Senate Climate Change "Talkathon": For People Who Thought The Oscars Didn't Go On Long Enough

Alright alright alright!

A coupla dozen Democratic and two independent senators are going to "pull an all-nighter" tonight to raise awareness about climate change. 

Over at Huffington Post, Tom Weis summarizes it this way:

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse [D-R.I.], … Co-Chair of the [Senate Climate Action] Task Force, declares there is a "vast and broad array of armies" that understands the danger of the crisis and are willing to fight, but they are confronting a "barricade of special-interest lies around Washington and around Congress." He is absolutely right.

Weis, head of Climate Crisis Solutions, isn't exactly the greatest salesman in getting people to tune in:

If the climate talkathon is anything like Secretary of State John Kerry's remarkable speech in Jakarta, this could prove an event worth staying up for. 

Whew, there's an edorsement for you. 

Read more about it here.

Judging from the task force's list on speakers, the star power here isn't in danger of lighting up the sky:

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA)
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)
Senator Patty Murray (D-WA)
Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ)
Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD)
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) 
Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)
Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR)
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) 
Senator Al Franken (D-MN)
Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)
Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI)
Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT)
Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM)
Senator Angus King (I-ME)
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) 
Senator Ed Markey (D-MA)
Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ)

Back in 2009, Reason's Ronald Bailey laid out a sensible and effective way to deal with climate change - that didn't revolve around top-down schemes to control every aspect of our activities and beggar the planet in the name of the great god Gaia. Read his prescriptions here.

Comments

[Tonio]

You listed Cantwell twice, Nick.

[paranoid android]

Actually, if for some bizarre and incomprehensible reason you want to click on the link, you'll see it's like that in the original press release.

[BakedPenguin]

Canteditwell...

[RannedPall]

Nick didn't list shit, the jacket is in control now, fools.

[Corning]

I heard he got it while fighting a secret war on some distant planet.

[RannedPall]

They're giving them out for free in Crimea, for anyone that can fist fight a bear and fire a mosin nagant.

[GILMORE]

"
Corning|3.10.14 @ 4:16PM|#

I heard he got it while fighting a secret war on some distant planet."

+20 church bells ringing to make the symbiotic jacket come off and start its own separate magazine, UNREASON

[albo]

He likes Cantwell.

Kinky!

[flye]

Also, Markey was chewing gum in line.

[paranoid android]

This is why I'm proud to live in Washington State: Maria Cantwell is so dedicated to screwing serving her constituents, she's putting her name on this twice!

[Episiarch]

We actually have senators in Washington? What the fuck?

[Almanian!]

I thought they were called "The Nationals" now?

[Episiarch]

There are only the Seahawks. Nothing else. How do you like that, Payton?

[Almanian!]

*throws interception*

[Episiarch]

LEGION OF BOOM BITCHES

[Hugh Akston]

You certainly don't have a baseball team. How are the Sonics doing this season?

[Episiarch]

The Mariners are dead to me, Hugh. Hugh hear that?!?

I should just put my Yankees hat back on and go back to being an asshole.

[Hugh Akston]

You just managed to answer the question that plagues everyone at H&R: how can we possibly hate Episiarch more than we already do?

[SugarFree]

how can we possibly hate Episiarch more than we already do?

Oh, I know one way: He finally releases his dubstep album.

[Episiarch]

That just made me smile, Hugh. Seriously.

I don't know what's worse: losing Ichiro to the Yankees, or getting Ichiro on the Yankees.

[BakedPenguin]

Go back to?

[Brett L]

They're the team to beat in the West! And in OKC.

[Corning]

If you think the Seahawks won anything and were not given their championship by crooked refs then you are insane

[Episiarch]

You cannot possibly damage my calm, Josh. The Seahawks destroyed the Broncos in the Superbowl and I'm really stoned right now.

[Corning]

The Seahawks destroyed the Broncos in the Superbowl

And who do you think put them there to be destroyed!!

The refs that is who.

Also i heard there is some bad weed going around Washington right now....what you are feeling right now might NEVER END END END echo echo....

[RannedPall]

This one's for you, Epi.
http://www.king5.com/sports/Ne.....41325.html

[MikeP]

Et tu, New Mexico?

By the way, there are far too few senators from PA or WV. I'm sure they'll get right on it.

[Copernicus]

This is the only thing that caught my eye:

"Back in 2009, Reason's Ronald Bailey laid out a sensible and effective way to deal with climate change - "

Unless Bailey's "way" was to ignore climate change for the absolute bullshit scam that it is, then no, Bailey did not lay out anything sensible or effective.

[MJGreen]

Bernie Sanders and Al Franken and Elizabeth Warren? Talk about can't miss TV!!

[Almanian!]

"....so send your checks to me...Al Franken, 30 Rockefeller Plaza..."

[Almanian!]

That's what copy 'n' paste'll getcha.

[Almanian!]

