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.