Gov. Palin Vindicated as Global Warming-Polar Bear Link Melts Down

Sarah Palin knows a thing or two about bears.
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Investigative reporter Audrey Hudson in today's edition of Human Events:

Polar bears drowning in an Alaskan sea because the ice packs are melting—it’s the iconic image of the global warming debate.

But the validity of the science behind the image—presented as an ignoble testament to our environment in peril by Al Gore in his film An Inconvenient Truth—is now part of a federal investigation that has the environmental community on edge.

Special agents from the Interior Department’s inspector general's office are questioning the two government scientists about the paper they wrote on drowned polar bears, suggesting mistakes were made in the math and as to how the bears actually died, and the department is eyeing another study currently underway on bear populations.

Biologist Charles Monnett, the lead scientist on the paper, was placed on administrative leave July 18. Fellow biologist Jeffrey Gleason, who also contributed to the study, is being questioned, but has not been suspended.

The disputed paper was published by the journal Polar Biology in 2006, and suggests that the “drowning-related deaths of polar bears may increase in the future if the observed trend of regression of pack ice and/or longer open-water periods continues.”

It galvanized the environmental movement that led to the bear’s controversial listing in 2008 as threatened, and it is now protected under the Endangered Species Act.

[More]

In a January 5, 2008 New York Times op-ed, Sarah Palin, then governor of Alaska, explained that her state's wildlife scientists had investigated this issue thoroughly and reached conclusions that were the polar opposite of those expressed in the now disputed paper by Monnett and Gleason:

The Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group, has argued that global warming and the reduction of polar ice severely threatens the bears’ habitat and their existence. 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.

The state takes very seriously its job of protecting polar bears and their habitat and is well aware of the problems caused by climate change. But we know our efforts will take more than protecting what we have — we must also learn what we don’t know. That’s why state biologists are studying the health of polar bear populations and their habitat.

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.

We’re not against protecting plants and animals under the Endangered Species Act. Alaska has supported listings of other species, like the Aleutian Canada goose. The law worked as it should — under its protection the population of the geese rebounded so much that they were taken off the list of endangered and threatened species in 2001.

Listing the goose — then taking it off — was based on science. The possible listing of a healthy species like the polar bear would be based on uncertain modeling of possible effects. This is simply not justified.

[More]

It appears that Gov. Palin, who knows a thing or two about bears, is being vindicated yet again.

- JP

Sarah Palin: “Global Warming” Is More Like a Snow Job

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Sarah Palin, in an op-ed posted early Friday morning Texas Time on her Facebook Notes page, blasted the Obama administration for clinging to discredited environmentalist guns and anthropogenic global warming religion:

"Global Warming" – More Like a Snow Job

Over the last few months, and even again today, very unsettling revelations have come to light about the “settled science” of man-made global warming. With all of these shoes dropping you’d think every member of the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) would be barefoot by now.

One thing after another keeps popping up to further discredit the theory of man-made global warming. The IPCC’s supposedly definitive report proving the theory is riddled with serious errors. The organization has been publicly chastised by everyone from its former chair to the heads of the UK’s biggest funder of climate research and Greenpeace UK. One of the world’s top climate change scientists, Prof. Phil Jones, has conceded that there’s been no significant warming since 1995; that the medieval period may have been warmer than today; and that he’s had trouble even keeping track of raw data crucial to the global warming theory. Yet President Obama still seeks to create a federal office for global warming, and they’re still talking about mandating their cap-and-tax plan that's based on discredited data.

The Obama administration’s environmental extremism also shows up in its aversion to oil and gas development. A true all-of-the-above approach to energy would mean allowing oil and gas explorers to drill here and drill now because America has the proven reserves needed to meet our energy challenges. A new industry study reveals that the federal government's current restrictions on oil and gas drilling in Alaska and off the U.S. coastline will cost us $2.36 trillion through 2029. Think of the millions of U.S. jobs we could create, and how much more secure America would be, if we had a true free market approach to energy independence that allowed us to finally drill!

And though I applaud the President’s newly declared interest in nuclear power, it should be noted that he’s merely following through on loan guarantees authorized during the prior administration. What’s more, while the White House now touts the building of new nuclear power plants, its budget inexplicably calls for cutting funding to the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. A real nuclear energy plan requires a strategy for dealing with nuclear waste storage and recycling.