I note that neither of Michigan's retards (Levin or Stabenow) is on the list. That does not increase my very-low esteem for them. But it doesn't make it worse. So, overall - a win.

[BakedPenguin]

Shaheen is there "representing" me. Oh well, I'd never have voted for her anyway.

[Drake]

They probably forgot to RSVP.

[Jerry on the boat]

Judging from the task force's list on speakers, the star power here isn't in danger of lighting up the sky

Talk about your hot air...

[JW]

Leading the country by "Hey! Look over there!"

[SugarFree]

That is a terrible guest list for an orgy.

[Episiarch]

Why, oh, why, did someone put your mom on the list?

[Swiss Servator, alles klar?]

GAH!

*runs screaming from the room for having read that and pictured it...*

[JW]

You only say that because you want dibs on Bernie.

[SugarFree]

I'm useless to a man that desires maple syrup watersports.

[GILMORE]

"SugarFree|3.10.14 @ 3:54PM|#

That is a terrible guest list for an orgy"

Not if there's a fire

[neoteny]

to raise awareness

Do they get paid from Ministry of Truth funds?

[Almanian!]

Hey, talking about football - I just realized you bastards (Reason, not the commentariat, although you're bastards, too - just for different reasons - ANYWAY) didn't include Bill Ford, Sr's obit in the Mourning Links. WHAT WOULD BE MORE PERFECT FOR A MOURNING LINK THAN AN OBIT FOR THE MOST-PITIFUL TEAM IN THE NFL.

Next to the Cleveland Browns...

Bill Ford, Sr. thought all the deceased Lions would lift him up to heaven, but instead, they let him down....one....last.....time....

He was a very, VERY nice man who did a lot of community service stuff and spent a shit ton of money on the metro Detroit area. As someone else said, "If the worst thing he did was do a shitty job with his football team, he's probably led a pretty good life."

RIP WCF!

[Homple]

Or, note the widening gap between projections and reality and consider the possibility that Anthropogenic Irritable Climate Syndrome is a falling sky alarmist fairy tale dreamed up by grant snaffling quacks and promoted by control freak statists.

[Winston]

You have a theory which can't predict anything or be conclusively linked to actual weather events. Obviously the science is settled.

[R C Dean]

At this point, the Odin model of climate seems to have as much validity as the CO2 models.

[R C Dean]

Anthropogenic Irritable Climate Syndrome

Totally stealing that.

[Hugh Akston]

Whose feed do I have to follow to get the twitpics of Barbara Boxer wearing nothing but one of Jim DeMint's shirts to sleep in?

[tarran]

That list lacks gravitas.

I think they should invite the Rev. Sun Myung Moon and give him a crown of some kind.... to make the gathering less pathetically laughable.

[The Late P Brooks]

What are they filibustering, again?

[Winston]

Not enough free shit and too small spending increases?

[Swiss Servator, alles klar?]

Intelligence, scientific curiosity, ethics, good looks.

[SugarFree]

+Boom. Head shot.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Richard Branson wants in:

"[I am] enormously impressed with Apple CEO Tim Cook for his strong words on climate change deniers, and demanding business should have benefits for people and the planet, beyond just profit," Richard Branson blogs for Virgin.

"Conservative think tank the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR) ? Apple shareholders ? criticised Cook for pursuing sustainability programs, questioned the impact of combating climate change on the bottom line, and demanded return on investment on all environmental initiatives," Branson writes. "Tim took a crucial stand: he told shareholders who oppose Apple's commitment to sustainability to 'get out of the stock.'"

"He also commented on how doing business sustainably can actually improve the bottom line. This is something we strongly believe in at The B Team, which is working hard to encourage better ways of doing business for the wellbeing of people and the planet," Branson writes. "We wholeheartedly support him."

http://macdailynews.com/2014/0.....e-deniers/

[OldMexican]

Re: Palin's Buttwipe,

"[I am] enormously impressed with Apple CEO Tim Cook for his strong words on climate change deniers, and demanding business should have benefits for people and the planet, beyond just profit," Richard Branson blogs for Virgin.

"Good! Why don't you hire him to run YOUR company so we can get on with ours making money, if you're so impressed by that fruitcake?"

- Apple stockholders.

[Rhywun]

In other words, good will can lead to $$. I don't know why this is all over the news, except... APPLE.

[Brett L]

doing business sustainably can actually improve the bottom line

MOTHERFUCKER!!! Sustainable things can go on, unsustainable cannot. Coal, oil, and natgas are sustainable over the forseeable lifetimes of either Apple or Virgin. Stop using that fucking word as a euphemism for "expensive energy".

[Sevo]

Palin's Buttplug|3.10.14 @ 4:02PM|#
"Richard Branson wants in:"

Yeah, shitpile, I'm sure he'll be flying commercial to avoid wasting all that carbon.

[neoteny]

the wellbeing of [...] the planet

What does this even mean?

[Corning]

Sell Apple stock now.

