Palin using Alaska’s burgeoning population (!) as a pathetic excuse to destroy polar bears?
Our colleagues at FEWW reported earlier that “the state of Alaska [Gov. Palin] is suing the federal government because she says listing polar bears as a threatened species is hurting Alaskan oil and gas exploration and development …”
Republican vice-presidential candidate Alaska Governor Sarah Palin shakes hands as she campaigns in O'Fallon, Missouri, August 31, 2008. REUTERS/John Gress. Image may be subject to copyright.
Palin, a mother of five, said on Monday that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is pregnant in an announcement intended to rebut rumors that Palin faked her own pregnancy to cover up for her child.
Evidently, she neither believes in family planning, nor cares about the terrible affects of unwanted teen pregnancy on her child. And sex education was out of the question, too!
Why would she give a damn about the environment?
On the wisdom of Sen. McCain choosing Gov. Palin as his running mate thinkprogress said: “Palin is a champion for drilling, the Bush-Cheney approach to energy policy that brought us $4.00-per-gallon gasoline and the rising threat of global warming.”
“Like McCain, Palin believes that oil drilling is the only solution to our energy problems. ‘I beg to disagree with any candidate who would say we can’t drill our way out of our problem,’ she says. She supports more drilling in protected areas of the Outer Continental Shelf and the Alaska Natural Wildlife Refuge, once attacking McCain for his ‘close-mindedness on ANWR.’”
Polar What?
AS Arctic sea ice continues to shrink, currently to its second-lowest level ever, with particular melting in the Chukchi Sea, polar bears have to swim far off the Alaskan coast in search of suitable platforms to hunt food.
Nine polar bears were seen swimming in open water over a six-hour period on August 16, government scientists said, including one more than 50 miles offshore, World Wildlife Fund officials reported.
“That represents a huge increase over previous sightings, said Margaret Williams of the fund’s Alaska office. A total of 12 polar bears were spotted in open water between 1987 and 2003, Williams said.”
Dutiful mothers, female polar bears usually give birth to twin cubs, which stay with her for more than two years until they can hunt and survive on their own. Photograph by Norbert Rosing. (Source: National geographic). Image may be subject to copyright.
IS THIS RELATIONSHIP ANY LESS IMPORTANT THAN THE ONE BELOW?
Bristol Palin , the 17-year-old daughter of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, is seen holding her brother Trig at a campaign event in Dayton, Ohio, August 29, 2008. REUTERS/John Gress. Image may be subject to copyright.
To the big oil, she is, like Condoleezza Rice, a godsend. She is an angel [sic] in disguise. Ok! Palin is nowhere near as ‘smart’ as Condi, but she would reach the voters Condi couldn’t possibly reach because Palin’s white, “attractive,’ has five children and is soon to be a grandma.
Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope said: “No one is closer to the oil industry than Gov. Palin. Along with her support for drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge and off our coasts, she also opposes a windfall profit tax on the richest oil companies. Under her leadership, Alaska has sued the federal government for considering listing the Polar Bear as a threatened species even though global warming threatens its very existence.”
The impact of global warming in Alaska is one of the worst on the planet. “Alaska has experienced an average warming of 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 °F) and about 4.5 °C (8°F) in the inner regions in winter months since the 1960s, the largest regional warming of anywhere in the U.S., according to records.”
The Alaskan landscape is covered with dead spruce trees after a major outbreak of spruce bark bettles in the arctic region in this file image. REUTERS/handout
“In Alaska, 35 percent forest, global warming is causing irreversible changes including droughts, forest fires, and infestations of tree-killing insects like spruce beetles and spruce budworm moths. In the last 15 years, the spruce beetles, which thrive in warmer climates, have destroyed a total of about 3 million acres (1.21 million hectares) of spruce forest in south-central Alaska.”
“The warmer temperature means Alaska’s peat bogs, which are nearly 14,000 years old, are drying up. Ed Berg, an ecologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has discovered that shrubs and other plants have been rooting in areas of peat big normally too soggy for woody plants to grow during the last three decades.”
Palin, however, doesn’t believe in sustainability or alternative energy. She said, “alternative-energy solutions are far from imminent and would require more than 10 years [sic] to develop” [The Post and Courier Charleston, SC, 8/16/08.] Never mind the fact that the Department of Energy has clearly stated that offshore drilling “would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030.”
It’s All About Big Oil [and Big Money, too,] Stupid!
“When I look every day, the big oil company’s building is right out there next to me, and it’s quite a reminder that we should have mutually beneficial relationships with the oil industry.” (Roll Call, 8/25/08)
In A Letter About Sarah Palin from Anne Kilkenny, quoting Anne Kilkenny, a resident of Wasilla, Alaska, where Palin was a mayor from 1996 to 2002, Mudflats wrote: “She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it
with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece of property that the City didn’t even have clear title to, that was still in litigation 7 yrs later–to the delight of the lawyers involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing.”
A big spender, Palin must have already entered Wall Street International Banking Syndicate’s “Top Ten Most ‘Friendly’ US Governors’ Chart.” In June 2007, Palin signed into law the largest operating budget in Alaska’s history, more than $6.6 billion. (Source.)
“There has to be literally millions of Americans who are more knowledgeable and experienced than she.” Said Anne Kilkenny, a homemaker.
Way to Go Gov!
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“As we rely more and more on other countries that don’t care as much about the climate as we do, we’re allowing them to produce and to emit and even pollute more than America would ever stand for,” said Sarah Palin, when commenting on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, in Thursday’s U.S. vice presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
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