Obama Alaska Climate Change Trip: Sarah Palin Blasts President Ignoring Glaciers, Oil Industry, China Ships And Russia

Sarah Palin, a former Alaska governor and GOP vice presidential candidate, criticized President Barack Obama for neglecting some key features of her home state during his visit this week. Writing for the Independent Journal Review, Palin said Obama missed one of the few glaciers in the world that is actually expanding and also missed visiting oil industry workers during his trip, which highlighted global climate change.

Palin also criticized Obama for not addressing Chinese ships off the coast of Alaska or the threat of Russian President Vladimir Putin. She said the two rival superpowers no longer respect nor are intimidated by American power.

Palin also said that in one trip to address climate change, Obama made a huge carbon footprint via all the vehicles his entourage traveled with.

“Unlike most tourists, the president heads home now with his enormous fleet of transport vehicles – ironically after plenty of finger-pointing on this global warming tour,” Palin wrote. “Astoundingly, with just this one trip, a bigger carbon footprint was created than what 33 cars combined would create in an entire year.”

She also apparently chastised Obama for the renaming of Mount McKinley to the original, native name, “Denali,” meaning “high one” or “great one.” Alaskans, including Republican state leaders, have been trying to get the mountain’s name changed back to the original for years. In 1896, a gold prospector renamed the mountain when he got the news that the Republican Party had nominated William McKinley for president.

“And, he renamed a mountain ... our mountain ... the tallest peak on the North America continent,” Palin wrote on the Independent Journal Review.

The former vice presidential candidate, long known to question the scientific evidence of global warming, also condemned the federal government for not creating incentives for oil and gas development in Alaska. Palin has referred to global warming science as “junk science,” while at the same time denying she is a climate change denier.

“The near-empty oil pipeline, thanks to activists deceiving the administration with domestic energy scare tactics that result in lost jobs, lost American energy, and greatly diminished national security,” Palin wrote, before continuing: “After Alaska was purchased from Russia, eventually becoming the 49th state, the deal was we’d be as self-sufficient as possible, and we’d do it by developing our God-given rich natural resources.”