Bye-bye, Rudolph: Reindeer in Decline

Reindeer populations in Arctic regions around the world are in sharp decline, threatened by land development, logging and climate change. Arctic people in Alaska, Canada, Greenland and other areas depend upon these animals as both a food source and an important part of their spirituality.

Reindeer, known as caribou in North America, have decreased by an average of 60 percent overall, but in some cases the dips in numbers have been far more extreme.

From MSNBC:

“I want to emphasize the negative effects this will have on Arctic people who rely on caribou for sustenance,” said Liv Vors, a population ecologist at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. “If the situation continues at the rate it’s going, it will have profoundly negative economic, social and spiritual consequences.”

The researchers looked through government archives, previously published studies, wildlife management boards, and other sources to consolidate everything that was known about the animals and their population sizes over the last several decades. They ended up gathering data on about 58 major herds.

Of those 58, they reported in the journal Global Change Biology, 34 were in decline, eight were gradually increasing, and 16 were lacking enough data to tell for sure.

Among the herds that were suffering, the average dip was 57 percent since the most recent peak. Some populations were much harder hit. A herd in Labrador, north of Quebec, for example, had dropped from 750 animals to fewer than 100. In the Canadian High Arctic, a herd that was 50,000 animals strong 50 or 60 years ago now numbers fewer than 1,000.

Caribou are one of the last remaining species on earth that have retained their ancient migration routes, but that is threatened now as land is developed further north. Not all subspecies of caribou migrate, but even the ones that don’t need plenty of space and logging has seriously decreased the amount of forest they have to call home. Global warming has also caused an explosion in mosquito populations, and has brought whitetail deer bearing a parasitic disease into caribou territory.

How sad to think that one day way too soon, reindeer in children’s storybooks may seem just as mythological as Santa Claus.

Link [MSNBC]
Photo credit: LA Times Blog

Sarah Palin Files Suit to Avoid Protecting Whales in Alaska

What’s the biggest threat to beluga whales in Alaska’s Cook Inlet? Two words: Sarah Palin. Belugas already have a lot stacked against them. Cloudy water in the summer forces them to rely heavily on echolocation to get around, and they must venture into dangerously shallow waters to find food. Palin, who is already infamous for her total disregard for animal lives, is filing suit to prevent the federal government from protecting the whales.

Her argument? “Alaska is already doing enough for whales”.

From Salon:

Palin’s chief of staff published an Op-Ed in the Anchorage Daily News on Jan. 28 titled “Protection Requirements for Cook Inlet Belugas Are Silly.”

While there are five stocks of beluga whales in waters near Alaska, the ones in Cook Inlet are isolated and genetically distinct from their cousins. That population has declined dramatically since the 1980s, from over 1,000 to about 375 now. More than 300 whales perished in one four-year stretch (1994 to 1998) alone, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service. Marine mammal biologists and conservationists were hopeful that sharply limiting subsistence hunting of the whales by native Alaskans would see the whales bounce back. But despite only five whales being killed by hunting since 1999, when new regulations went into effect, the whales have not rebounded.

Even the Bush administration took note of the Cook Inlet belugas’ decline, after being pressured by environmental groups. In October 2008, the National Marine Fisheries Service announced the listing of the Cook Inlet population of beluga whales as a full-fledged endangered species. Yes, the Bush administration, infamous for its disdain for science when it came to protecting endangered critters, saw fit to offer protections to the belugas living in Cook Inlet. But not the Palin administration.

“It’s hard to imagine that anyone could be more anti-environmental than Bush, but Palin is Exhibit A,” says Brendan Cummings, oceans program director for the Center for Biological Diversity. “Here we had the most anti-environmental administration in U.S. history, and Palin still feels compelled to sue over one of the few environmentally positive things to come out of that administration.”

Marine mammal biologists don’t yet know what’s preventing the beluga whale population from making a comeback, but they do know that the health of the species could have implications for the rest of the ecosystem they inhabit.

