a climatologist who has labeled some of his colleagues "alarmists." The Intermountain Rural Electric Association's general manager wrote in a letter to other energy cooperatives that it also helped raise contributions from others for Dr. Patrick Michaels, a climatologist at the University of Virginia and a fellow at the...

MIAMI (Reuters) - Conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh has been cleared of wrongdoing following his detention at a Florida airport last month, when agents found a bottle of Viagra in his luggage that was not prescribed in his name, authorities said on Wednesday. Under Florida law, certain prescription drugs, including Pfizer's erectile dysfunction remedy Viagra, must bear the name of the person carrying them. Violation is a second-degree misdemeanor punishable by a $500 fine...

MIAMI -- Right-wing U.S. radio commentator Rush Limbaugh, a one-time target of a prescription fraud investigation, was detained at a Florida airport when agents found a bottle of Viagra in his luggage that was not prescribed in his name, police said on Tuesday.Under Florida law certain prescription drugs, including Pfizer's erectile dysfunction remedy Viagra, must bear the name of the person carrying them. Violation is a second-degree misdemeanor punishable by a $500 fine and 60 days in...

By Deborah Zabarenko WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The last few decades were the warmest on Earth in the past 400 years, and may well have been warmer than any comparable period since the Middle Ages, U.S. scientists reported on Thursday. In a separate study, climate experts blamed global warming for much of the hurricane-fueling rise in temperatures in the North Atlantic last year, when there were a number of devastating hurricanes, including Katrina. In a new report by the National Research...

By Deborah Zabarenko WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The last few decades were the warmest on Earth in the past 400 years, and may well have been warmer than any comparable period since the Middle Ages, U.S. scientists reported on Thursday. In a separate study, climate experts blamed global warming for much of the hurricane-fueling rise in temperatures in the North Atlantic last year, when there were a number of devastating hurricanes, including Katrina. In a new report by the National Research...

By Donna SmithWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate agreed on Thursday to make English the national language of the United States and moments later also adopted a milder alternative calling English the country's "unifying language."Which amendment ends up in the final version of an overhaul of U.S. immigration law will depend on negotiations with the U.S. House of Representatives. Neither would bar the use of Spanish or other languages in government services.The Senate immigration plan...