Senate Democrats Kick Off All-Nighter on Climate Change
Published at
Fuse/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — Senate Democrats kicked off their all-nighter on climate change Monday night with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid saying they were “standing up against the deniers.”
“Climate change is real. It’s here,” Reid said on the Senate floor. “It’s time to stop acting like those who ignore this crisis. For example, the oil barren Koch brothers and their allies in Congress have a valid point of view. They don’t.”
Reid and other Senate Democrats noted the climate change deniers who serve in Congress and urged their colleagues to take action to stem the impact of climate change.
“Despite overwhelming scientific evidence and overwhelming public opinion, climate change deniers still exist, there’s lot of them. They exist in this country. They exist, I’m sorry to say, in this Congress in the House and in the Senate.”
“There is only one major political party in the world that denies…the scientific evidence that points to climate change and the fact that the world we’re living in is changing with extreme weather patterns, is changing the life that we lead, and the future for many generations,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said.
“Climate change deniers need to wake up and realize that the scientific diagnosis about warming the planet is real. We need to take action,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said.
“Climate change is real. Climate change is caused by humans and climate change is solvable and we will not rest until Congress wakes up and acts on the most pressing issue of our time,” Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, said.
The all-night session does not focus on any specific legislation, but serves more as a rallying cry for Democrats on the issue of climate change.
The number of senators participating increased to a total of 30 Senate Democrats, according to Schatz. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., tweeted a photo of the senators preparing for the overnight session.
Behind the scenes at #Up4Climate: Senators preparing for tonight’s speeches. pic.twitter.com/3cT8kEp7GA
— Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) March 10, 2014
Prior to the start of the all night talk-a-thon, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., joked about how the senators will power through the night.
“We have espresso coffee on tap,” Leahy said.
Copyright 2014 ABC News Radio