Designating the beluga whales as endangered will also turn Cook Inlet into a ‘critical habitat’ for the whales, which is exactly why Palin’s administration is fighting the measure. They’re afraid that such protected status will hamper the “unfettered industrial activity” going on in the inlet – including the dumping of toxic waste by the oil industry. It could also affect plans to expand the port of Anchorage and build the Knik Arm Bridge – famously known as “the bridge to nowhere” – and curtail oil and natural gas drilling.

This is the same woman who advocates shooting wolves from helicopters and has an office full of dead animal trophies and a pile of caribou antlers sitting outside her house.  Her antipathy toward animals and the environment knows no bounds. So, none of this is too surprising. Luckily, advocates of protecting the whales are confident that the Obama administration will defend the beluga listing from Palin’s lawsuit.

Link [Salon.com]

Happy Thanksgiving from Gov. Sarah Palin

Who could forget this Thanksgiving classic? In one of the most bizarre press conferences ever- Governor Sarah Palin pardons a turkey and talks about how fun it was as turkeys right behind her are slaughtered. Happy Thanksgiving to you too!

Sarah Palin Prank Called, Agrees Taking Animals’ Lives is Fun

If you haven’t already heard about the hilarious prank call Sarah Palin received last week, you’ve got to check out the audio over at The Huffington Post. A Canadian comedian convinced Palin that he was Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s President, making jokes and saying lewd things as Palin awkwardly laughed. Clearly, most of it went right over her head, but she seemed to perk up when fake Sarkozy mentioned hunting.

From The Huffington Post:

He tells Palin one of his favorite pastimes is hunting, also a passion of the 44-year-old Alaska governor.

“I just love killing those animals. Mmm, mmm, take away life, that is so fun,” the fake Sarkozy says.

He proposes they go hunting together by helicopter, something he says he has never done.

“Well, I think we could have a lot of fun together while we’re getting work done,” Palin counters. “We can kill two birds with one stone that way.”

The comedian jokes that they shouldn’t bring Cheney along on the hunt, referring to the 2006 incident in which the vice-president shot and injured a friend while hunting quail.

“I’ll be a careful shot,” responds Palin.

How her camp didn’t realize this was a prank, I have no idea, especially as they were calling from Canada – not France (hello, caller ID?).  Unsurprisingly, Palin sounds like a complete moron, thanking fake Sarkozy (Marc-Antoine Audette of Montreal comedy duo ‘Masked Avengers’) when he complimented her on the ‘documentary’ about her life, ‘Nailin’ Paylin’.

After learning it was a prank, Palin’s camp said “C’est la vie”, while the Obama campaign commented, “I’m glad we check out our calls before we hand the phone to Barack Obama.”

Perhaps what Palin’s hiding by not releasing her medical records is that she’s had a full frontal lobotomy. I mean, really.

Link [The Huffington Post]

Exxon Valdez Payments Delayed Again After 19 Years of Waiting

An imminent payment from Exxon Mobil Corp. to the commercial fishermen affected by the nation’s worst oil spill has been delayed once again.  The damages have been put off for 19 years so far, and this time it’s due to lawyers for Sea Hawk Seafoods, Inc., a Seattle-based company that ran a fish-processing plant in Valdez, filing court papers objecting to the allocation plan.

From The Huffington Post:

They are seeking a new plan that conforms to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June, which awarded up to $507.5 million in punitive damages to nearly 33,000 commercial fishermen, cannery workers, land owners, Alaska Natives and others who claimed harm from the 1989 crude oil spill. The plaintiffs had been seeking $5 billion.

After the Supreme Court decision, lawyers for the plaintiffs and Exxon worked out a partial settlement under which Exxon agreed to release $383 million.

The money was to be distributed under an allocation plan approved in 1996 by Anchorage federal Judge H. Russel Holland, and Sea Hawk contends that it is flawed.

According to the company, the Supreme Court decided that the size of punitive damage awards must be proportional to the size of compensatory damage awards already paid to plaintiffs. The company argues the current plan assigns some plaintiffs larger or smaller shares than they deserve.

Big shocker. This payment has been delayed so many times for so many reasons – usually through efforts of Exxon to avoid opening their wallet. This time, it’s infighting among the plantiffs. Exxon, of course, is fighting this effort by Sea Hawk Seafoods, claiming that their demands will deprive other plaintiffs of their fair share of the damages (like they’re really worried about that – they just don’t want to pay).

Prior to this development, Exxon had avoided paying the damages because ever since Sarah Palin stepped in as governor of Alaska, she has failed to collect the money. The previous governor had presented Exxon with a demand to pay the extra $92 million in estimated damages due for ‘unanticipated environmental injuries’ from the spill. Since Palin was elected, she hasn’t pressed the issue, while Exxon has continued to reap record profits in Alaska.

Aren’t the damages for this spill a drop in the bucket for a company that has raked in ungodly amounts of money in the last few decades? It’s obscene.  This needs to be laid to rest as soon as possible.

Link [The Huffington Post]
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

How Local Teens Beat Sarah Palin in the Battle of the Skate Park

Skaters 1, Palin 0. Okay, so this isn’t really green, but we like to see Palin come up with another goose egg. MTV is reporting the story of a group of teens in Wasilla, Alaska that battled with the former mayor over a skate park.  At the center of the story is Zach Carothers, bassist of the indie band ‘Portugal. The Man’, who are also from Wasilla.

From MTV:

Our parents brought up the idea of going to the city to ask about the chances of getting a real, concrete skate park built. The number of kids skating was growing like crazy, and with all the baseball diamonds, hockey rinks, and tennis courts around, it seemed like a reasonable request.

Apparently, the City of Wasilla did not agree with us. Bummer. Sarah Palin, the mayor of our small town, informed us that a skate park simply would not fit in the budget.

The “Wasilla Skate Park Committee” went to work immediately. Over the next few months, we held bake sales, car washes, raffles and six or seven benefit concerts. We convinced local businesses to donate goods, services or labor to help support us. We even put up one of those giant, lame thermometers in city hall and colored in every $5,000 we made. And, incredibly enough, we raised roughly $42,000. Not too bad for some punk kids in a small town in Alaska.

I really don’t think that Palin thought we could do it. She was certainly surprised when we filled in the red ball at the top of that stupid thermometer. And boy, did she have a surprise for us.

After all of our hard work, she informed us that the project was going to have to be delayed … indefinitely.

Check out the whole story over at MTV to get all the details, but in the end, the skaters were victorious, and the skate park has been in place for a good 10 years now despite Palin’s attempts to derail it.  All together now: ha, ha!

Link [MTV]

Whale Protection Increased Despite Sarah Palin’s Protests

Whales 1, Sarah Palin 0.  While the Republican vice presidential nominee has been railing against increased measures to protect Beluga whales that live in the Cook Inlet of Alaska, her objections failed to keep the federal government from putting the whales on the endangered species list.  Palin’s administration has opposed the Beluga listing because of its potential to restrict offshore oil and gas drilling.

From The New York Times:

The relatively small, whitish whales, sometimes visible from downtown Anchorage, declined by almost 50 percent in the late 1990s, and federal scientists say they have not rebounded despite a series of protections, including a halt to subsistence hunting by Alaska Natives. About 375 whales have been counted in Cook Inlet each of the last two years, according to scientists with the National Marine Fisheries Service.

The announcement, made on a predetermined schedule under the Endangered Species Act, drew further attention to Ms. Palin’s positions on environmental issues. The governor, the Republican nominee for vice president, has come under scrutiny for her ambiguous statements about climate change and her administration’s failed effort earlier this year to prevent another species, the polar bear, from being listed as threatened. The state is suing the federal government over the polar bear listing.

The fisheries agency says that the Beluga whale population has been threatened by general development, pollution and oil and gas exploration.  So, for now, these whales may be saved from the brink of extinction – no thanks to Sarah Palin, running mate to so-called ‘environmental advocate’ John McCain.

