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I commend Interior Secretary Salazar’s decision today to conditionally approve drilling at three exploratory wells in the Chukchi Sea off the northwest coast of Alaska; it’s a decision that’s been a long time coming. The area north of the Arctic Circle contains some of the world’s richest oil and gas reserves. U.S. Geological Survey researchers estimate that it contains 1.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 83 billion barrels of undiscovered oil. … – Sarah Palin

People are upset at the Washington Post. With over 1,500 comments and counting, I’d say they’re ecstatic about the noise that follows Mrs. Palin everywhere she goes. Is there any other Republican that could match it? Never mind that Sarah Palin’s demand that Obama boycott Copenhagen is ridiculous. There are enough skeptics after “climategate” to give her quite a platform. Besides, the business of news is real and Palin is good for it.

Cannibal polar bears (h/t Joe Subday, but warning: pictures are graphic) doesn’t concern Mrs. Palin.

Marc Ambinder points to this post, one of many surfacing about what we face as we all confront the East Anglia science and email disaster.

I am not a climate science specialist and I can’t claim to represent the wider science community. However, I am a geologist with a Ph.D. and 30 years of research experience. As I became personally involved in research on CO2 capture and storage over the past four years, I have taken an increasing interest in the underlying observations that have led the great majority of scientists to conclude that action is necessary to reduce and mitigate CO2 emissions.

Palin today:

We can say, however, that any potential benefits of proposed emissions reduction policies are far outweighed by their economic costs.

What about the cost in human quality of life, especially that of children?

A research study published in 2002 estimated that 30 percent of childhood asthma is due to environmental exposures, costing the nation $2 billion per year. And studies also suggest that air pollution may contribute to the development of asthma in previously healthy people.

Of course, even this truth isn’t the issue for Mrs. Palin, who is arguing something else entirely, something well beyond science, in fact, that science doesn’t matter. We’ve been here many times in human history, where scientists come up against a large group of people who have other interests at heart.

Science versus business at a time of economic instability is losing right now; at a time where U.S. economic power is seen as dwindling. With our “military industrial complex” our primary export. Old economy versus a potential new economy where green jobs are created is still a dream, with oil and gas companies, “new coal”, an oxymoron if ever there was one, fighting hard, and nuclear seen as a possible new solution, even if the old challenges remain.

All of this a national security imperative for this country, as China rises, along with India, which is fine, but not unless we’re rising too, which economically we are not. Or more to the point, creatively we are not. This is about innovation, with the conference I attended last week offering more proof that the U.S. is lagging far behind on an “innovation economy,” something Sarah Palin does not represent with her “drill, baby, drill,” with Palin’s quote at the very top of this post revealing that the Obama administration is still relying on old answers, too, which plays into Palin’s hands.

Palin’s message is reaching a segment of America that likes what she’s saying, because it’s comforting. Relying on the 20th century notion that the United States is not in a competitive challenge with other countries of the world, so there’s no need for the U.S. to gear up, including ramping up U.S. innovation to meet what other countries are doing. “We’re number one” still, the message on which the right thrives. With anyone who says we need to innovate and create green jobs, one solution, as part of a new economy beyond our 20th century comfort companies, seen as someone who “hates America” or is criticizing the U.S. by implying we’re not a great nation anymore.

It’s because of our greatness that we’ve proven time and again we can rise to any challenge, but unfortunately our politicians, regardless of party, are missing the moment we’re in. Pres. Obama not doing close to enough on the innovation side so far, something that put one of his economic advisers, Austin Goolsbee, on the defensive last week.

“Clean energy has become a jihad on both sides… Let’s make it a jobs bill.” – Jeffrey Immelt

Democrats get it, but there has thus far been little effort in the Democratic majority to get it done, to edit what futurist Eric Best has said. With this entire year a lost opportunity for Congress and Pres. Obama, who should have given Palin & company nowhere to go by launching a 21st century Project Green immediately, rising to our economic and employment crisis immediately, mimicking what J.F.K. did when he had the vision to take science and this country to the moon.

Sarah Palin is distorting science and using Copenhagen and “climategate” to her advantage, just like she did on her health care “death panels” gambit.

A politician doesn’t have to know how to solve challenges to win an argument and take center stage. They simply need to have the talent to sell a message that enough Americans are hungry to buy.

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