Alaska: Climate skepticism "still a mainstream sentiment"

Palin seems to skirt global warming issue: Alaska News | adn.com

But Palin comes from a state where skepticism over the causes of climate change is still a mainstream sentiment.

GLOBAL WARMING TALK NOT POPULAR IN ALASKA

Earlier this year, the state legislature approved $2 million for a conference inviting climate change skeptics here to hash out the causes.

"It is important to remember that climate change is occurring, but then it has occurred continuously for millions of years," wrote the legislature's Republican leaders, House Speaker John Harris and Senate President Lyda Green. "And, so far, there are too many dissenting opinions to state matter-of-factly that it is being caused by humans."

The project was derided by some as a "conference to nowhere" and now appears unlikely to take place. Much of the money was later diverted to fund a lawsuit by the Palin administration against listing the polar bear as a threatened species.
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Hartig said Palin had been completely supportive of her sub-cabinet's work, even as she has shown a "healthy skepticism" in meetings on the subject. He said she relies on her department heads for information, rather than steeping herself in the scientific arguments.

"The kind of questions she asks that show skepticism are the kinds of questions a person on the street asks," Hartig said.