Link [The New York Times]
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Once More, With Feeling: Palin’s Abysmal Environmental Record

Just in case we haven’t hammered the point home yet, let’s take some time to go back over GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s environmental record.  Since the decision to include her on the Republican ticket was announced, we’ve reported a few times on various stories about her record, but haven’t included all the facts in one place. Since she may very well have to step in as President for John McCain at some point if they win the election, it’s important for anyone who cares about the environment to know what we’d be getting ourselves into.

MSNBC reports that Gov. Palin’s environmental priorities are ‘crystallized’ in the small town of Wasilla, Alaska, where she served as mayor and still resides with her family:

Palin declared Wasilla “open for business,” and business rushed in: Dozens of strip malls sprung up along the city’s two glacial lakes.

The costs of such fast — and sometimes haphazard — growth can be seen even from Palin’s lakefront home. Once-pristine Lake Lucille is plagued by high levels of phosphorous, which chokes off oxygen from the salmon and trout. Scientists put the blame on nearby development.

Palin refined her pro-business attitudes after becoming governor in 2006. Faced with choosing between development and the environment, she has sided more often than not with business interests.

According to MSNBC, Palin has also occasionally made choices that were good for the environment, such as when she restricted the use of old two-stroke engines in the Kenai River, which reduced oil pollution by 66 percent in one year.  However, examples like these are few and far between.

She likes to trumpet the fact that she started a climate change committee in Alaska, but her committee set no goal for reducing emissions, focusing only on ways to adapt to warmer temperatures (!). Not to mention the fact that her insistence that global warming is probably not caused by man undermines their efforts.  As Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden noted, we’ve got to know the cause of global warming if we’re going to fight it effectively.

“If it’s all just a natural, cyclical thing, maybe we should just all go home and read a book,” said Kathie Wasserman, an adviser to Palin’s climate change committee.

Palin is a vocal supporter of offshore drilling – hence the “drill, baby, drill” chants heard at her rallies.  In fact, she’s such a fan of offshore drilling, she’s willing to let oil and gas companies set up shop anywhere in Alaska, including in the Arctic National Wildlife refuge, which is home to bears, gray wolves, sandhill cranes and a herd of caribou, as well as fish-rich Bristol Bay and Cook Inlet.

Furthermore, Palin has proven to be no friend to animals.  As we’ve learned, she is an avid hunter who routinely kills caribou, moose, bears and other animals for fun. Her office is decorated with dead animals.  And worse yet, she advocates shooting wolves from low-flying airplanes.  Scientists recently revealed that half of all mammals are in decline, and we’re facing an uphill battle to protect and preserve these animals.  With Palin in office, it’s doubtful that conservation would be a top priority.

Here are more details of her record as Governor of Alaska, from Seattle PI:

Endangered species. Earlier this year, Palin approved a $2 million state appropriation for a conference on the “economic impacts” of the Endangered Species Act, designed to persuade the public that ESA listings were too costly and unwarranted. Recently she agreed to use the money instead to fund the state’s lawsuit against the Bush administration over the polar bear listing — a likely violation of the state constitutional provisions on appropriation. She opposes additional species listings and other protections in Alaska, where many species are at risk because of climate change and other threats.

Pebble mine. Palin aggressively opposed the “clean water initiative” on the August ballot in Alaska (which then failed), favoring instead foreign mining company desires for fewer government regulations controlling their toxic effluent into salmon streams. She has supported virtually any and all mining proposals that have come her way, even likely the enormous Pebble gold and copper mine proposed in the Bristol Bay watershed. That plan put at risk the largest runs of sockeye salmon in the world, where this summer fishermen caught more than 27 million salmon.

Predator control. Palin approved and expanded the state’s aerial predator control program, where wolves are shot from aircraft and bears hunted from aircraft and killed upon landing. This year, her state biologists even dragged 14 newborn wolf pups from their den and, having already shot their parents, then shot each of the pups in the head at close range. Last year, her administration offered a $150 bounty for each wolf killed until the bounty was ruled illegal by the courts. Hundreds of wolves are killed each year by this antiquated state program that has no scientific justification whatsoever, but rather is designed to appease Palin’s urban sport hunter supporters.

