Sarah Palin questions global warming science and favors drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She also opposed a state initiative that would have banned metal mines in her state from discharging pollution into salmon streams, and dropped a lawsuit intended to prevent polar bears from being listed as a threatened species. Not that any of these things are surprising considering that she’s a Republican, but the party’s questionable pick for VP is governor of Alaska, where the ANWR is located, and the state that has already seen the most dramatic effects of global warming.
From the Sydney Morning Herald:
The Alaska Governor has said that she has tried to persuade McCain to agree with her on drilling in the wildlife refuge. She also has said that she was happy that he changed his position over the summer and now supports offshore oil drilling.
Palin’s environmental views could get more of an airing now that she has landed on the national stage.
Last month, the state of Alaska under Palin’s guidance sued Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne in an attempt to reverse his decision to list polar bears as a threatened species. Palin said that scientists’ predictions that global warming would eliminate the ice where the bears live in summer were unreliable.
As we noted in an article posted yesterday, ‘7 Places Global Warming is Smacking the Crap Out of the Earth Right Now’, Alaska is the only U.S. state currently experiencing global warming effects on par with other areas of the world. In some areas of the remote state, villages are being relocated because global warming has battered them with severe storms and melting ice has caused erosion and floods.
Besides, how does McCain aim to protect the environment when his #2 would be fighting him all the way?
Link [Sydney Morning Herald]
Photo credit: AP/Sydney Morning Herald
