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Hello Sarah Palin, Goodbye ANWR
Republican delegates in St. Paul this week believe Sarah Palin could provide the tipping point on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Washington Wire blog points out that Palin fiercely advocates drilling in ANWR. All the while McCain's been running scared on the issue and the Republican platform has been treating it with caribou-kid gloves.
Palin, talking to CNBC in July about John McCain said: "He's right on war, he's right on with energy independence measures that need to be taken. Wrong on ANWR, but we're still working on that one." Palin's place on the ticket "gives us the opportunity to have a live, walking platform to advocate for the development of our oil and gas resources," said Alaska Republican Party Chairman Randy Ruedrich, according to the Wall Street Journal's Henry J. Pulizzi and Siobhan Hughes.
So, Hurricane Bristol aside, Troopergate aside, Policegate aside, this global-warming-doubter-soccer-mom is a menace to the future of life on this planet. McCain's VP choice is 100-proof evidence that he's a really bad decider.
Julia Whitty is Mother Jones' environmental correspondent, lecturer, and 2008 winner of the Kiriyama Prize and the John Burroughs Medal Award.
My world view says we should not aid those that would do us harm - aside from humanitarian aid as our country has always when natural disasters strike.
Given that, we currently give $100M each year to countries that are either building covert nuclear weapon programs (Iran for instance) or conventional military might in order to destabilize neighboring countries (Venezuela for instance). For our own nation's security, why would we wish to pump more money into their dictatorships? Sure, some one else, like China, will most likely buy their oil if we don't, but the more U.S. dollars in some other country's hands to more vulnerable we are.
So I did a little research to see what the ANWR hullabaloo is all about. ANWR is a pristine area of Northern Alaska covering 19,800,000 acres. The area of interest for oil exploration, the so-called "1002 area" is about 1,500,000 acres. Some say only 2000 acres will be occupied by equipment, environmental groups say 12,000 acres. What does that mean?
I did some math for perspective. We all know what a football field looks like?more or less.
If the total ANWR acreage was a football field, 12,000 acres (assuming the environmental number as "worst case") would be a spot 5 inches by 5 inches. The yardage lines are typically 6 inches wide? so it would be four inches of one yardage line.
If the total "1002" acreage was a football field, the 12,000 acres would be about the size of a couple feet off a paper towel roll.
So when I picture looking down at a football field from the top of the stadium, I see a very small piece of paper and wonder what the fuss is all about? Very few of us will every travel there to see it?and it's dark there 53 days a year and temps are well below zero much of the year.
Now, I understand that all the drilling sites will not be situated in one location, but spread out over a very large area and some are concerned about the Caribou herds. Based upon the experiences at other North Slope oil exploration sites, the Caribou herds actually increased in population.
If this were a perfect world we could all just crawl up in our cozy comforters and think good thoughts. However, we have come to expect instant on electricity, air conditioned offices and homes, and airline travel to Central American countries where we can zip line through the rain forest canopy. Oh?and there are also people out there that would like to kill us or our allies (Israel for example). So until you figure out how to handle all that, the best thing we can do is wean ourselves from foreign oil and develop a national energy policy that takes advantages of all energy sources within our borders.
My world view says we should not aid those that would do us harm - aside from humanitarian aid as our country has always when natural disasters strike.
Given that, we currently give $100M each year to countries that are either building covert nuclear weapon programs (Iran for instance) or conventional military might in order to destabilize neighboring countries (Venezuela for instance). For our own nation's security, why would we wish to pump more money into their dictatorships? Sure, some one else, like China, will most likely buy their oil if we don't, but the more U.S. dollars in some other country's hands to more vulnerable we are.
So I did a little research to see what the ANWR hullabaloo is all about. ANWR is a pristine area of Northern Alaska covering 19,800,000 acres. The area of interest for oil exploration, the so-called "1002 area" is about 1,500,000 acres. Some say only 2000 acres will be occupied by equipment, environmental groups say 12,000 acres. What does that mean?