Exxon Valdez oil spill damages. Palin refuses to push Exxon to pay the government for the unanticipated environmental injuries from the disastrous 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Almost 20 years later, the private case is still unresolved and the governments likewise have yet to collect full payment from Exxon. Shortly before Palin took office in 2006, the governments presented Exxon with a demand to pay $92 million for this additional environmental damage, but her administration has since not pressed the issue nor taken Exxon to court to collect the money. Meanwhile, Exxon reaps record profits from Alaska.

Combine all of the negative things Palin has managed to do during her short time in power with John McCain’s hypocritical performance, and you’ve got a recipe for environmental disaster.  Read all about John McCain’s environmental record in our previous post, ‘9 Reasons a John McCain Presidency Would be a Disaster for the Environment’.

Link [MSNBC] + [Seattle PI]
Photo credit: EarthFirst composite/Wikimedia Commons

9 Reasons a John McCain Presidency Would be a Disaster for the Environment

Republican presidential nominee John McCain may be doing all he can to present himself as a green candidate, but don’t believe the hype. McCain’s efforts to brand himself as a steward of the environment simply don’t mesh with the man’s own life, viewpoints and voting history, and offering a line of eco-friendly merchandise isn’t going to change that.

A McCain presidency would be an utter disaster for the environment, especially in terms of the fight against global warming and the emerging renewable energy industry. If you care about any of these things, here are 9 reasons that should keep you from voting for McCain in November.

9. He’s shown a fundamental lack of understanding about important concepts related to the environment, from energy to conservation. McCain’s campaign ridiculed Barack Obama when the Democratic presidential nominee stated that if everyone kept their vehicles properly maintained, including keeping tires properly inflated, we could save as much energy as offshore drilling would produce. However, Obama was right.

Despite claiming that he’s a conservationist in the vein of Theodore Roosevelt, McCain has shown a staggering lack of understanding about conservation issues. In his haste to display a ‘tough stance’ on earmarks, McCain derided efforts to fund a study on grizzly bear populations in Montana as an example of congressional excess. He oversimplified and mischaracterized the bill as an ‘expensive bear paternity test’ that would cost $3 million dollars to “study the DNA of bears in Montana”. The study, in fact, was needed to protect these endangered animals by surveying their populations. This is far from the only example of McCain’s failure to live up to his carefully crafted ‘environmentalist’ image – he has earned a lifetime League of Conservation Voters score of just 24 out of 100, including a 2007 score of 0.

McCain is also completely out of touch with technology. At a town hall meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on December 6th of last year, McCain stated that “the truly green technologies don’t work”, claiming that “most every expert that I know says that if you maximize [renewables] in every possible way,” the contribution they would make is “very small.” It shows how narrow McCain’s circle of experts really is – even the Bush administration admits that we could get most of our electricity growth over the next couple of decades from wind power alone.

Note also that he said “given the present state of technology”. That brings us to…

8. He’s not going to help green energy get off the ground – he doesn’t believe that solar, wind and other renewables need government assistance. According to him, “I’m not one who believes that we need to subsidize things. The wind industry is doing fine, the solar industry is doing fine.” And yet, his energy plan includes subsidies for getting nuclear power off the ground.

Considering that solar and wind power are cleaner, safer sources of renewable energy, it would make sense to ensure that businesses can afford to move forward with these technologies. Subsidies for wind and solar are critical for projects like the Solana Generating Station, a $1 billion, 280-megawatt plant slated for construction near Gila Bend in Arizona. McCain has instead placed the priority on offshore drilling and nuclear power.

7. He’ll cave to pressure from more conservative Republicans. In the course of his campaign, McCain has moved further and further away from his original, greener, more left-leaning stances. He was once a staunch opponent of offshore drilling, but that stance slowly died an awkward death, finally succumbing completely when running mate Sarah Palin roused a chorus of “drill, baby, drill” at the GOP national convention.

