I think it may be the fact that we were funding drosophila work in France that Palin objected to. As for the climate issue, I don’t think Palin or anyone else would argue that the earth is warming (and has been since the Pleistocene). The question is what effect man has had on this warming and what effect changing our behavior could have on what is fundamentally a natural phenomenon that occurs on a geologic time scale. There are plenty of reasons to curb emissions—political, economic, even localized environmental—but I think what politicians on the right like Palin take issue with is using global warming as an alarmist pretext to mandate green policies. If those policies have a good financial, political and environmental reason, great. Enact them. But if people really think we are going to reverse the climate trend on earth, regrow our glaciers and polar icecaps as a result of curbing emissions, they have taken leave of their senses.