The man-made global warming hysteria isn’t based on sound science, and the Obama administration’s energy policy isn’t based on sound economics. If the climategate revelations teach us anything, it’s that we need to cool down the rhetoric and fire up our common sense.

- Sarah Palin

- JP

“Loggers rock!” - Palin Palm Pen strikes again

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Here are some choice morsels from Doni Greenberg's eyewitness account of the first of two Sarah Palin appearances in Redding, CA Monday:

Sarah Palin received a rock star’s welcome at the Sierra Cascade Logging Conference where she spoke before the first of two sold-out shows at the Redding Convention Center this afternoon.

That’s 4,000 people who paid between $54 for a balcony seat to $74 for a floor seat.

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I heard every word and felt the crowd’s jostling adoration as they cheered and applauded throughout Palin’s speech.

The audience... was already on its feet when Palin was introduced.

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Loud laughter followed Palin’s references to “lame-stream media” and jeers accompanied every reference to global warming. Enthusiastic boos followed a reference to Nancy Pelosi.

She endeared herself to the logging conference crowd by holding her hand up to show what was written on her palm: “Loggers rock!” - an apparent dig at “lame-stream media” who recently ridiculed her for writing memory prompts on her hand. And toward the end of her talk she complimented logging industry folks when she referred to an administration that talks about green jobs.

“You guys were doing green jobs before green jobs were even cool!”

And although Palin tailored some of her speech especially for the logging industry, her message also had the ring of someone running for office as she recounted a lifetime of accomplishments, from city council and mayor to governor and vice presidential candidate.

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The audience - a group who’d waited patiently outside in long lines as security shone flashlights inside purses - roared its approval, and kept it up throughout Palin’s nearly hour-long speech.

The full blog post is here.

We also have a few excerpts from the AP story in the Mercury News:

Palin said California's heavy regulatory environment makes it difficult for businesses to succeed, a point that is shared by many business leaders in the state.

She criticized what she said were heavy-handed environmental laws.

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Palin told the audience that filled the 2,000-seat Redding Convention Center that she disagreed with the science the government used to support the listing.

"We knew the bottom line ... was ultimately to shut down a lot of our development," she said during her 40-minute speech, which was followed by a 20-minute question-and-answer session.

"And it didn't make any sense because it was based on these global warming studies that now we're seeing (is) a bunch of snake oil science."

Palin urged the federal government to allow states to make such decisions for themselves.

- JP

Quote of the Day (December 17, 2009)

Investors Business Daily:

"Well, if we close our eyes, click our heels and follow Schwarzenegger's lead, we just might find ourselves back in a preindustrial Kansas. Just pay no attention to the climate research hoaxers behind the curtain at the University of East Anglia. Along the yellow brick road from Hollywood to Copenhagen, Schwarzenegger took time to question Palin's stance on global warming... Palin opposes cap-and-trade... as an unnecessary and ineffective solution to a non-problem that will transfer our wealth to the Hugo Chavezes and Robert Mugabes of the world."

- JP

IBD Editors weigh in on Palin v. Gore

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The editors of Investors Business Daily on the matter of Palin v. Gore:

The Alaskan governor who knew polar bears weren't endangered says the planet isn't either and challenges the oracle of climate change. Al Gore says despite the CRU e-mails, the situation is of the utmost gravity.

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So fact-challenged is Gore on the subject that when he criticized Palin's position on global warming, he claimed: "I haven't read all the e-mails, but the most recent one is more than 10 years old. These private exchanges between these scientists do not in any way cause any question about the scientific consensus." Oh, yes they do, Al, and the word is "conspiracy," not "consensus."

As Anthony Watts' Web site Watts Up With That shows, one Climate-gate e-mail was from just two months ago. The most recent was sent on Nov. 12 — just a month ago. East Anglia Climate Research Unit director Phil Jones' infamous e-mail urging other Climate-gate scientists to delete e-mails is from last year.

As for the disappearing polar ice cap, according to the National Snow And Ice Data Center, second-year ice — the ice that survives the annual and normal summer melt — this summer made up 32% of the total ice cover on the Arctic Ocean compared with 21% in 2007 and 9% in 2008. Clearly, Arctic sea ice is not following the consensus touted by Gore and the warm mongers.

Despite pictures of floating polar bears taken in summer, data reported by the University of Illinois' Arctic Climate Research Center show global sea-ice levels the same as they were in 1979, when satellite observations began.

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In this fight, we'll side with Gov. Palin, who says: "Saying no to Copenhagen and cap-and-tax are first steps in 'restoring science to its rightful place.'"

