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Palin is, if nothing else, consistent. She tried to sue the US government to derail the listing of polar bears as a threatened species, fearing that it would get in the way of oil and gas development - this as the ice melts under their paws and they are literally drowning. She then wrote a piece for the New York Times, saying that these "magnificent cuddly white bears are doing just fine and don't need our protection. If the ice melts, they'll adapt to living on land". That is a contention most scientists found reckless, given that polar bears have shown little ability to feed on land.
Palin also questioned the scientific consensus that global warming is melting the Arctic sea ice, but failed to mention oil drilling or the routine oil spills that, over the years, have destroyed the ecology of nearly 18,000 acres of wildlife and marine habitat. "We need to drill, drill, drill," she told the Wall Street Journal recently, and she is in the forefront of moves to exploit the long-protected Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). "If Alaskans can't do that on our own land, then the nation is going to be in a world of hurt, depending on dangerous foreign powers." She argues that "ANWR is only the size of the Los Angeles airport, and drilling there isn't environmentally destructive".
In oil-rich Alaska, that goes down well. Many residents support drilling in the 7.7m-hectare refuge on the north coast, an area considered by conservationists as a treasured wild place. "If you're not for opening ANWR, in the state of Alaska, you couldn't get elected dog-catcher," says former Alaska state representative Ray Metcalfe, a Republican-turned-Democrat who supports Barack Obama. Alaska is wildly beautiful and sparsely populated, with abundant natural resources that more recently have started to become scarce. In her two years as governor, Palin has got her own pleasure out of its wildlife. There are photos of her posing with the bloodied carcasses of moose, caribou, elk and grizzly bear.
This summer, she reached new lows in the eyes of conservationists by approving the killing of black bear sows with cubs. The year before, she put a $150 bounty on wolf paws to entice hunters to kill more of these elusive wild dogs. She also spent $400,000 of public money to defeat an initiative that would have banned aerial hunting of wolves for sport. "Palin is an environmental horror story," claims conservationist Dave Chandler. "Alaska's out-of-control wolf slaughter is pretty brutal. When she approved the killing of all wolves in the Cold Bay area, state officials illegally killed 14 wolf pups - after killing their mothers - by dragging them out of their dens and shooting them."
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/17/poles.wildlife