This video is a little long, which is why it’s gotten me awhile to post on it. However, after watching it, I am labeling it a MUST-WATCH. If you think it’s too long, just watch a few minutes, at least. The whole thing, really, in one awesome segment after another.
Senator Franken and Senator Whitehouse nail the scientific consensus on human-caused, catastrophic global warming, the manufacturing of doubt by fossil fuel–funded think-tanks that did the same thing for the tobacco industry (especially around the issue of the harms of second-hand smoke), ‘climategate-gate’, global warming skeptics vs deniers, the link between extreme events such as snowstorms and fires to global warming, the fact that exactly what climate scientists have predicted has been coming true in recent years. Here are some comments on that last bit by Senator Whitehouse:
“The challenge of climate change being extremely real, one of the things that is so frustrating about this campaign of phony, manufactured doubt is that in real life we are seeing the predictions of climate science come true around us.
Climate scientists predicted the atmosphere would warm, and the atmosphere is warming. Climate scientists predicted the ocean would absorb heat, and sure enough, the ocean has absorbed heat and ocean waters are warming.
Climate scientists predicted the ocean would absorb CO2 and that would then lower the pH level of our ocean waters. The ocean is now more acidic than it has been in 2 million years, threatening coral reefs, shellfish, and the tiny creatures, such as plankton, that make up the base of the entire oceanic food chain.
Climate scientists predicted glaciers and Arctic sea ice would melt and, sure enough, we are seeing record melting. We just saw that notorious leftwing publication, USA Today, report: `Federal Report Arctic Much Worse Since 2006. Federal officials say the Arctic region has changed dramatically in the past 5 years for the worse. It is melting at a near record pace and it is darkening and absorbing too much of the sun’s heat.’
Climate scientists predicted ecosystem shifts, and we are seeing ecosystem shifts, such as the million-plus acre forests in the American West—dead to the bark beetle, gone from being green and healthy forests to just mile after mile of brown and dead trees.”
Note that the full transcript of the colloquy [PDF] has been published in the Congressional Record.
Franken and Whitehouse also delve into the tremendous economic, job, and improved health opportunities of focusing on clean energy solutions that also tackle global warming and climate change. If you’re more interested in that part, it’s the last 1/3 or so of the video.
h/t Climate Progress