Environment Forum

Global environmental challenges

Sarah Palin: glaciers, wolves and global warming

Photo

US Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) waves to the crowd alongside Republican vice presidential candidate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (R), during an outdoor rally in Fairfax, Virginia, September 10, 2008. REUTERS/Jason Reed (UNITED STATES) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008 (USA)A 1917 sign in Kenai Fjords National Park in Alaska shows where the end of the Exit Glacier used to be — a mile from the current edge of a receding wall of ice.

Read my colleague Ed Stoddard’s fascinating tale from the park about the U.S. ‘environmental wars’ since Republican presidential candidate John McCain picked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Would a Vice President Palin sway a President McCain away from his long-standing drive for tougher action on climate change if the Republican pair win November’s election?

Palin favours expanded drilling for oil, opposes a Bush administration decision to list polar bears as threatened and doubts that human activities cause climate change, which is warming the Arctic twice as fast as the rest of the globe. The aptly named Exit glacier, like almost all glaciers around the world, is shrinking.   A polar bear and two cubs are seen on the Beaufort Sea coast within the 1002 Area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in this undated file handout photograph provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Alaska Governor and Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin has opposed the listing of the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act because that status could hamper expanded drilling in remote regions. To match feature USA-POLITICS/ALASKA-ENVIRONMENT REUTERS/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/Handout (UNITED STATES). FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS.

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