For the story on Governor Sarah Palin being selected as Senator McCain’s running mate, please click here. In addition you will find a half dozen other posts on Sarah Palin by using the search box in the top left corner.
The Anchorage Daily News is reporting that the Republican Governor Sarah Palin has announced that the State of Alaska will sue to challenge the recent listing of polar bears as a threatened species. Palin argued there is not enough evidence to support a listing. Polar bears are well-managed and their population has dramatically increased over 30 years as a result of conservation, she said. Maybe she should read the USGS report that came out in September 2007. It took me 20 seconds to find it, you’re a Governor, they should send it to you for free. Here’s the Washington Post’s story on the USGS report. Some highlights:
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 U.S. Geological Survey, which is the scientific arm of the Interior Department.
USGS projects that polar bears during the next half-century will disappear along the north coasts of Alaska and Russia and lose 42 percent of the Arctic range they need to live in during summer in the Polar Basin when they hunt and breed. A polar bear’s life usually lasts about 30 years.
“Projected changes in future sea ice conditions, if realized, will result in loss of approximately two-thirds of the world’s current polar bear population by the mid 21st century,” the report says
And since Governor Palin is too lazy to use an Internet search engine, here is the report from September 2007 by the United States Geological Survey. Just download the PDFs and print them. Then try reading them.
More on the Impact of Global Warming on Polar Bears from the Anchorage Daily News and from Polar Bear International, an advocacy group.
To be fair, Governor Palin has tackled corruption and led ethics reform in one of the most corrupt states in the United States. She has taken on the oil companies, lobbyists and special interests in her crusade for responsible government. She also broke the power of the old party machinery to win election as Alaska’s first female governor. But on this one issue, I hope she can be persuaded to seriously consider the work of the USGS.