Judge rules to protect Alaskan polar bears, choosing science over the objections of Sarah Palin.

From Think Progress:

In 2008, the U.S. government placed the polar bear on the threatened species list because of the rapid decline in Arctic sea ice, becoming “the first to be designated as threatened because of global warming.”

But in 2008, media mega-star Sarah Palin was still the governor of Alaska. Fearing that protecting the polar bear would “cripple oil and gas development” off Alaska’s coasts, Palin — a well-worn climate science denier — sued the government to remove the species from the list. Palin pointed to the high population of polar bears in 2008 and dismissed climate models that predict continued loss of sea ice as “unreliable,” “uncertain,” and “unproven.”

But U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan backed the government scientists’ finding this week “that global warming is threatening the survival of the polar bear.” In a 116-page opinion, Sullivan dismissed Palin and hunting groups’ arguments as “nothing more than competing views about policy and science” and ruled on the side of science:

"Notwithstanding a handful of references to uncertainty that appear in record documents, Joint Plaintiffs have failed to persuade this Court that FWS [U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service] implemented the ESA [Endangered Species Act] “haphazardly.” Accordingly, the Court concludes that FWS did not act arbitrarily in relying on and drawing reasonable conclusions from the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] reports and climate models in making its listing determination for the polar bear."

Hard to believe that almost two years to the day that the batshit crazy loon quit her job, we are still cleaning up after the mess she left behind. Gee, I wonder how much THIS frivolous lawsuit cost my state?

I am very glad that at least judges can understand basic science, even if politicians subsidized by the oil companies cannot.

(By the way, this case is actually rather historic here at IM, as it is over Palin's response to the Federal governments decision to put the polar bears on the Endangered Species List that angered me enough to write my first post criticising her.  And I have not looked back since.)