Election '08: 016 - Rachel Edition

And now a special message from Rachel:

" I am not one to care about politics. The gist of this email is Gov. Sarah Palin scares the hell out of me. I don't care how much you like John McCain. He was born August 29, 1936 – he's 72 years old. Next time he's on TV, take a good look, he doesn't look like any spring chicken. If he dies, then we are stuck as Sarah Palin as our commander and chief.

I'm not going to spend the time picking apart ALL the aspects of why she's a horribly evil person. I'm not going to discuss her ridiculous views on the union of church and state or how she doesn't know what the Bush Doctrine is. I'm going to leave those issues for other people to discuss, my main concern is her horrendous environmental policies, or lack there of. Many of you may be questioning how much can one person hurt. I have to things to say: 1. Look at what 8 years with Bush has done to this country and 2. Look at her scary time as governor.

You may think that the environment is the least of our countries' many problems. However, we do not need to make the problem worse by adding her into the equation:

1. First off, Sarah Palin has a problem with listing species as Endangered. As governor, she fought against classifying the polar bear as endangered and does not want other marine mammals (i.e. beluga whales). Her counter-scientific evidence for not listing the polar bears as threatened was acquired by oil company scientists. Let us all ponder how much damage she can do if she cannot only alter one states views, but the whole legislation behind the Endangered Species Act.

2. She is okay with shooting wolves from the air to boost caribou/moose. Once again, her main excuse for this is people not understanding the North Country (Alaska). Well, I hate to break it to her, but she will NOT be making environmental policies for a state with less people (about 700,000) than the city of San Jose, CA (about 900,000). Most places in the world, especially the US have very different environmental problems and lack of resources.

3. She is not completely convinced that global warming is due to anthropogenic causes (human caused). I have a copy of the IPCC summary for policymakers, if you or anyone you know would like a copy. Everyone is in agreement that it's human caused. Think about it as an equation: we add extra carbon (greenhouse gases) into the atmosphere. Last time I checked magic doesn't work and doesn't magically disappear. Therefore, to have an effect on it - we as humans have to change our way of living. It's a cause and effect situation. If you don't believe in the cause, how are you going to work on effecting the situation?

4. She opposed protection of salmon streams from mining operations. The wild caught salmon fishing industry is one of very few sustainable fisheries in the world. Why would you want to aid in the destruction of that?

5. She wants to drill in Alaska and offshore. This is obviously a short term, temporary solution to a long-term problem. I'm not going to even get into all the problems with this. Just note that the return into your pocket by drilling will be minimal. However, the effect on the environment may be detrimental.

In conclusion, I am NOT one for politics. In fact, maybe I have some of my sources wrong, email me back if you want citations. However, please consider the horrible shape our countries environmental policy is already in and then consider how much worse it could get. I would really like us not to destroy the world via bad environmental policy."

VOTE NO to Palin (McCain/Palin).....
VOTE YES to anyone else!!!!!!!!!!!

Rachel