[R C Dean]

He also commented on how doing business sustainably can actually improve the bottom line.

And when it does, a publicly held corporation should do business sustainably.

What they shouldn't do is sacrifice their owner's profits for social causes.

[Swiss Servator, alles klar?]

No Dick Durbin? He probably couldn't keep up reading the index cards his staffers would have to write for him.

[The Late P Brooks]

"What is, 'Passenger list for a missing and presumed crashed airliner I would most like to see,' Alex?"

[RannedPall]

Only one senator from my great Golden State? What, is Feinstein too old to care now? Doesn't she care about teh childrenz?

[OldMexican]

Judging from the task force's list on speakers, the star power here isn't in danger of lighting up the sky

And judging by that list, it is clear that Climate Change is in its entirety a Democratic bugaboo. Which means, it is not a real threat.

[Sevo]

"Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA)"

OK, who's going to be talking while someone holds this bag of protoplasm upright?

[Suthenboy]

Can someone show me the statistics showing an increase in frequency and intensity of storms/droughts/floods etc? I thought the oceans were supposed to boil away by now?

Big. Fuckin'. Lie. I think Homple nailed it pretty well above.

[Winston]

Didn't someone link a few weeks ago to a Guardian article where they admitted they couldn't even prove that global warming is causing any bad weather?

[BakedPenguin]

Whitehouse looks like an actor playing the part of a bumbling, crooked Senator in an unfunny sitcom. Benson meets West Wing.

[Pro Libertate]

Benson was kind of surreal, with a senior staff member who was a shapechanger.

[Corning]

So what brilliant political strategist thought the best way for the dems to keep the senate is to talk about climate change?

I have no doubt republicans are going to fuck up somehow...but this year at least the Dems seem to want to make that job an actual hard thing to do.

The republicans might have to make statements about making rape not only legal but mandatory to lose this one.

[The Late P Brooks]

Whitehouse looks like an actor playing the part of a bumbling, crooked Senator in an unfunny sitcom.

My Mother the Car had a better and more believable premise.

[albo]

Can't we make Sheila Jackson Lee an honorable senator just for today????

Wouldn't it be awesome to see her filibuster?

[LarryA]

It would be miraculous to see her "honorable."

[The Last American Hero]

Anyone on that list up for re-election in a vulnerable seat this year?

[prolefeed]

Klobuchar, Franken, and Shaheen are all from states that could go Republican (MN and NH). Dunno if any of them are up this year.

The rest of the states are solidly Blue.

[angus]

Oi! Ronald Bailey & the rest of Reason AGW-ers,

Inferior plans valid under the conditions of 2009 are no longer acceptable under the rules of ACA (Al's Climate Agenda). Plus ur plan is tl;dr.

KISS - AGW

1 - Climate change is caused by over consumption of resources.

2 - The driver of mal-adjusted consumptive behaviour is blanket low interest credit.

3 - Low interest lending is a high risk behaviour, except when backed by massive state spending.

4 - Our massive debt fuelled state spending causes climate change.

CUT GOVERNMENT SPENDING.

[angus]

BTW I know this is a libertarian-in-name-only/conservative site, because you list the answer to climate change bring in a new tax.

[GILMORE]

Are you the One True Scotsman?

Its possible this is why aren't making sense.

[angus]

Maybe, but on libertarian(ish) websites suggesting that the best solution to a problem is to massively cut government spending doesn't always come across as being obtuse.

I used to frequent environmental sites populated by left-wingers and get called worse.

[David Lango]

Folks spraying Chemtrails are told they are fighting global warming.

Kristen Meghan, Industrial Hygienist for the Air Force reports nano-aluminum is the main ingredient.

Spraying this poison at high altitude does indeed "block out" the Sun, interrupting the natural hydrolysis of evaporation, and causes drought.

The establishment is spraying poison on us without our knowledge or consent.

Dane Wigington reports Chemtrails are destroying Earth's Ozone.

Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower, reports the scientist in charge of "Geo-engineering" BELIEVES if we were to stop spraying Chemtrails, North America would burn up in one year.

The establishment has controlled the weather in secret for greed and war for decades. There are dozens of HAARP ionosphere heaters scattered around the globe to manipulate the jet stream.

Ordinarily, aluminum is never found as an element in nature, but rather as a molecule like bauxite. Monsanto now provides "aluminum resistant" seeds.

Yet pundits mentioned above will use pseudo-science talking points bought and paid for by the establishment, for the establishment, and of the establishment.

[Lost_In_Translation]

Nowadays you can make a tinfoil hat without aluminum.

[wagnert in atlanta]

Classic tinfoil hats are actually made of tin. Unfortunately, a phenomenon known as "tin pest" causes brain deterioration and obsession with chemtrails.

[Duelles]

I left CT in 2007 found my way to NM in 2011. But all 4 of the Senators seem to share a lack of brain cells. I guess I need to be more active. Become a democrat and destroy the party from within.