Sarah Palin Skirts Around Environmental Questions in Interview with Katie Couric

As if it weren’t already obvious, Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin has proven once again that John McCain really didn’t choose her for any reason other than as a gimmicky attempt to invigorate his campaign.  On September 30th, CBS debuted the segment of Palin’s interview with Katie Couric in which they discuss social and environmental issues, including global warming and offshore drilling.

From CBS:

Couric: Gov. Palin, almost every expert says it will take about 10 years for domestic drilling to have an impact on consumers. So isn’t the notion of “drill, baby, drill” a little misleading to people who think this will automatically lower their gas prices, and quickly?

Palin: And it’s why we should have started 10 years ago tapping into domestic supplies that America is so rich in. Alaska has billions of barrels of oil and hundreds of trillions of cubic feet of clean, green natural gas onshore and off-shore. Should have started doing it 10 years ago, but better late than never. It’s gotta be an all-of-the-above approach to energy independence.

Couric: What’s your position on global warming? Do you believe it’s man-made or not?

Palin: Well, we’re the only Arctic state, of course, Alaska. So we feel the impacts more than any other state, up there with the changes in climates. And certainly, it is apparent. We have erosion issues. And we have melting sea ice, of course. So, what I’ve done up there is form a sub-cabinet to focus solely on climate change. Understanding that it is real. And …

Couric: Is it man-made, though in your view?

Palin: You know there are - there are man’s activities that can be contributed to the issues that we’re dealing with now, these impacts. I’m not going to solely blame all of man’s activities on changes in climate. Because the world’s weather patterns are cyclical. And over history we have seen change there. But kind of doesn’t matter at this point, as we debate what caused it. The point is: it’s real; we need to do something about it.

Alaska, Alaska, Alaska.  This woman is obviously out of touch with the rest of the world – in another part of the interview, Palin was unable to name any of the sources from which she gets national or world news. She seems to think (or at least wants the public to think) that being governor of Alaska for two years gives her experience on foreign policy, energy policy and national security – simply due to the state’s proximity to Russia and the fact that it has oil.  And now, we’re expected to believe that she’s going to solve global warming (despite the fact that she won’t cop to it being man-made) by the virtue of being from – all together now – Alaska. Wow, we’re all so impressed.

The fact is, the idea that global warming is caused by cyclical weather patterns has been discredited.  Furthermore, admitting that man is causing many of the alarming weather trends around the world is key to fighting global warming.  If you don’t believe that smokestacks, vehicle emissions and other pollution is a problem for the environment, you won’t put a stop to it.  Is this really the person we want to trust to handle this crisis in the event that McCain dies in office?

What’s really funny is the fact that McCain has run his campaign on the basis of being a ‘straight talker’, and this woman dances around questions without ever giving a real answer.  It will be interesting to see if she has anything of substance to say in the debate against Joe Biden tonight!

Link [CBS]

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