Year 3, Month 1, Day 25: Let’s Put Little Signs About Atmospheric CO2 On All The Squirrels!

DelMarva Now, a Maryland paper, runs an AP squib on an upcoming action from Rep. Donna Edwards (she’s goooood).

OXON HILL — Maryland congresswoman Donna Edwards plans to plunge into the chilly waters of the Potomac River to urge the U.S. Congress to take action to deal with climate change.

Edwards spokesman Dan Weber says Edwards also jumped into the river last year to draw attention to the issue.

The Chesapeake Climate Action Network says the congresswoman will be joined Saturday by more than 150 DC area residents at the beach at National Harbor. The group says federal and international leaders are moving too slowly to develop clean energy sources such as solar and wind power to replace oil, coal and natural gas that are blamed for climate change.

I’m glad she’s doing this. But I’m sad that she has to do it. Sent January 21:

In a political environment with actual links to the real, measurable world, lawmakers wouldn’t need stunts to attract public attention. Sadly, contemporary American politics and media are so intertwined that insufficiently telegenic policies are doomed. This is bad for the nation in many ways.

In early 2001, Clinton’s team tried to tell Bush administration officials about the threat of Al-Quaida, but were dismissively rebuffed. Perhaps if Richard Clarke had parachuted off a skyscraper instead of delivering a memo, Condi Rice would have listened, and everything would have been different.

Donna Edwards’ planned immersion in the Potomac to call attention to the rapidly burgeoning climate crisis is not a policy initiative or a legislative amendment, but a stunt. That such actions are now our best hope of transforming the America’s paralysis in the face of a grave existential threat is a sad commentary on the parlous state of our national conversation.

Warren Senders