plumranch
I am not a "Palin hater", but I am glad that she is not our vice president even though I am a woman. Personally I feel she showed she would not be
a good vice president with her actions and words.
I am not sure what you mean by a couple of your statements such as "we have environmentalists and their lawyers on every street corner" or
"Palin's position on polar bears and global warming is mainstream in Alaska.", because I lived in Anchorage for almost ten years and went to
University there, and I don't remember any such thing. But you could be right, it has been many years since I have lived in Anchorage.
I do know that in "some" areas the polar bears are "doing great", but the big picture shows that populations in general are declining. We have to
look at the big picture here, not just the few areas where they proliferate around humans because of "easy food" ie garbage. In Alaska 42% of cubs
now reach 12 months of age, compared to 65% 15 years ago.
www.defenders.org...
My question to Palin would be "why did she fight to keep polar bears off the endangered list"? She sued the Bush Administration in federal court
stating that they were too accepting of climate change studies which overstated the phenomenon's impact on polar bears. The result, she argued, would
be a negative impact on her state's businesses, including oil and gas extraction. Palin even had three of her own scientist review the USGS studies
and they found them sound.
Seems that Palin ignores and denies the studies done by USGS but supports studies funded by the petroleum industry. This shows me where her
allegiance lies, and it is not with the general public and the planet, but with the petroleum industry.
a.abcnews.com...
www.alaskatrekker.com...
en.wikipedia.org...
The annual average temperature in Alaska has increased 3.5°F from 1949 to 2005. Temperatures have changed more in Alaska over the past 30 years than
they have anywhere else on Earth: winters have warmed by a startling 5-6°F. The growing season has lengthened by two weeks.
I know where I live now that it IS getting warmer, I do not need a "study" to tell me this, I see it, I feel it. Every year they push the date of
opening the ski resort later and later in the season. Used to be they would open by Thanksgiving weekend, this year they did not open until almost
Christmas. Used to be we had snow by mid October, and this has not been the case for many years. This year we were thinking we would not even have
snow by Christmas, but the week before we finally did.
I am a gardener and my plants are growing far later into the season, such as this year I had fresh tomatoes from my garden for Thanksgiving. And now,
it being January, I am getting many plants growing already, which should not be the case until about late February early March.
This past year the growing zones were changed all across the country, stating a longer and warmer growing season everywhere. I can grow plants in my
area, that used to be I could not as it was in general too cold.
Many of our native trees are dying out, as the weather is too warm for them (or the summer too warm and dry as well as the winters being warmer). We
have others being killed by a beetle that normally would die out during cold winters, and this is not happening. We are losing thousands of acres, I
have personally seen in just a few weeks whole mountain sides die out because of these beetles. Trees are dying across a wide variety of forest types,
at all elevations and all tree sizes. This in turn affects our wildlife and the future of our wildlife. I can't deny the truth of this, as I see it
with my own eyes.
What has been so unusual, is that many many days I have been able to go outside and work in my yard, in a short sleeved shirt in the middle of winter,
this is not normal for where I live. My son will even go outside to play in shorts and t-shirt and stay plenty plenty warm.
I am not arguing FOR global warming being caused by humans only, but I do know that the climate is changing. What is causing this change in my mind
is what is in question, not that it is taking place, but how much of an impact that humans are having.
Personally I feel that living "greener" cannot "harm" the earth and all of us that live here, not just humans but animals and plants.
I ask you, do you feel that we should continue to "suck up" the resources of our home without looking at the possible consequences of doing so? We
have 6.756 billion humans living on this planet and the world's population is expected to reach nearly 9 billion by the year 2040. Do you think that
we have no impact on this planet? Or no responsibility towards keeping the planet as healthy as possible? It floors me, that many people do not
realize the impact that 6.756 billion humans can have. It just seems instinctualy impossible to me, that this number of humans, could have zero
impact on the environment, and believe that we can continue as we have been without consequences.
en.wikipedia.org... has some great information, not just about "global warming" being caused by humans, but other causes as
well. Seems to me that the question is not "is the earth warming up" but "what factors are causing the warming" and "what does this mean" as
well as "can humans be having an impact and if so how much of an impact"?
en.wikipedia.org... has several good charts that are easy too understand.
So, I guess my point is that yes I believe that something is taking place with our climate, but I do not know that humans are 100% the cause, but that
it cannot hurt for us to live with the mindset of "green". Therefor lowering the impact of almost 7 billion people, which is something new in the
history of this planet.
To me, it is arrogant for humans to think that we have no impact what so ever and that we can continue on the same path we have been on without those
consequences "biting us on the as@".
Peace
