As Carbon Output Hits Record High, Palin Declares ?I Love That Smell Of The Emissions?
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on May 31st, 2011 4:35 am by HL
As Carbon Output Hits Record High, Palin Declares ?I Love That Smell Of The Emissions?
During the holiday weekend, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin (R) reclaimed her favorite position — the center of media attention — when she launched a national bus tour. Palin’s first stop was a motorcycle rally in D.C. where she rode in on a Harley and proudly announced to a group of veterans and TV cameras, […]
During the holiday weekend, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin (R) reclaimed her favorite position — the center of media attention — when she launched a national bus tour. Palin’s first stop was a motorcycle rally in D.C. where she rode in on a Harley and proudly announced to a group of veterans and TV cameras, “I love that smell of the emissions!” Ironically, the same day Palin professed her love of carbon emissions, the International Energy Agency issued a dramatic announcement on the same subject: greenhouse-gas emissions increased by a record amount last year to the highest carbon output in history.
The watchdog group reported that despite the recession, global carbon emissions rebounded in 2010 to their worst levels ever. One IEA official warned that the startling new numbers should serve as “another wake-up call.” Of course, Palin seemed as blithely unconcerned as ever with world events around her as she basked in the spotlight on Sunday:
Sarah Palin’s participation in the annual Memorial Day parade in Washington, D.C., has fueled as much noise about a potential presidential candidacy as the thousands of motorcycle-riding veterans participating in the Rolling Thunder ride-along Sunday.
At the Pentagon parking lot where the mob of veterans and their families pre-position for the thunderous two-wheeler march down Constitution Ave, Palin, who was not expected to address the Memorial Day crowd, said she was thrilled to participate.
“I love that smell of the emissions,” she said, donning sunglasses and a Harley Davidson skullcap-style, black helmet.
According to the IEA, a record 30.6 gigatons of carbon dioxide was released into the atmosphere last year, mainly from the burning of fossil fuels. In light of these shocking numbers, experts now fear that it will be impossible to prevent a temperature rise of more than 2 degrees Celsius — which scientists say is the threshold for potentially “dangerous climate change.”
One expert told The Guardian, “Such warming would disrupt the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people across the planet, leading to widespread mass migration and conflict.” Despite this distressing news, it’s unlikely that the woman who once roused conservative crowds by chanting “Drill Baby Drill!” knows or cares how tragically out of touch with reality her comments are.
Palin’s bus tour got off to a rocky start when members of the veterans group she claimed to be working with denounced her presence at the event. Even Fox News noted that several veterans were annoyed Palin had made the Memorial Day parade all about herself, distracting from the real message — honoring service members past and present. Her entire bus tour spectacle has left many in the media scratching their heads. It’s unclear if Palin is actually gearing up for a presidential run or is simply eager for more press attention as she’s felt the national spotlight dim and refocus on the already declared candidates.