Dems launch series of climate change speeches to fight GOP 'climate deniers'

House Democrats will make a series of speeches on the House floor in the coming weeks to call for a congressional response to climate change.

"There are a number of us who plan on speaking every day on the House floor on the need for Congress to take action on climate change," Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) said on the House floor.

"We're making this commitment because this chamber is filled with such a large collection of climate deniers," he said. "It's here in Congress, though, where a long-term strategy to address this issue will have to be crafted if we're to avoid the worst-case scenario and the catastrophic consequences of climate change.

"There should be complete consensus on the science of climate change — that the higher concentrations of greenhouse gasses over the past 50 years are due to human activity, that the rapid increase in global temperature could not have been caused by natural factors alone, and that the severe temperatures and extreme weather events we've experienced in recent years, including the devastation wrought by Hurricane Sandy, all fit into the predictive pattern of global climate change."

Earlier in the day, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) said on the floor that a new study from Harvard University and Oregon State University shows that the Earth is hotter now than it has been for much of the last 11,300 years. He also said the use of engines and turbines over the last 100 years has caused a fast rate of warming than in the last 100 centuries combined.

"The findings are sobering, a wake-up call, and should be a wake-up call for the members of this institution," DeFazio said.

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