Although Palin established a sub-cabinet to deal with climate change issues a year ago, she has focused on how to adapt to global warming rather than how to combat it, and she has publicly questioned scientists’ near-consensus that human activity plays a role in the rising temperatures.

Perhaps of more concern to me is that she has not produced any reasoning–no alternate science, not even any alternate explanation NOT based on science–for her disbelief in the humuan impacts on the climate.  This mirrors her rejection of the science on polar bear habitat:

Initially, Palin said her state’s fish and wildlife department had conducted a review showing that the bears were not facing extinction. But Steiner, the professor, obtained an e-mail exchange showing that state officials concurred with federal scientists’ predictions that all of Alaska’s polar bears would disappear by mid-century if trends in greenhouse gas emissions continued.

Scott Schliebe, a retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist who oversaw the scientific analysis for the polar bear listing, said Palin and her deputies “had some strong views that were different from ours, and we thoroughly reviewed them. We didn’t find their views had merit from the mainstream consensus of scientific thinking, which was backed by data.”

One of the common criticisms of the Bush administration from scientists and those concerned about science (environmental and medical) is that the administration and its appointees reject the best available science on issues and instead make decisions based on personal agendas.  By choosing Palin as his running mate, McCain has demonstrated that he is willing to align himself with someone who does more of the same.  I had been heartened, orginally, by McCain’s positions on many environmental issues.  Palin is the nail in the coffin on my belief that McCain would represent any change from the current administration on important issues like energy and respect for science in shaping policy.

There are numerous issues with building right at the beach, having to do with insurance, the ability of the public to access the shore, and who pays for maintaining the beach.  These issues are often front and center in coastal communties, but many who live inland don’t think about these issues too often.  However, as global warming continues, coastlines are going to continue to disappear–homes that might now be behind dunes, or removed from the influence of tides, are going to be closer and closer to the edge of the sea as sea levels rise.  What responsibility do tax-payers carry in this case?  Do we bail out coastal home-owners the way we are buying out Wall Street firms that are going under?  It is a tough issue that policy makers are going to have to grapple with in the coming years.

The most ironic thing about this interview, for me, was that she first outlined her reasons for being anti-abortion,

   ”I’m pro-life. I’ll do all I can to see every baby is created with a future and potential. The legislature should do all it can to protect human life.’

and then followed this with her views on the importance of exploiting oil and natural gas.  So apparently the “future and potential” of human life does not need protecting from things like the proven detrimental health effects of air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels, and the negative effects of climate change–the intensification of tropical storms (were the victims of Katrina done exercising their potential, in her belief?), the loss of water and agricultural resources, and the more rampant spread of disease?  Interesting…

As reported by Bina Venkataraman in the New York Times, 

“What’s happened in the last 40, 50 years is that human activity has made the water quality conditions worse,” the study’s leader author, Robert J. Diaz, said in an interview.

The trend portends nothing good for many fisheries, said Dr. Diaz, a professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at the College of William and Mary. “Dead zones,” he said, “tend to occur in areas that are historically prime fishing grounds.”

Indeed, while the size of dead zones is small relative to the total surface of the oceans, scientists say they account for a significant part of ocean waters that support commercial fish and shellfish species.

The authors of the study conclude their report in Science with this observation:

Currently, hypoxia and anoxia are among the most widespread deleterious anthropogenic influences on estuarine and marine environments, and now rank with overfishing, habitat loss, and harmful algal blooms as major global environmental problems.  There is no other variable of such ecological importance to coastal marine ecosystems that has changed so drastically over such a short time as DO [dissolved oxygen].

The major cause of dead zones is the flow of too many nutrients down our rivers and out into coastal waters.  These nutrients come from agriculture (fertilizers), animal waste (from raising cows, pigs, poultry, etc.), and also from sewer overflows, air pollution, and other smaller contributors.  The entry of these nutrients into the rivers is made easier when wetlands and other riverside vegetation systems are destroyed for farmland or for other development. 

Better management of crop fertilization, manure disposal, and the requirement of ‘buffer zones’ of nutrient-absorbing vegetation and soil can all help lessen the problem of nutrient pollution (eutrophication) of our rivers and coastal zones.  Because the pollution often takes place across state and even national boundaries, this problem needs to be managed, and managed responsibly, at the highest levels.

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*A dead zone is a low-oxygen area in the ocean; the term tends to refer to areas where this low-oxygen (hypoxic) area is persistent in time, often leading to the death of sedentary and sessile organisms and attempts by mobile species to leave the area.

So, Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters, proposes that the slack be taken up by taking money from the MASS TRANSIT BUDGET [NY Times].  This, of course, at a time when much mass transit is pushed to the limit as former drivers look for more affordable ways to get to work. 

Way to get to the root of our nation’s transportation issues and do the best for the people, Secretary Powers!