It’s been quite a week with the arrival of Sarah Palin on the national stage of the presidential elections. We have written about candidates’ stance on green issues here. So, with the arrival of Palin, green campaigners would like to know where she stands on the issue of climate change, which is a key election issue. Nothing much has been said yet (the focus has been heavily set on Palin’s love of hunting), although a report from the Sydney Morning Herald may give us an idea:
The Alaska Governor has said that she [Palin] 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.
Trusting scientific evidence of human-caused climate change is one of the essential motivators to look for alternative fuels, I would say. But there’s still a lot of water to pass under the elections bridge … We’ll be keeping an eye on any developments related to Palin’s stance on climate change and her views on alternative energy.
