A'Hunting She Will Go

Vice Presidential aspirant Palin is following in her predecessor Cheney's all-fours by stalking whales. A designation of the belugas as endangered is under attack from the moose hunter.

The federal government on Friday placed beluga whales that live in Cook Inlet in Alaska on the endangered species list, rejecting efforts by Gov. Sarah Palin and others against increased protection.

The relatively small, whitish whales, sometimes visible from downtown Anchorage, declined by almost 50 percent in the late 1990s, and federal scientists say they have not rebounded despite a series of protections, including a halt to subsistence hunting by Alaska Natives. About 375 whales have been counted in Cook Inlet each of the last two years, according to scientists with the National Marine Fisheries Service.

“In spite of protections already in place, Cook Inlet beluga whales are not recovering,” James W. Balsiger, the acting assistant administrator for the fisheries agency, said in a written statement. The whales are in danger of extinction, Dr. Balsiger said.

The announcement, made on a predetermined schedule under the Endangered Species Act, drew further attention to Ms. Palin’s positions on environmental issues. The governor, the Republican nominee for vice president, has come under scrutiny for her ambiguous statements about climate change and her administration’s failed effort earlier this year to prevent another species, the polar bear, from being listed as threatened. The state is suing the federal government over the polar bear listing.

As with the polar bear, Ms. Palin’s administration opposed the beluga listing in part because of its potential to restrict coastal and offshore oil and gas development. The beluga listing could also affect other projects, including the expansion of the Port of Anchorage and a proposed bridge over Knik Arm that would connect Anchorage to the Matanuska-Susitna Valley and Ms. Palin’s hometown, Wasilla.

“I am especially concerned,” the governor said in a written statement in August 2007, when her administration submitted documents to fight the listing, “that an unnecessary federal listing and designation of critical habitat would do serious long-term damage to the vibrant economy of the Cook Inlet area.”

All the vibrant economy that the right has spent eight years serving welfare just isn't needing plowing under the belugas nearly so much as it needs a viable economy to serve, but that hasn't made its way into winger psychology.

Anything that improves the planet threatens this recidivist element, and until they are out of power there is no part of our world that is safe. It's as warm in the Arctic as last year, and the ice keeps receding.

Temperatures in the Arctic last fall hit an all-time high -- more than 9 degrees above normal -- and remain almost as high this year, an international team of scientists reported Thursday.
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"The year 2007 was the warmest year on record in the Arctic," said Jackie Richter-Menge, a climate expert at the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover, N.H., and editor of the latest annual Arctic Report Card.

"These are dynamic and dramatic times in the Arctic," she said. "The outlook isn't good."

The election can't come soon enough for belugas or the Arctic ice. Like the economy, worldwide preservation efforts will have to be brought back from a very thin edge. Hopefully, it will be possible.