Move over Cook Inlet Beluga Whales, no more babies in the deep blue sea for you! Alaska governor, Sarah Palin says that the whale population, having dwindled from a small 650 to its current 375 since 1994 are doing just fine, thank you. She is suing the federal government for listing the Belugas as endangered.
Why? Because the protection required by the listing would threaten oil drilling, gas development and other "lucrative" projects, according to Mother Jones.
This isn't the first time Palin has challenged an endangered species listing. Last August, she asserted the polar ice caps aren't melting and the polar bears will be just fine. To prove this, she turned to some classic anti-global warming science and was compared to someone "debating the theory of gravity as they plunge off a cliff" by Kieran Suckling, the executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity.
What I don't understand is how a mother and grandmother of babies could be willing to support policies that would most likely lead to the extinction of at least two treasured mammals, not to mention countless less glamorous, but perhaps even more ecologically important species. None of us know how the destruction of half the biodiversity on the planet will effect what remains--including human beings, assuming they do.
It's time for people in positions to do something to protect our grandchildren's planet to do so. For all her talk of the value of family, Palin seems awfully eager to sell her babies' futures to her own pockets' present.
See Also:
Penguins March to Extinction
Toddler Attacked by 300 lb Snake
Rare Baby Gorilla Born
National Zoo Inseminates Panda
Image: sheddaquarium.org