A growing number of Americans are becoming skeptical of what Gore says on the subject, and it's not simply because some data was cooked. Gore doesn't help his own cause when he says stupid things such as his recent claim that the temperature deep within the interior of the planet is "millions of degrees." we wonder how much longer can Gore get away with with his climate scam. Granted, there's no controlling legal authority to regulate his hot air emissions, but it's long past time that this charlatan was shut up, if not shut down.

Read the full IBD editorial here.

- JP

Sarah Palin buzz dominates blogs for 2nd week in a row

According to the Pew Research Center, which tracks such things, for the second week in a row Sarah Palin was the most-discussed topic in the blogosphere:

The governor of Alaska garnered 33% of the blogger links this past week as the conversation followed two different news stories.

One was a July 14 column Palin wrote for the Washington Post opposing the cap-and-trade energy proposal being debated in Congress. The other was a July 13 Los Angeles Times story that focused on the criticism Palin has received from members of her own party.

About the op-ed, Pew notes, some bloggers praised her opinion piece as a home run:

"The op-ed piece you wrote in the Post about Cap and Trade was not only right on the mark, but hit the exact tone and language many of us need to hear," wrote Ashok at the blog Rethink. "We need a general outline of a given situation, the arguments presented, and the facts that support one position or another: without any wasted words you made your case."

Some of Palin's detractors, however, not only questioned her position, but also her motives.

"Palin clearly wants to be relevant in her forthcoming post-resignation days, and what better way than by declaring herself the lead spokesperson attacking efforts to stop climate change?" asked Kevin Grandia at desmogblog. "In true GOP fashion, Palin seeks to put the fear of God and all things scary into readers minds, foretelling an apocalyptic future for any who subscribe to the idea that we need to curb carbon emissions to save the climate and protect our economy from carbon dependence."

Who's scaring who? Sarah Palin is not the one going around like some creepy Al Gore, bloated on carbon credits and trying to frighten everyone into believing that man-made global warming is the end of the world as we know it. But I feel fine: In fact, in Big Al's home town of Nashville, TN, the National Weather Service has recorded record low July temperatures three days in a row.

- JP

Palin makes the green case for Alaskan natural gas

Governor Sarah Palin knew well who she was talking to when she presented her case before Interior Secretary Salazar today. Unlike some of the greener members of President Obama's administration, Salazar refuses to take domestic oil and gas production off of the table. But he's also revoked oil and gas exploration leases and reversed some oil shale leases, and he's signed on to Obama's plan to ramp up the use of renewable energy. Palin is banking on Salazar's statements to the effect that a balanced approach to the nation's energy problems is needed.

The governor knows that she will never convince the secretary to support or even allow drilling in ANWR, so today she talked up the environmental advantages of her state's abundant natural gas deposits. Natural gas burns cleaner than the coal and fuel oil that are being used to generate power and heat homes in much of the U.S.

Palin tailored her appeal to Salazar today by framing it in the context of global warming, a process about which she had previously expressed some skepticism:

"Stopping domestic energy production of preferred fuels does not solve the issues associated with global warming and threatened or endangered species, but it can make them worse," she said.

Palin acknowledged that "many believe" a global effort to reduce greenhouse gases is needed. "Simply waiting for low-carbon-emitting renewable capacity to be large enough will mean that it will be too late to meet the mitigation goals for reducing (carbon dioxide) that will be required under most credible climate change models," she warned.

"Meeting these goals will require a dramatic increase ... to preferred available fuels, including natural gas, that have a very low carbon footprint. ... ," she said. "These available fuels are required to supply the nation's energy needs during the transition to green energy alternatives."

Palin told Salazar that replacing dirtier fuels with cleaner-burning natural gas could slow the discharge of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Salazar is likely well aware of how sensitive the issue of jobs is to the Obama administration at a time when national unemployment is on the rise. Alaskan officials say that increasing offshore production can create 35,000 jobs with a payroll of $72 billion over the next 50 years.

Salazar told the more than 1,000 Alaskans at the hearing that but traditional oil and gas will remain part of the country's energy program:

"I understand the passion I feel in this room today," he said. "I understand the point of view of people who have subsisted in the fishing industry from time immemorial and the importance of wanting to maintain that way of life. I understand the sense I hear also from many of the people here that we need to have economic development, we need to have jobs, and oil and gas can be part of that job development."

- JP