Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Sarah Palin Denies Global Warming, Says Polar Bears Not Endangered

by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy

Alaska leads the US in global warming! As for Polar Bears --Alaska's entire population of Polar Bears will be killed off by the year 2050 unless Palin's policies are stopped now. These developments are concurrent with the increase of oil exploration and drilling in Alaska. Palin is lying about Alaska, about oil, about Polar Bears and about Global Warming. [See: Washington Post, Polar Bear Population Seen Declining; ]
As a result of these efforts, polar bears are more numerous now than they were 40 years ago. The polar bear population in the southern Beaufort Sea off Alaska’s North Slope has been relatively stable for 20 years, according to a federal analysis.

...

In fact, there is insufficient evidence that polar bears are in danger of becoming extinct within the foreseeable future — the trigger for protection under the Endangered Species Act. And there is no evidence that polar bears are being mismanaged through existing international agreements and the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act.

--Sarah Palin, New York Times
In fact, the polar bear population in Alaska is declining.
Two-thirds of the world's polar bears will be killed off by 2050 _ and the entire population gone from Alaska _ because of thinning sea ice from global warming in the Arctic, government scientists forecast Friday.

Only in the northern Canadian Arctic islands and the west coast of Greenland are any of the world's 16,000 polar bears expected to survive through the end of the century, said the US Geological Survey, which is the scientific arm of the Interior Department.

--The Associated Press, Washington Post, Polar Bear Population Seen Declining
Palin denies that human activity --including the drilling, production and refining of oil --has any effect on environments, a position that puts her to the right of even George W. Bush. In fact, Alaska is where it's 'at' in terms of global warming.
We have billions and billions of barrels of oil and trillions of feet of natural gas. We have so much potential from tapping our resources here in Alaska. And we can do this with minimum environmental impact. We have a very pro-development president in President Bush, and yet he failed to push for opening up parts of Alaska to drilling through Congress — and a Republican-controlled Congress, I might add.

I thought when we hit $100 a barrel for oil it would have been a psychological barrier that would have caused Congress to reconsider, but they didn't. Now we are approaching $200 a barrel. It's nonsense not to tap a safe domestic source of oil. I think Americans need to hold Congress accountable on this one.

Sarah Palin, Newsmax
Palin has put short term economic and monetary gains above the longer term concerns about quality of life, the environment, and renewable energy. It is not only her positions that are wrong, it is the attitude and mindset that places shallow and short-term values of this generation above those of the longer term concerns of future generations, indeed, life on earth.

Palin is either wrong or lying about Alaska and the harm that is done to the environment by an oil industry that she is in bed with. Palin should have talked with folk in Texas, an environment that has been raped and despoiled since Spindletop. Some parts of the world --like Iraq --are simply bombed and waged war upon for oil! But there is a word for those folk, like Palin, who just do it for the money.
Though warming is happening faster in Alaska than anywhere else in the US — average temperatures in the country's biggest state have risen 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit over the past 50 years — Palin is on record doubting that human action is the main driver behind climate change.

...

More pertinent might be Palin's positions on oil drilling in Alaska, where rich petroleum reserves paid each citizen over $1,600 in dividends in 2007. Though the McCain campaign has made much of Palin's willingness to stand up to the powerful energy industry in Alaska — last year she adjusted the state Petroleum Profits Tax to close loopholes exploited by oil and gas companies — on the whole she's been a staunch supporter of fossil fuels. She opposes strengthening protections for beluga whales in Alaska's Cook Inlet, where oil and gas development has been proposed, and she spent $500 million in state money to encourage the development of a 1,700-mile pipeline that would transport natural gas from Alaska's rich North Shore. When the Department of the Interior in May listed the polar bear as a threatened species due to warming—an action that could interfere with drilling in Alaska's coastal waters, where the polar bears live —Palin sued the Federal Government in response. "Our main concern with Sarah Palin's positions are that they are based on doing what is best for the oil industry, and not what is best for Americans," says David Willett, national press secretary for the Sierra Club.

--Time, Palin Far Right on the Environment
Addendum: Facts About Global Warming
What we know:

Carbon Dioxide is a greenhouse gas. It allows light to pass through but traps heat. Here’s how it works: CO2 absorbs certain wavelengths of energy. This means that radiation from the sun can enter the atmosphere as light. Once this radiation hits the ground, it turns into heat. This heat then radiates back into the atmosphere and out into space. CO2 traps some of the heat.
  1. CO2 has gone from roughly 280 ppm (parts per million) in the atmosphere before the industrial revolution to about 380 ppm now. Each year humans pump out about 6 billion tons of CO2 with an annual growth rate of about 1.9% predicted between 2001 - 2025 (although actual emissions growth was 3.2% per year from 2000 to 2005).
  2. CO2 remains in the air for about 100 years, so even if we stopped emitting it right now we would still feel the effects for decades.