Indeed, the GOP’s death grip on oil as America’s main source of energy – and their many financial and personal ties to the industry – would hardly give McCain the opportunity to accomplish anything substantial in the environmental arena. Despite the fact that he’s often held views on green issues that are unpopular with his fellow Republicans, he has taken his party’s decidedly pro-corporation, anti-environment stance on plenty of others. Whether this is due to pressure from fellow lawmakers, lobbyists or other influences is impossible to tell – McCain’s record on environmental issues is wildly erratic with no clear rhyme or reason (see #2).

As The New Republic mused back in March, “However uneven his record, it would be a real tragedy if the GOP changed McCain’s position on the environment, rather than the other way around.” Given his softening on environmental issues during the course of his campaign, it’s looking more and more likely that that’s exactly what would happen if he became President.

6. McCain’s own life shows how much personal dedication he really has to the environment. It’s the argument that conservatives have tried to use against Al Gore for years, only in this instance, it’s true. John McCain and his wife, Cindy, own 13 vehicles and somewhere between 7-12 homes, depending on who you ask. When asked by a reporter how many homes he owns, McCain wasn’t even able to provide an answer.

Climate Progress estimates that the carbon footprint of McCain’s homes to be around 150 million tons, or about 10 times that of the average American. Mind you, this isn’t counting the trips he makes back and forth between those homes on his wife’s private jet. And, somehow we doubt that McCain is powering his homes with 100% renewable energy, like Al Gore does (and for the record, Obama owns just one home and one car.)

5. He wants to build 45 new nuclear power plants by 2030. McCain claims on his website that “nuclear power is a proven, zero-emission source of energy, and it is time we recommit to advancing our use of nuclear power.” The fact is, nuclear power is unsafe and expensive – and there are better alternatives out there. A single nuclear reactor costs between $6-$8 billion to build, and shipping hazardous materials during the construction process would be extremely dangerous. Mining the uranium required to power the plants would be an environmental disaster. And then there’s the issue of disposing of nuclear waste.

We’re not wild about the fact that Obama backs nuclear power, either, but here’s an important distinction between him and McCain: Obama is cautiously supportive of nuclear energy as a small part of a comprehensive clean energy overhaul, if and only if all safety issues are addressed. Obama has said, “I have not ruled out nuclear… but only [would support it] so far as it is clean and safe.”

McCain’s stubborn insistence that nuclear power must be a major player in the clean energy of the future again affirms the fact that he’s disconnected from modern technology. He’s clinging to the energy sources of the 20th century, not looking toward the cleaner, greener energy tech of the 21st century and beyond.

4. He supports offshore drilling and falsely claims that it’s an important part of America’s short-term energy solution. In fact, offshore drilling is now a key strategy in his energy plan. McCain’s campaign has consistently sought to mislead the public about a tie between current gas prices and offshore drilling, as if offshore drilling is some magical answer. They’ve gone so far as to blame Obama for high gas prices in an attack ad, which states that “some in Washington are saying no to drilling in America… no to independence from foreign oil. Who can you thank for rising prices at the pump?” Cut to a photo of Obama. Then, “One man knows that we must now drill more in America and rescue our family budgets.”

It’s just plain not true. FactCheck.org notes of the ad, “The federal government’s estimate is that if the moratorium on offshore drilling were lifted today, it would be 2030 before we’d see a noticeable effect on supply and prices. For the same reason, it’s simply not true that drilling more now will ‘rescue our family budgets.’” But that’s exactly what McCain’s campaign is drilling into the minds of the American public – just so they’ll vote for him. We’ve got to wean ourselves off oil, period – not simply squeeze every drop we can out of America at the expense of the environment.

