Joe Romm, the Center for American Progress's climate guru and one of the most well-respected scientific journalists on the subject today, posted a speech given on the floor of Congress by RI's Democratic Senator, Sheldon Whitehouse. 

in the 23-minute "stemwinder" speech, Senator Whitehouse laments the failure of the U.S. Senate to act on global warming: "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." 

Here is the short URL of Romm's article: http://bit.ly/mXYiye. Scroll down a bit to view the video. It's well worth your time. I watched it twice already and intend to view it again. 

By the way, if you are wondering what a "stemwinder" speech is (I had to Google it) i found this explanation in a 2004 Slate.com article by Rachael Larimore:

"The term dates back to the middle of the 19th century, when the stem-winding watch came into vogue. The newfangled timepiece was a vast improvement over its predecessor, the key-wound watch, because the mechanism for setting it was a stem actually attached to the watch, rather than a key that was easily and frequently misplaced. This technological advance was so widely appreciated that, by the end of the 1800s, the term stemwinder had taken on the figurative meaning of "excellent" or "outstanding," or, as the Oxford English Dictionary puts it, "a person or thing that is first rate. …"

 I'd love to hear your take on this speech. Please email me at stacy@dallaswriter.com

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