One of the biggest critics of efforts to curb climate change is former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who recently called global warming “bogus.” In a wide-ranging interview with The Financial Times, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger objected to Palin’s characterization of global warming, and suggested that she is playing politics:
The California governor has become an environmental standard bearer for the Republican party, which is split on the merits of curbing emissions. Sarah Palin, John McCain’s running mate in the 2008 presidential election, has attacked cap and trade and questioned any link between man-made emissions and global warming.
“You have to ask: what was she trying to accomplish? ” said Mr Schwarzenegger. “Is she really interested in this subject or is she interested in her career and in winning the [Republican] nomination [for president]? You have to take all these things with a grain of salt.”
As Eugene Robinson points out in his Washington Post column today, Palin wasn’t always so deeply in denial about climate change. In 2007, she signed an administrative order that created a sub-cabinet to investigate ways to deal with climate change. “Climate change is not just an environmental issue,” the Alaskan governor wrote at the time. “It is also a social, cultural, and economic issue important to all Alaskans.”
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