At least McCain doesn’t want to drill in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, right? Oh, wait – Palin does. And she’s Alaska’s governor. Umm…

3. He has given in to lobbying from the dirty energy industry time and time again. McCain has taken at least $1,069,854 from the oil & gas industry, and at least 22 top McCain advisors and fundraisers have lobbied for Big Oil at one time or another. McCain has also personally advocated for huge tax breaks for oil companies, and has voted against a windfall profit tax on oil companies multiple times. In fact, McCain has a long record of being very cozy with lobbyists. How can we trust this so-called ‘maverick’ to keep our interests in mind, and not those of the corporations he’s in bed with?

2. His record shows that he’s all talk and no action. McCain has missed dozens of important votes on environmental issues, and when he did show up, he often voted against measures that would support renewable energy. In fact, his environmental record in the Senate is aligned with that of James “global warming is a hoax” Inhofe.

McCain claims to have a long history of supporting alternative energy, but his record shows otherwise. He has missed key votes on issues like extending renewable energy tax credits, and voted against renewables at least eight times in the last decade, including the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which was the biggest congressional effort to push alternative energy in more than a decade. Even Senator Inhofe voted for it.

He has also voted to weaken requirements for energy-efficiency in appliances, voted to let coal states bypass the Clean Water Act, voted against increased EPA funding to clean up Superfund toxic-waste sites and also against requiring polluters to pay for the cleanup of Superfund sites. All in all, he has voted against clean energy and the environment (or said he would have, for those votes he missed) more than 50 times since the early 1990s. So much for being a ‘green candidate’.

1. Two words: Sarah Palin. It’s not just possible that this woman would have to take over the presidency at some point, it’s highly likely. And in the brief time we’ve known her, Palin has terrified people the world over with her narrow-minded viewpoints on a range of topics from creationism to – gulp – the environment.

Palin is so far to the right on the environment, her inclusion on the GOP ticket for this election effectively cancels out any environmental cred John McCain might have left. She supports offshore drilling anywhere, even if it doesn’t solve our energy problems. She doesn’t believe that global warming is man-made. She has opposed strengthening protection for Beluga whales in Alaska’s Cook Inlet, where oil and gas development has been proposed. She supports drilling in the ANWR, which is home to bears, gray wolves, sandhill cranes and a herd of caribou – but what does Sarah Palin care for such animals? She’s got a bear carcass in her office, regularly hunts caribou and supports shooting wolves from low-flying planes.

And finally, this about sums it up: she sued the federal government in response to polar bears being listed as endangered, because the classification that aims to protect these animals will interfere with oil drilling in Alaska’s coastal waters. Putting the oil industry before the environment: sounds familiar, doesn’t it? It’s the same old Republican policies, thinly veiled by a fading green cloak.

Sarah Palin’s Record on the Environment? Not so great.

We all know that Republican VP pick Sarah Palin questions global warming science and favors drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. But after last night’s Vice Presidential debate in which Palin’s answer to a direct question about climate change was vague to say the least (see below), we thought we’d give her environmental record another look.

Palin in response to climate change question in the VP debate:

I’m not one to attribute every man — activity of man to the changes in the climate. There is something to be said also for man’s activities, but also for the cyclical temperature changes on our planet.

But there are real changes going on in our climate. And I don’t want to argue about the causes. What I want to argue about is, how are we going to get there to positively affect the impacts?

We have got to clean up this planet. We have got to encourage other nations also to come along with us with the impacts of climate change, what we can do about that.

[Trascript via New York Times]

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]

Palin Unable to Recall McCain’s History of Supporting Regulation

Sarah Palin is criminally unprepared to step foot in the White House, let alone be a heartbeat away from the presidency.  The McCain campaign has done everything they can to keep this woman under wraps and unavailable to the media, and the reason is becoming clear.  She doesn’t know enough about politics to be a middle school social studies teacher. Just look at how she reacted to questioning by Katie Couric about running mate John McCain’s history of supporting regulation.  She couldn’t name a single instance in which McCain had pushed for more regulation.  Check it out:

Is anyone else reminded, when watching Sarah Palin in interviews, of another beauty queen being asked a ‘tough question’?  Here, let me refresh your memory:

Gee, if Sarah Palin can’t even handle Katie Couric in an interview, I can’t wait to see the Vice Presidential debates.  It’s doubtful that Joe Biden will be anywhere near as gentle as Katie.  Whee!

