Tech | October 19, 2011 | 17 comments

Senator Whitehouse’s Must-See Climate Speech: “We Ignore the Laws of Nature of God’s Earth at Our Very Grave Peril”

source: http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/10/19/347768/senator-whitehouses-climate-speech/

WakeUpPeople
“We are earning the scorn and condemnation of history…. It is magical thinking to imagine that somehow we will be spared the plain and foreseeable consequences of our failure of duty.”

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) delivered a 23-minute stemwinder last week on the failure of the U.S. Senate to act on global warming pollution. Here’s the remarkably blunt opening:

"Mr. President, I am here to speak about what is currently an unpopular topic in this town. It has become no longer politically correct in certain circles in Washington to speak about climate change or carbon pollution or how carbon pollution is causing our climate to change.

"This is a peculiar condition of Washington. If you go out into, say, our military and intelligence communities, they understand and are planning for the effects of carbon pollution on climate change. They see it as a national security risk. If you go out into our nonpolluting business and financial communities, they see this as a real and important problem. And, of course, it goes without saying our scientific community is all over this concern. But as I said, Washington is a peculiar place, and here it is getting very little traction.

"Here in Washington we feel the dark hand of the polluters tapping so many shoulders. And where there is power and money behind that dark hand, therefore, a lot of attention is paid to that little tap on the shoulder. What we overlook is that nature — God’s Earth — is also tapping us all on the shoulder, with messages we ignore at our peril. We ignore the messages of nature of God’s Earthand we ignore the laws of nature of God’s Earth at our very grave peril."

I have little doubt future generations will curse our names if we keep listening to the “siren song of well-paying polluters.” Whitehouse makes this point better than any national politician I’ve heard — by reviewing the science and the politics in a speech few of his fellow politicos have the guts or wisdom or conscience to deliver.

This is a speech Obama should have given — heck, he still can — but his spin-meisters (notably David Axelrod) and his own fecklessness prevent him. And so his presidency is headed toward the (coal) ash-heap of history.

Here is the must-see video of the whole speech and the full transcript ( via TP Green):

(more at link..)
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17 comments // Senator Whitehouse’s Must-See Climate Speech: “We Ignore the Laws of Nature of God’s Earth at Our Very Grave Peril” // Video

  • futuregen
    • +1
      futuregen  

    • Naomi Klein stated the climate crisis should be central to the Occupy Wall Street movement. I couldn't agree more. The Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats (especially the Senators) are going to kill us all. They need to go down before we all do. We need to immediately change our energy policy from fossil fuels to renewables. No more carbon should come from below ground level. Only use above ground, carbon neutral, energy. We have eight years or less to change and the Pentagon and the big-whigs know it. Please read the following:

      http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=(Climate+Collapse)%E2%80%A8++By+David+Stipp+-+++Fortune+magazine++++Monday+26+January+2004++“The+Pentagon's+Weather+Nightmare”&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

      (Climate Collapse)
 By David Stipp - Fortune magazine
      Monday 26 January 2004
      “The Pentagon's Weather Nightmare”

      http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1272/is_2696_131/ai_101497558/

      Are we on the brink of a new little ice age? Potential cooling of the oceans and atmosphere is twice as large as was experienced in the worst winters of the past century in the eastern U.S. and is likely to persist for decades to centuries after a climate transition occurs - Science & Technology
      by Terrence M. Joyce, Lloyd Keigwin

    • 1 year ago
  • futuregen
    • +1
      futuregen  

    • Yes congress, you are categoricaly failing. So much for the pro-right leadership in this country who choose war and pollution over the health and safety of Americans and the whole planet. Thank you senator Whitehouse. Books to read: Smithsonian Climate Change Denial by John Cook and Merchant of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes.

    • 1 year ago
  • Anonmaly
    • +2
      Anonmaly  

    • Everybody ^'d on principle....

      (come on people if you disagree, state your case in an intelligent manner, preferably leaving the hate speech out of it... The "down" button should really only be used for offensive comments, or for those perpetuating complete ignorance.... Thus ends todays lesson on c u r r e n t etiquette.

      And I generally don't attack at all, unless it's to prove the point some of us thrive in the gutter.... & the ones that do have had enough and really don't want to go there, but damn they're good at it.)

      Nice to see a politician care about the well being of the people and world...

    • 1 year ago
  • coolplanet
    • +4
      coolplanet  

    • The Downers are at it again,
      swooping in from their oiled dens
      voting this incredibly important story and comments down
      without leaving a trace.
      Our fossil fuel dollars at work.

    • 1 year ago
  • coolplanet
    • +2
      coolplanet  

    • We need to talk about the laws of "Nature and Nature's God" mentioned in the opening of America's Bill of Rights and the Constitution.
      Republicans ignore the Nature part.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
  • coolplanet
    • +4
      coolplanet  

    • I am blown away by Senator Whitehouse!!!
      This guy needs to be in the Whitehouse.
      I haven't been so inspired by a senator since the early 1980s.....

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
  • coolplanet
    • +1
      coolplanet  
    • JanforGore:

      I'm a huge admirer of Teddy Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, and even "industrial military complex" Ike.
      It was Nixon who fucked everything up by eliminating the gold standard, opening trade with China, and giving us hard drugs and AIDS.
      Reagan and W were even worse. "Trees cause pollution."
      Sorry for my rant.
      I really wish I could think of one republican that I now like but I just can't.

    • 1 year ago
  • lenhart
  • lenhart
    • +1
      lenhart  
    • coolplanet:

      You're right! Bush Sr was Nixon's 'China man', Nixon's special envoy to China. Bush laid the ground work for it Nixon's largely ceremonial trip. I spoke with Bush St about this personally in the Grand Ballroom of the Hyatt Regency in downtown Houston. Bush was short on specifics but told me how he was served 'dog lip' at a formal dinner in the Forbidden City. He might have been recalling that even much, much later when he puked on the Japanese Prime Minister.

    • 1 year ago
  • oboith
    • +6
      oboith  

    • This is significant in the first order, the deniers are some of the most ignorant, most corrupt political shills on the face of Earth. They would kill everyone on the planet for the wealth of their "Masters. We all know who they are. The Republican party and those who elect them to office...treasonous, traitorous, and reprehensible leeches on mankind.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
  • Leen61
    • +5
      Leen61  

    • Thank you Senator Whitehouse! The sad thing is the polluters have been allowed to continue on business as usual because of the wholesale purchase of our political process. Climate deniers exist because they either benefit by neuturing the EPA or they've bought into the MSM propaganda, which is bought and sold by the polluters themselves.

    • 1 year ago
  • WakeUpPeople
  • JanforGore
    • +7
      JanforGore  

    • "This is a speech Obama should have given — heck, he still can — but his spin-meisters (notably David Axelrod) and his own fecklessness prevent him. And so his presidency is headed toward the (coal) ash-heap of history.'

      And that would be of his own doing, not those of us who give a damn for this crisis and are tired of hearing lip service about it! Thank you Senator Whitehouse.

    • 1 year ago
  • WakeUpPeople
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