  3. CO2 and temperature have increased and decreased together over the history of the planet.
  4. There is more CO2 in the atmosphere now than there has been in 650,000 years. The rate of increase is unprecedented over the same period.
  5. Svante Arrhenius estimated 100 years ago that a doubling of CO2 would create a 4 degree C rise in temperature. In 1979 the Charney report predicted global warming of 3 degrees C if CO2 doubled in the atmosphere (we are a quarter of the way there). In 1988 James Hansen of NASA predicted to Congress that temperature would increase over the next decades.
  6. Temperature has increased since those predictions were made. The top 5 hottest years according to NASA are, in order, 2005, 1998, 2002, 2003, and 2004.The World Meteorological Association claims 2005 as the second hottest year on record. The difference is because NASA includes data from the Arctic. The top ten warmest years have been since 1990.
  7. Since 1850, we have seen temperatures increase at a rate of 1.1 F per century (about 1.5 - 1.8 F total). The rate increased to 3.2F per century since the mid 1970s (click here for more information).

  8. Species around the world are reacting to climate change: Since 1950, species distribution has shifted to the north 4 miles per decade, shifted to higher altitudes by 20 feet per decade, and Spring has advanced by 2.3 days per decade. In America, butterflies have moved their ranges north. They are no longer found in the southern parts of their old range. Costa Rican birds have extended their range northward. Tropical fish have been seen for the first time off the British Coast, and animals such as the Pied Flycatcher and the Winter Moth are finding their food supply affected by earlier Springs.

  9. Climate has changed rapidly in the past. The common example of rapid climate change is the Younger Dryas, when temperatures suddenly plunged, interrupting the warming trend at the end of the last ice age.

What we think we know:

  1. Temperatures are most likely warmer now than they have been at any time in the past 400 years. They are probably (slightly less certain) warmer than in the past 1200 years, perhaps (less certain) warmer than in the past 12,000 years, and new evidence suggests that we are approaching the warmest temperatures this planet has seen in a million years.

  2. Models predict that Earth’s average temperature will rise somewhere between 2 to 4.5 degrees C in the 21st century.
Sarah Palin --Lies and Idiocy

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

More and bigger hurricanes because science and problem solving are being ruined on purpose by these people:

John W. Dean's book, "Conservatives Without Conscience"

What I found provided a personal epiphany. Authoritarian conservatives are, as a researcher told me, "enemies of freedom, antidemocratic, antiequality, highly prejudiced, mean-spirited, power hungry, Machiavellian and amoral." And that's not just his view. To the contrary, this is how these people have consistently described themselves when being anonymously tested, by the tens of thousands over the past several decades.

..............
Today:

http://impeachment.kucinich.us/
http://kucinich.us/index.php?opt...=2410& Itemid=76

Your voices have been heard and your support continues to send a powerful message to lawmakers. That is why I call on you again to help us in a new effort to deliver 1 Million signatures to Speaker Pelosi on September 10, 2008.

FAQ
With an election right around the corner, isn't this a waste of time?
Shouldn't we just forget about it?

If we allow this administration to 'get away with it', we are openly saying that their type of conduct is permissible in future administrations, which of course would be a disaster for our nation. In reaffirming the rule of law we correct our nation's course away from disaster.

Unknown said...

Thanks for your comments, Bev. I am in complete agreement and I share your opinion of Dean's book.

Forgive me if I sound immodest, but I have been literally RAGING against the the apparent 'lack of empathy' throughout the conservative community for years.

I have a confession to make...for a very brief period of time, I consulted two 'conservative' politicians. Both were 'close' to Tom DeLay who had just begun his rise to infamy and power at the time. It was a time in which DeLay had plans to gerrymander the state of Texas. The experience proved to have been my political education.

I'll skip the sordid details except to say that I resigned in disgust and for reasons of conscience. Instead of consulting conservatives, I have actively worked to defeat them.

Conservative values are failed values because they follow from the 'conservative mentality' characterized as it is by the 'utter lack of empathy'.

Carl Jung estimated that about thirty percent of any population could be classified psychopathic. That, I believe, is the GOP!

That lack of empathy is a defining characteristic of hard core conservatives in America. It was likewise a defining characteristic of the Nazi war criminals who hanged at Nuremberg.

Dr. Gustav Gilbert, the American psychologist who was tasked with keeping the Nazi war criminals alive until they could be hanged said that --as a result of his experiences at Nuremberg --he could define 'EVIL' as 'the utter lack of empathy.'

His work is not inconsistent with that of Hanah Arendt who founded the New School in New York. Her study of the trial of Adolph Eichmann led to her works having to do with the 'banality of evil'. It is some of the essential literature in this field.

A few years ago, a Stanford Univ study attracted quite a bit of attention when it found that GOP types were more prone to nightmares and night terrors than ordinary folk. I might conclude that the nightmares and terrors are but manifestations of the many insecurities, fears, hate and venom than may be found in the psychopathic personality.

