Palin Has Sought to Remove Endangered Species Act Protection for the Polar Bear, Suppressed and Lied About State Global Warming Studies, and Denied That Global Warming Is Caused by Greenhouse Gas Emissions  

The Center for Biological Diversity today awarded Alaska Governor the 2008 Rubber Dodo Award. Last year’s award, which inaugurated the prize, went to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne for setting a new record in refusing to add imperiled plants and animals to the endangered species list. This year’s award goes to Governor Palin for fighting Kempthorne’s designation of the polar bear as a threatened species.  

Governor Palin has waged a deceptive, dangerous, and costly battle against the polar bear,” said Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity. “Her position on global warming is so extreme, she makes Dick Cheney look like an Al Gore devotee.”

Palin has waged a deceptive public relations campaign, asserting that the polar bear is increasing. But many populations (including Alaska’s southern Beaufort Sea) are in decline and two-thirds (including all Alaska bears) are projected to disappear by 2050 by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Palin has repeatedly asserted that Alaska Department of Fish and Game scientists found fatal flaws in the sea ice models used by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to determine the polar bear is threatened. When challenged, Palin refused to release the alleged state review. Independent scientists eventually obtained a summary through the federal Freedom of Information Act, revealing that Palin had lied: The state mammalogists concurred with the Fish and Wildlife Service determination that Arctic sea ice is melting at an extraordinary rate and threatens the polar bear with extinction.

“All global warming deniers are eventually forced to suppress scientific studies, and Palin is no different,” said Suckling. “To maintain her ludicrous opposition to protecting the polar bear in the face of massive scientific consensus, Palin stepped over the line to lie about and suppress government science.”

Palin has since filed a frivolous lawsuit against the Bush administration to have the threatened listing overturned. Meanwhile, the U.S. Geological Survey announced on September 16th that the 2008 summertime Arctic sea-ice melt was the second greatest on record, nearly matching the extraordinary melt of 2007.

“Palin’s insistence that Arctic melting is ‘uncertain’ is like someone debating the theory of gravity as they plunge off a cliff,” said Suckling. “It’s hopeless, reckless, and extremely cynical.”

The Lang Report would like to congratulate Governor Sarah Palin on her winning the 2008 Rubber Dodo Award.

AROUND THE BLOGOSPHERE:

Alaska Biologist Exposes Palin’s Environmental Record: Guest Post - Ken Taylor, a state wildlife official appointed by Palin, downplayed the importance of the disagreement. (More recently, Taylor retired and became the chief environmental officer for the mining company planning the Pebble Mine project.) …

Eco-Palin? She Fowls Her Own Nest in Wasilla’s Dead Lake - Well, as usual with Sarah Palin, the words do not match her actions. David Talbot of Salon.com has unearthed yet another Palin contradiction that gives us an inside look into her complete disregard for environmental stewardship as the …

One More Reason To Vote Against Sarah Palin - Sarah herself is a total catastrophe on the environment. If she did one pro-environmental thing in the course of her tenure as Governor, please let me know. She’s about as anti-environmental as you can get. …

Political Climate: Palin: A fading czar? - Since John McCain picked Sarah Palin as his number two, there’s been speculation about exactly how much influence the climate-denying, pro-drilling Alaskan governor would have on a McCain administration’s environmental policies. …

Environment ‘08: Where Does Your Candidate Stand? - Scanning through The Guardian recently, I read that Sarah Palin won the Centre for Biological Diversity’s Rubber Dodo award for insisting the polar bear population is increasing in Alaska, despite data to the contrary. …