Source: The Advocate

Despite the many obvious reasons why Sarah Palin should not be a vice presidential candidate, most people don't know about her disdain for wildlife and the environment, and the lengths she has gone to destroy both. Whatever your political affiliation, Palin is clearly not the candidate to protect either.

1. She advocates aerial hunting of wolves and bears, despite Alaskans voting twice to ban the practice. Terrified animals are chased to exhaustion by low-flying aircraft and shot at close range with assault rifles. Palin calls it a "safari."

She's used $400,000 in state money to defeat measures to ban the hunts and offered a bounty of $150 for the leg of freshly killed wolves. Her policies have led to the illegal slaughter of 14 wolf pups, dragged out of their dens and shot, and the new low of the killing of black bear sows and cubs.

2. She sued the Bush administration to derail listing the polar bear as an endangered species, went against the scientific evidence she had requested, and misrepresented this to the public. (Sound familiar?)

3. She believes man-made global warming is a farce, at a time when Alaska is warming faster than almost anywhere else, and I'm sure she can see this from her window.

4. Her only energy policy seems to be to drill in ecologically sensitive areas or build more coal-burning power plants. In a state totally dependent on oil and whose citizens get annual royalties, it only stands to reason.

In these times of multiple crises, McCain's choice demonstrates irresponsibility and terrible judgment. It is a slap in the face to the highly qualified women who deserve to be on the ticket.

Palin is an anti-environmentalist who puts special interests above science and whose policies make Bush look progressive - something I never thought I'd see. Shame, shame, McCain.

Sherry Wernicke

Greenwich