SCIENCE: McCain, Palin Disagree on Global Warming

McCain, Palin Disagree on Global Warming

Tuesday, September 23, 2008 10:59 AM

By: Jim Meyers

Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s position on the causes of global warming stand in sharp contrast to those of her running mate John McCain, with the Alaska governor expressing skepticism that it’s man-made.

McCain has consistently asserted that people are driving global warming and supports a cap on greenhouse gases.

He said in July that “the science of man-made global warming has really been proven,” citing the “preponderance of scientific evidence.”

But Palin “has publicly questioned scientists’ near-consensus that human activity plays a role in the rising temperatures,” The Washington Post reported.

She opposed the Bush administration’s listing of polar bears as threatened with extinction because of shrinking sea ice, and sued to overturn the decision, claiming it would adversely affect Alaska’s commercial fisheries, transportation, and tourism, and would deter oil and gas exploration.

According to The Post, the reasons for Palin’s resistance to measures favored by environmentalists did not become clear until Newsmax magazine published an exclusive interview with the Alaska governor in the September issue, in which Palin said: “A changing climate will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location. I’m not one though who would attribute it to being mad-made.”


The rest of the media jumped all over the Newsmax story, which hit the stands just as McCain announced that Palin would be his running mate.

The interview was cited by The Washington Post, ABC News, Newsday, Politico, the Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, the St. Louis Post Dispatch, Talking Points Memo, Mother Jones, CNN.com, Time magazine, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the Orlando Sentinel, The National Review Online, the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun, Portfolio.com, and Media Life Magazine.

Palin also said in the Newsmax interview that the U.S. has “billions and billions of barrels of oil and trillions of feet of natural gas,” and that Alaska’s resources can be tapped “with minimum environmental impact.”