Anyone who still thinks Sarah Palin isn't a dangerous, extreme imbecile, just read this from the CBS News interview (by the way, great job by Katie Couric, I'm actually gaining tremendous respect for her):
Couric: What's your position on global warming? Do you believe it's man-made or not?Palin: Well, we're the only Arctic state, of course, Alaska. So we feel the impacts more than any other state, up there with the changes in climates. And certainly, it is apparent. We have erosion issues. And we have melting sea ice, of course. So, what I've done up there is form a sub-cabinet to focus solely on climate change. Understanding that it is real. And ...
Couric: Is it man-made, though in your view?
Palin: You know there are - there are man's activities that can be contributed to the issues that we're dealing with now, these impacts. I'm not going to solely blame all of man's activities on changes in climate. Because the world's weather patterns are cyclical. And over history we have seen change there. But kind of doesn't matter at this point, as we debate what caused it. The point is: it's real; we need to do something about it.
My god, how wrong can one person be on this (and pretty much everything else)?!? It TOTALLY matters: if global climate change is anthropogenic in origin (which almost all climate scientists believe to be the case, btw), that implies a very different set of actions than if it's natural climatic variation (which basically no scientists believe to be the case, btw). The core issue is that if it's NOT anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions that are causing climate change, then we do NOT HAVE TO DO ANYTHING about anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. If it IS anthropogenic, then we do. In other words, there's a total, 180-degree difference in implied course of action depending on what's causing global climate change! And Sarah Palin has absolutely no clue. We are so screwed if this person is elected.
See, stupidity can be a defense!
Seriously, this reminds of the frequent Repub mantra that it doesn't matter how we got into Iraq, what matters is what we do now. This is the perfect recipe for never learning any lessons in life. I guess because it "didn't matter" how we got into Vietnam, that explains why we were able to stumble with equal blindness into another morass.
And if we ignore why and how we got into Iraq and screwed it up mightily -- and whose ideology got us in there and kept us there -- we will equally brainlessly move into Iran, North Korea, Georgia -- everywhere until we are suddenly just the rotting shell of an exhausted empire.
And yes, getting back on topic, we need to learn the lessons of climate change immediately and shift course dramatically, while we still have the opportunity.