Link [The Huffington Post]

FactCheck.org and CNN Reveal McCain & Palin Lies

McCain has shown that he’s willing to do just about anything to win this election, including choosing a running mate who’s all stunt and no substance and blatantly lying to all of America.  Finding a true statement in his recent ads has been a real challenge, as FactCheck.org has demonstrated time after time.

Check out the video below:

The truly sad thing is, the Republican base is going to believe all of this regardless of the facts.  As noted in the clip, they’re conditioned to believe everything the McCain camp tells them.  So, even when they’re caught in obvious lies, McCain & Co. will continue to deny, deny deny and smear Obama as much as they can get away with.  It’s dishonest, sleazy, and a very bad omen for what could be to come if McCain were to win the election.  Clearly, they don’t see much point in being truthful with the people they seek to serve and lead.  Scary.

Link [JedReport]

Sarah Palin Spouts Lies on Oil Drilling, Bridge to Nowhere

By now, anyone who’s truly paying attention knows that Sarah Palin is a liar.  Not that she’s the only one, of course – there were plenty of inaccuracies and all-out falsehoods stated by folks like Joe Lieberman, Fred Thompson and of course John McCain at the Republican National Convention last week.  But, Sarah really laid some whoppers on the nation in her speech, and she continues to stretch the truth, skip over inconvenient facts and lie outright to anyone who will listen.

In this clip from Charlie Rose’s ‘The Green Room’, not only is Palin completely absorbed with Alaska (um, hello, you’re running for Vice President of the entire country), she also claims that drilling in her state would revitalize the economy and give us energy independence.  Check it out at 2:15 below.

That was a knee-slapper. What else do you have in your comedy routine, Palin? Oh, yeah, your continuing insistence that you’ve opposed the Bridge to Nowhere all along, when in fact you were its biggest champion until it became clear that the Senate wasn’t going to back it. Check out the video of the entire episode at Grist, which includes more of her big fish stories.

You know, it’s funny how Palin notes that supplying our own energy is one of the most important ways we can keep America safe and secure, yet oil is the sole focus of her plan to make that happen. Never does she mention any other sources of domestic energy – it’s oil, oil, oil. Big surprise. She’s just another ignorant Republican pushing the agenda of Big Oil.

Link [Grist]

Vegetarian Matthew Scully Wrote Sarah Palin’s Convention Speech

There are a lot of reasons to fear Sarah Palin.  As Ecorazzi so accurately put it, “she’s like a buffet of really bad ideas”.  Aside from the fact that she’s a global warming denier, anti-environment, homophobic, pro-abstinence education, creationist, and a master at the craft of abusing power, she’s also the antithesis of an animal rights activist.  She shoots wolves from planes, for god’s sake.  Her house reportedly has a giant pile of caribou antlers outside it, her favorite meal is moose stew and her office is decorated with a dead bear.  And ironically, her speech at the Republican National Convention was written by none other than a passionate, dedicated vegetarian.

From Ecorazzi:

In an ironic course of action, Palin’s speech was penned by none other than former Bush speechwriter Matthew Scully. Scully is well known for his vegetarian lifestyle and rather strict views on animal rights. Besides his dietary choice, Scully is also the author of Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy — an acclaimed book written on the subject of animal welfare. Obviously Matthew is quite critical of the hunting community and has even spoken out against some of the more brutal forms of the practice, including aerial hunting — an activity Palin considers “fun.”

So we have to wonder – what happened, Michael Scully? How could you stomach writing such a speech, to be delivered by such a person? What’s it like to have to totally sidestep your own convictions – not to mention truth and reality – when crafting the fountain of lies and bullshit that came out of this woman’s mouth in St. Paul?

Link [Ecorazzi]
Image via Apartment Therapy

GOP VP Pick Sarah Palin is a Global Warming Denier

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