Sarah Palin on Environmental Issues

McCain has already flip-flopped on off-shore oil drilling, and we already know that Sarah Palin wants to drill, drill, drill and drill some more. But, what about the rest of Sarah Palin’s environmental record?

But the woman who could soon be a 72-year-old’s heartbeat away from the United States presidency has an environmental policy so toxic it would make the incumbent, George Bush, blush.

Mr McCain has stressed he is concerned about global warming and has come out against drilling in the Arctic reserve. But, in recent weeks, he has wobbled on the issue. And environmentalists are describing Mrs Palin, who denies climate change is man-made, as “either grossly misinformed or intentionally misleading.”

She wants to start drilling. She wants to block US moves to list the polar bear as an endangered species. And she has allowed big game hunters to shoot Alaska’s bears and wolves from low-flying planes.

The 44-year-old governor says a federal government decision to protect the polar bear will cripple energy development offshore. As a result, she is suing the Bush administration, which ruled the polar bear is endangered and needs protection.

But, it doesn’t stop there. If Sarah Palin has her way, those pristine mountains Alaska is so well-known for will be decimated by open-cast mining, also known as strip-mining. And if that doesn’t enrage you, perhaps when the fight to include Beluga whales on the Endangered Species list (if it will still exist under a McCain/Palin administration) will.

The Palin administration has allowed Chevron to triple the amount of toxic waste it pours into the waters of Cook Inlet. This, even though the number of beluga whales in the bay has collapsed from 1,300 to 350 — the point of extinction — because of pollution and increased ship traffic.

Add to that shooting animals from the air for the thrill of it, of course, that’s after putting a bounty on the head and foreleg of wolves.

Big game hunters are happy to pay lots of money to shoot wolves and bears from the air. They also chase them across the snow to the point of exhaustion and then land the planes on skis, shooting them from point-blank range. The animals are considered endangered across the “lower 48″ states of America, but not Alaska. The hunters keep and sell the animals’ pelts.

Last year, Mrs Palin proposed offering a bounty of $150 per wolf, as long as the hunter provided the wolf’s foreleg as proof of the kill. The measure did not pass. She even spent $400,000 on a state-funded campaign to block attempts to end the hunt.

There is a Hopi prophesy that states, “When the grandmothers speak, the earth will be healed.” Obviously, Sarah Palin, is neither a grandmother, nor concerned with the earth. It will be up to the grandmothers, the crones, the wise-women of this country to ensure Palin does not continue to desecrate the earth, and instead bring some much-needed healing.