I did some math for perspective. We all know what a football field looks like?more or less.
If the total ANWR acreage was a football field, 12,000 acres (assuming the environmental number as "worst case") would be a spot 5 inches by 5 inches. The yardage lines are typically 6 inches wide? so it would be four inches of one yardage line.
If the total "1002" acreage was a football field, the 12,000 acres would be about the size of a couple feet off a paper towel roll.
So when I picture looking down at a football field from the top of the stadium, I see a very small piece of paper and wonder what the fuss is all about? Very few of us will every travel there to see it?and it's dark there 53 days a year and temps are well below zero much of the year.
Now, I understand that all the drilling sites will not be situated in one location, but spread out over a very large area and some are concerned about the Caribou herds. Based upon the experiences at other North Slope oil exploration sites, the Caribou herds actually increased in population.
If this were a perfect world we could all just crawl up in our cozy comforters and think good thoughts. However, we have come to expect instant on electricity, air conditioned offices and homes, and airline travel to Central American countries where we can zip line through the rain forest canopy. Oh?and there are also people out there that would like to kill us or our allies (Israel for example). So until you figure out how to handle all that, the best thing we can do is wean ourselves from foreign oil and develop a national energy policy that takes advantages of all energy sources within our borders.
She's all wrong on wolf slaughter and a whole bunch of stuff.
But, then again, BO is wrong on things like "clean" coal and ethanol.
The drill baby drill campaign appears to be based on a future (maybe 10 years out) oil supply increase (wow, maybe 3%). My understanding is that the oil demand appears to be growing a whole lot more. oh well, I guess we will all have to quit biology classes in order to go to magic classes and learn how all this stuff (oil and everything) popped out in 7 days. After all; am sure prior to the rapture we will get more oil and everything in, I think, 7 days.
RIGHT ON, SISTER!!
My world view says we should not aid those that would do us harm - aside from humanitarian aid as our country has always when natural disasters strike.
Given that, we currently give $100M each year to countries that are either building covert nuclear weapon programs (Iran for instance) or conventional military might in order to destabilize neighboring countries (Venezuela for instance). For our own nation's security, why would we wish to pump more money into their dictatorships? Sure, some one else, like China, will most likely buy their oil if we don't, but the more U.S. dollars in some other country's hands to more vulnerable we are.
So I did a little research to see what the ANWR hullabaloo is all about. ANWR is a pristine area of Northern Alaska covering 19,800,000 acres. The area of interest for oil exploration, the so-called "1002 area" is about 1,500,000 acres. Some say only 2000 acres will be occupied by equipment, environmental groups say 12,000 acres. What does that mean?
I did some math for perspective. We all know what a football field looks like more or less.
If the total ANWR acreage was a football field, 12,000 acres (assuming the environmental number as "worst case") would be a spot 5 inches by 5 inches. The yardage lines are typically 6 inches wide so it would be four inches of one yardage line.
If the total "1002" acreage was a football field, the 12,000 acres would be about the size of a couple feet off a paper towel roll.
So when I picture looking down at a football field from the top of the stadium, I see a very small piece of paper and wonder what the fuss is all about? Very few of us will every travel there to see it and it's dark there 53 days a year and temps are well below zero much of the year.
Now, I understand that all the drilling sites will not be situated in one location, but spread out over a very large area and some are concerned about the Caribou herds. Based upon the experiences at other North Slope oil exploration sites, the Caribou herds actually increased in population.
If this were a perfect world we could all just crawl up in our cozy comforters and think good thoughts. However, we have come to expect instant on electricity, air conditioned offices and homes, and airline travel to Central American countries where we can zip line through the rain forest canopy. Oh and there are also people out there that would like to kill us or our allies (Israel for example). So until you figure out how to handle all that, the best thing we can do is wean ourselves from foreign oil and develop a national energy policy that takes advantages of all energy sources within our borders.