It’s easy to join in the hate campaign against the Republican vice-president candidate and governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin. Whether it’s her inexperience, her beauty queen heritage or her Tina Fey glasses, there’s something for everyone to be irritated by.

Yet when it comes to the environment, there’s an abundance of ridiculous views that suggest a staggering lack of understanding about how climate change is affecting the planet. In a country which produces 21% of the world’s carbon emissions, where 80% of urban travel is by car and where planes are the most-used cross-country transport, the presidential candidates and their running mates need to be addressing these issues head on, not skirting around them. For anyone who wants more grisly facts about the US and the environment, click here: http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Facts/Facts_Environment.shtml. You can look at predicted energy use, air quality and compare gas prices city to city. It makes fascinating reading.

As far as die-hard environmentalists are concerned, Palin might as well sport horns and a forked tail. The 44-year old, who is a lifelong member of the National Rifle Association (NRA), is keen on hunting and fishing and apparently likes to chillax with a moose hamburger. Only in America.

Here are a few other unsavoury facts which flag up Palin’s stance on the environment. Firstly, she fiercely opposes the Alaskan gas tax. So rather than investigating alternative energy sources or helping people to minimize energy use in the state which she governs, she recently persuaded the state to provide Alaskans with $1,200 to help towards their energy bills. Chucking money at the problem might be a popular move among Alaskans in the short term, but what’s going to run out first, the energy or the cash?

What’s more, despite creating a committee to push Alaska's climate change strategy, she did not join the Western Climate Initiative whose member states have agreed to commit to reducing greenhouse gases. Her husband works in oil production for BP on Alaska's North Slope and Palin has talked of having ‘mutually beneficial relationships with the oil industry’. Incredibly, she even supports drilling for oil in the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve, an issue to which John McCain and other senior Republicans are vehemently opposed. She might as well just shoot penguins, stick them in a hot dog bun and squirt them with mustard.
It’s troubling that Palin is within sniffing distance of the White House. If only she could trade places with TV’s cuddly Michael Palin. He seems like a nice chap. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf1y9s73Nos.

Follow more Palin [Sarah] madness and other stories in the US presidential election on http://www.huffingtonpost.com and of course, on America’s finest news source, http://www.theonion.com

Posted October 7^th 2008