--- title: Senate Democrats Plan All-Night Climate Change Talk-a-Thon description: 30 Senate Democrats are planning a marathon speaking session on the chamber floor to bring attention to the issue of climate change, but despite their efforts, there's little chance of any major new environmental legislation being passed this year canonical: https://time.com/19130/senate-democrats-overnight-climate-change/ author: Alex Rogers article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-10T22:20:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:01:35.184Z article:section: Politics og:title: Senate Democrats Plan All-Night Climate Change Talk-a-Thon og:description: 30 Senate Democrats are planning a marathon speaking session on the chamber floor to bring attention to the issue of climate change, but despite their efforts, there's little chance of any major new environmental legislation being passed this year og:url: https://time.com/19130/senate-democrats-overnight-climate-change/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Senate Democrats Plan All-Night Climate Change Talk-a-Thon twitter:description: 30 Senate Democrats are planning a marathon speaking session on the chamber floor to bring attention to the issue of climate change, but despite their efforts, there's little chance of any major new environmental legislation being passed this year twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # 30 Senate Democrats Staying Up All Night For Climate Change > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=9d891a19-01bd-45b1-96ae-09d6024544fa&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Senators Pull All-Nighter Talking About Climate Change [Watch (HLS stream): Senators Pull All-Nighter Talking About Climate Change](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/7eORdDg5.m3u8) (1:40)  _Published 2014-03-11. Senate Democrats talked from dusk 'til dawn even reading from Dr. Seuss' the Lorax, trying to rally the government to do something about climate change._ by [Alex Rogers](https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/) ## Alex Rogers Mar 10, 2014 10:20 PM UTC by [Alex Rogers](https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/) ## Alex Rogers Mar 10, 2014 10:20 PM UTC Thirty Senate Democrats plan to raise climate change’s profile by staging a talk-a-thon that will last from Monday night through around 9 a.m. Tuesday morning. The event, organized by members of the two-month-old Senate Climate Action Task Force, will try to combat [years of American ambivalence](http://www.people-press.org/interactives/top-priorities/) on the issue and [Republican](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/18/us/politics/18epa.html) attacks on the [Environmental Protection Agency](http://thehill.com/blogs/regwatch/court-battles/193294-gop-file-brief-against-epa-rules). Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who planned the gabfest with Sens. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), said on a call with reporters the night is a “signal of a much larger confidence to get a significant climate bill passed in Congress,” while acknowledging that they weren’t going to introduce a legislative proposal as it “probably wouldn’t be successful” without first heightening public awareness of the issue. Schatz stated that the message of the night is that climate change is “real,” “caused by humans,” and “happening now,” a direct attack aimed at Republicans like Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who [denied](http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/elections/2014/03/07/mcconnell-expect-much-congress-year/6170921/) the existence of man-made climate change a few days ago, despite [scientific evidence](http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/2/024024/article) to the contrary. Speaking on the Senate floor Monday, McConnell called the Democrats’ event “30 hours of excuses.” Speaker of the House John Boehner, meanwhile, has [said](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2012/11/08/boehner-outlines-session/1691661/) that he is unsure of what’s causing climate change. The Republican-controlled House [voted](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/house-gop-moves-block-epa-rules-power-plants-22794354) last week to block the Administration’s move to limit carbon pollution from new power plants, the most significant piece of the President’s plan set last June to address climate change. The President, meanwhile, has addressed environmental issues through executive actions since at least 2010, when Congress failed to pass cap and trade with Democratic majorities in both chambers. Whitehouse says “those days are over” and that a new political coalition will make a bill “inevitable.” Monday night’s event has the support of the White House and the top three Senate Democrats—Harry Reid, Dick Durbin, and Chuck Schumer. The new message campaign also coincides with an election-year push by billionaire Tom Steyer to make climate change a deciding factor in this year’s midterms. Steyer plans on counteracting the conservative political network orchestrated by the Koch brothers with a pledge to raise up to [$100 million](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/18/us/politics/financier-plans-big-ad-campaign-on-environment.html?%5Fr=2) for environmentally friendly candidates. However, there is little expectation on Capitol Hill that the new movement will yield anything concrete this year. ## Transcript In 1775, Paul Revere warned Massachusetts revolutionaries of an invasion coming from the sea. With climate change Boston and the Bay State could now face an invasion of the sea itself, in Massachusetts. And all across New England. These two photographs were taken from exactly the same spot. 1941, here's the glacier. 2004, here's the lake. The glacier is gone. That's change, and that's a change that's the canary in the coal mine. That's the change that tells us something is happening and we ignore it. At our peril. The, that is, as of ten years ago, the glacier has retreated somewhat even further from that. But this striking glacier in 1940 is now almost completely gone. In just one generation. This and so many other glaciers, that were monuments, in our national parks, are today receded or altogether gone. I will just have to close with this short portion. Here's what it says. But now says the Once- ler. Now that you're here. The word of the Lorax seems perfectly clear. Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot. Nothing is going to get better. It's not. So to my colleagues here in the Senate, and everyone watching and following tonight, thank you for caring a whole awful lot. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/19130/senate-democrats-overnight-climate-change/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/19130/senate-democrats-overnight-climate-change/"},"headline":"30 Senate Democrats Staying Up All Night For Climate Change","datePublished":"2014-03-10T22:20:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:01:35.184Z","description":"30 Senate Democrats are planning a marathon speaking session on the chamber floor to bring attention to the issue of climate change, but despite their efforts, there's little chance of any major new environmental legislation being passed this year","url":"https://time.com/19130/senate-democrats-overnight-climate-change/","keywords":["Senate","democrats","republicans","Congress","climate change"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alex Rogers","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/senate/","name":"Senate"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/19130/senate-democrats-overnight-climate-change/","name":"30 Senate Democrats Staying Up All Night For Climate Change"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Senators Pull All-Nighter Talking About Climate Change","description":"Senate Democrats talked from dusk 'til dawn even reading from Dr. Seuss' the Lorax, trying to rally the government to do something about climate change.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/7eORdDg5/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-03-11T15:09:16.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/7eORdDg5.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/19130/senate-democrats-overnight-climate-change/","duration":"PT1M40S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/19130/senate-democrats-overnight-climate-change/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```