Thanks for the links. I recommend them.

Linda-Sama said...

I wondered when you were going to take a bite out of Palin, Len (make sure you spit it out tho.)

the woman is a menace and I've been blogging about her at Ageless Hippie Chick ever since McCain picked her (except today, I had to take a break!) check out the progressive Alaskan blogs I've posted about.

it absolutely boggles my mind that so many people are drinking the kool-aid about her.

Linda-Sama said...

p.s. you might enjoy reading about this nuttiness!

http://agelesshippiechick.blogspot.com/2008/09/be-afraid-be-very-afraid.html

Unconventional Conventionist said...

Len - you will probably appreciate the name that TexBetsy coined for Palin over at Mock, Paper, Scissors:

Mooselini!

Cheers -
UC

Anonymous said...

One little fact that the MSM rarely mentions when they talk about opening up ANWR is that the National Petroleum Reserve--NPR, formerly known as the Naval Petroleum Reserve--is close by and has a recognized 10 BILLION barrels of oil and Big Oil has had the rights to drill there for years but as of today, no rigs.

Why? Even if they do open up ANWR, unless a law is passed saying that the oil will be used in America, it goes on the open market to the highest bidder, like Japan.

Another fact left out is that Big Oil is currently sitting on around 65 MILLION acres of leases on ground owned by the federal government, yet very little drilling activity is going on there, why?

I'l answer my own question: Big Oil wants to get those OCS spots locked down NOW, when they've got two oil company shills in the White House.

When that happens, we'll be at their mercy for price-fixing even more than now.

One little tidbit that might be of interest:

I've got an older brother that works as an on-site geologist for oil drilling companies out West, in Montana, Wyoming, and the Dakotas.

He says that for the last 3 or 4 years, they've been "mapping and capping" the oil fields.

Meaning, that when they find a certified oil field, they map it for future use and cap it so the oil won't be extracted.

So much for those shifty Arabs causing the obscene rise in gasoline.

Unknown said...

Linda sez...

p.s. you might enjoy reading about this nuttiness!

Thanks for the link..I'm diggin' the playlist. Marvin Gaye! Annie Lennox!

Great stuff.

If I hadn't mentioned it...I got into 'media' by way of music. I tried out for a community play and never believed that I would get a part in the play.

Not only did I get a part on stage, I was referred to a radio station owner who needed someone to sign the station on the air while he slept in.

I got the job...the rest was, literally, my education and a lifetime career.

Thanks : )

BTW --I have several lists on Playlist. Search: Existentialist Cowboy

Unknown said...

Unconventional Conventionist said...

Len - you will probably appreciate ...Mooselini!

I love it! LOL Priceless!

Greg Bacon said...

but as of today, no rigs.

Why? Even if they do open up ANWR, unless a law is passed saying that the oil will be used in America, it goes on the open market to the highest bidder, like Japan.

Another fact left out is that Big Oil is currently sitting on around 65 MILLION acres of leases on ground owned by the federal government, yet very little drilling activity is going on there, why?

I'l answer my own question: Big Oil wants to get those OCS spots locked down NOW, when they've got two oil company shills in the White House.


I hope you've written this up!

I will seek it out and link back.

You have the nose for noose ...moose..uh...NEWS!

Unknown said...

Re: Linda's music list...

I'm kickin' back to Los Lobos! Excellent! Great music list.

Brings back memories of Juarez ---Pancho Villa territory ---just across the Rio Grande from El Paso! Passed many an hour on both sides of the Rio Grande.

Viva la Revolucion! Viva Villa! Viva Zapata!

Unknown said...

Los Lobos

I'll have another Dos Equis, por favor!

Linda-Sama said...

this is so off-topic, but what the hell...

glad you're likin' my playlist...yes, I do have very eclectic taste in music...and Los Lobos are on my top ten fave bands of all time...I saw them a month ago, in fact, they started 10 minutes early -- now what band ever starts EARLY?

they are consummate musicians.

Unknown said...

I really enjoy Los Lobos --also Freddie Fender et al. I have fond memories of the Mariachis and the Folk Lorico dancers in El Paso and Juarez. Freddie and Los Lobos were so great that they could capture that spirit within the context of contemporary music. It's a sound unlike any other anywhere in the world.

In Europe, I enjoy 'Gypsy Swing' and --not long ago --discovered an American who plays with Swiss Guitarists. He is a latter day Stephane Grappelli and his guitarists would do Django Reinhardt proud.

I love music.

Anonymous said...

Great post! Caribou Barbie (Palin) is nothing more than George W. Bush with a vagina.

I am a huge Los Lobos fan as well. Loved "Will the Wolf Survive".

Unknown said...

Great post Len. I'm not really surprised though. This governor denied funds for handicapped children in her state. In favor of pork barrel projects I presume. Have a great day!