Palin versus polar bears, the climate, and science

Articles — By forcechange on September 10, 2008 5:00 am

Further contributing to the sense that McCain has lost his environmental maverick streak, is the growing understanding that Sarah Palin, his pick for VP, holds a litany of non-environmentally friendly policies.  As we’ve noted previously, a governor of the extractionist state of Alaska, must be pro-drilling by definition, but Palin’s policies go far beyond mere concern for that state’s economy.

Time.com writes:  “Palin noted that warming would affect Alaska ‘more than any other state, because of our location.’ But she added, ‘I’m not one though who would attribute it to being man-made.’ If Palin is still that ambivalent on climate change, it would put her to the right even of President Bush, who after years of claiming that more research was needed on the issue, now acknowledges the U.S. should reduce man-made carbon emissions to avert dangerous global warming.”

Her being even less concerned about the environment than President Bush is illustrated by the fact that as Governor, she sued the Bush administration’s Dept. of the Interior over their decision to list the polar bear as a threatened species.  She has also supported Alaska’s right to shoot wolves from helicopters, which critiques claim is to boost caribou and moose herds for hunters.  These policies, coupled with the others we’ve looked at recently, show Palin consistently places environmental protection, and the science behind it, at the bottom of her concerns.  McCain’s decision to put her on his ticket must illustrate his own sense of priorities, with the environment not being very high on that list.

Polar bear photo credit.