posted March 11, 2014 09:39 AM            

At least 28 Democrats including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid were participating in the session -- mocked by Republicans as a stunt -- that began after the last vote Monday and was due to wrap up Tuesday morning.

The overnighter is the first major effort by the newly-created Climate Action Task Force in Congress, which wants to kick-start public debate on climate change.

The coterie of Democrats was "sending a clear message: it's time for Congress to wake up and get serious about addressing this issue," Senator Sheldon Whitehouse said.

The effort is backed by President Barack Obama, who has signalled he will use his executive authority wherever possible to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Obama "has taken steps in his first term and again in his second term and will continue to take steps to... reduce our carbon emissions," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.

Climate legislation is opposed by many Republicans -- and some Democrats -- and faces tough opposition in Congress.

The issue is especially touchy this year, as lawmakers kick off campaigning for the November midterm elections, and legislation on the issue is unlikely to pass a divided Congress in 2014.

No major climate change legislation has passed Congress in recent years, after an energy bill establishing a cap-and-trade emissions system passed the Democratic-controlled House in 2009 but stalled in the Senate.

The House measure was seen as a contributing factor in Republicans seizing control of the chamber in the 2010 elections. Such political realities speak to why a handful of Democrats facing tough re-election bids in November were not part of the talkathon.

As other Democrats hunkered down for their all-nighter, Reid embraced Americans' recognition that climate change is a threat.

"A large majority of Americans believe climate change is real. But despite overwhelming scientific evidence and overwhelming public opinion, climate change deniers still exist," Reid noted.

"They exist in this country, and in this Congress."

-'Cooking the science'-

Republicans were expected to steer clear of the marathon debate, but Senator James Inhofe intervened with a 33-minute diatribe against climate change "alarmists."

Inhofe, who has blasted global warming as a hoax, accused experts of "cooking the science" to conform with a liberal agenda bent on convincing skeptical Americans that climate change is real.

"And if you say it enough times, then people are going to think it's real," Inhofe said.

Democrats accuse Republicans of being in the pocket of big oil and gas companies and putting their heads in the sand when it comes to controling greenhouse gas emissions.

But Senator Elizabeth Warren warned that "we are on the cusp of a climate crisis, a point of no return that will threaten our health, our economy and our planet."

Republicans attack Democrats for pushing pie-in-the-sky reforms such as mandatory emission caps and environmental regulations that can kill jobs.

Several conservatives in Congress other than Inhofe openly question whether human activity plays a role in the planet's changing temperatures, rising sea levels or shifting storm patterns.

Republicans mocked the all-nighter as Democrats "talking to themselves," and noted that even though Democrats run the Senate, they will not introduce or debate any particular climate legislation in their talkathon.

The Union of Concerned Scientists, which praised the event, noted that Congress is already contending with effects of climate change, such as passing drought relief legislation, "even if some members dare not say the words."

posted March 25, 2014 10:04 AM            

Who could imagine a bigger bunch of dumb-a$ses than those in the US Senate holding a man made global warming scare show while the US is 17 TRILLION in debt, real unemployment is over 12%, the labor participation rate is the lowest since Jimmy Carter, Putin grabbed part of Ukraine, Assad is still killing his own citizens and still has his chemical weapons...but, their big issue is man made global warming. Throw all the bums out on their sorry as$es.

Now, we find the IPCC...the UN cheerleaders for crippling the US and other western economies have been hiding studies which disprove their most cherished religious beliefs.

What if it was getting warmer...it's not but what if it were? What if carbon dioxide levels were rising? It is but that's a damned good thing and not the catastrophe the global warming nuts want everyone to believe.

March 25, 2014
A New Study Says Benefits of Global Warming Greatly Exceed Costs
Rick Moran

A new study by the Non-Governmental International Panel on Climate Change shows that the benefits of a warming earth will outweigh any costs incurred.

The new report summarizes scholarly research published as recently as January 2014 on the impacts, costs, and benefits of climate change. Hefty chapters summarize thousands of peer-reviewed studies of the impact of rising levels of carbon dioxide – a greenhouse gas produced during the burning of fossil fuels – on plants and soils, agriculture, forests, wildlife, ocean life, and humankind.

The authors find higher levels of carbon dioxide and warmer temperatures benefit nearly all plants, leading to more leaves, more fruit, more vigorous growth, and greater resistance to pests, drought, and other forms of “stress.” Wildlife benefits as their habitats grow and expand. Even polar bears, the poster child of anti-global warming activist groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), are benefiting from warmer temperatures.

“Despite thousands of scientific articles affirming numerous benefits of rising temperatures and atmospheric CO2, IPCC makes almost no mention of any positive externalities resulting from such,” said one of the report’s lead authors, Dr. Craig D. Idso. “Climate Change Reconsidered II corrects this failure, presenting an analysis of thousands of neglected research studies IPCC has downplayed or ignored in its reports so that scientists, politicians, educators, and the general public can be better informed and make decisions about the potential impacts of CO2-induced climate change.”

The authors look closely at claims climate change will injure coral and other forms of marine life, possibly leading to some species extinctions. They conclude such claims lack scientific foundation and often are grossly exaggerated. Corals have survived warming periods in the past that caused ocean temperatures and sea levels to be much higher than today’s levels or those likely to occur in the next century.

The authors contend the world’s economies are heavily dependent on fossil fuels because such fuels are and will continue to be safer, less expensive, more reliable, and of vastly greater supply than alternative fuels such as wind and solar. Dramatically reducing the use of fossil fuels would have devastating effects on workers and consumers of both the developed and developing worlds, leading to severe hardship and even deaths.

Rather than continue to fight what is most likely a natural and unstoppable phenomenon, the authors call for adopting new energy and environmental policies that acknowledge current market and environmental realities. Such policies would encourage economic growth as the foundation for a cleaner environment, responsible development and use of fossil fuels until superior energy sources are found, and repeal of many of the regulations, subsidies, and taxes passed at the height of the man-made global warming scare.

Global warming advocates will dismiss this report - as they have all others that don't conform to the "consensus" view - as coming from paid industry hacks. They will smear the authors while failing to answer any of the specific points made in the study. How can they since it counters their hysteria so effectively?

The NIPCC list of scientists involved in this project is impressive. The organization was formed as a counterweight to the IPCC: