That the NAM building was emptied for a fire drill…

And the followers of Al Gore and other climate scientists have scheduled a rally on Capitol Hill. From the Climate Action Now! site and e-mail alert.

Join us on Tuesday, November 18th at 12 noon as hundreds come together on Capitol Hill to call for Climate Action Now! We’ll be hearing from climate movement leaders like Bill McKibben, Mike Tidwell and Gillian Caldwell as we welcome our newly elected leaders and call upon President-elect Obama to attend the crucial United Nations Climate Conference in Poznan, Poland, in December.

Hundreds, eh? Used to be you could organize thousands, if not tens of thousands, for this sort of gig. Or at least claim you could.

As Iain Murray notes, the sponsors are a diverse group.

1Sky, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Energy Action Coalition, 350.org, Maryland Student Climate Coalition, Alaska Wilderness League, Pax Christi, USA, Oil Change International, League of American Bicyclists, Carbonfree D.C., Greenpeace, Oxfam America, Unitarian Universalist Association, Center for a New American Dream, Women’s Environment and Development Organization, Green DMV, Hip Hop Caucus, Friends of the Earth, Maryland League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, Sustain US, Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility, International Rivers, Sojourners

Hip Hop Unitarian Bikers for Poznan!

In any case, it’s 35 degrees here in D.C., the coldest day of the season, thereby demonstrating empirically the “Gore Effect,” that is, all climate-related events invoking the spirit of Al Gore produce a substantial drop in temperatures.

Al Gore, who once swore to uphold the U.S. Constitution, tells young people to break the law to stop construction of coal plants. The Wall Street Journal comments:

Speaking last Wednesday on a celebrity panel in New York, the Nobel Prize Laureate proclaimed: “If you’re a young person looking at the future of this planet and looking at what is being done right now, and not done, I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration.” He added, “clean coal does not exist.”

Mr. Gore didn’t explain how far he thinks his young acolytes should go in their rage against the coal-burning machines that provide about 50% of U.S. electricity. Sit-ins? Marches against power plants? How about trashing power lines: What could he mean by “civil disobedience”?

Funny thing is, as the WSJ notes, the anti-coal campaigns often target new production that would replace older, more polluting power generation. Duke Energy’s Cliffside power plant would cut sulfur dioxide emissions by 80 percent and nitrogen oxide by 50 percent. To the ramparts!

In the Christian Science Monitor, columnist Eoin O’Carroll wonders why Gore is leaving it up to the young people to break the law. From “Does Al Gore think he’s too old for civil disobedience?”

Leaving aside whether breaking the law is ever justified, it seems odd that Gore doesn’t seem to include himself in the category of the “young people” he thinks should risk jail to halt global warming. After all, at age 71, Ghandi was arrested and served two years in prison. The US labor organizer Mother Jones was still facing charges of sedition in her 80s. Even TV president Martin Sheen, who is eight years older than Gore, managed to get himself arrested at an antinuclear action in Nevada last year, for what he says is the 65th time.

Guess there’s no “three-strikes you’re out” for trespassing.

In any case, it seems clear that Gore’s a dilettante when it comes to civil disobediance, not bothering to recognize its ability to persude rests in individual sacrifice, not endless Powerpoint presentations.

UPDATE: (10:30 a.m.) From The Chilling Effect:

Al Gore spoke to the crowd.  He seems to still be reliving the fact that Americans turned him away eight years ago. Really sir, it’s time to move on.

Robert Samuelson of The Washington Post dissects the energy policies of the two presidential candidates and finds them wanting. From “The Great Energy Confusion“:

No doubt Obama and McCain want to relieve Americans’ discomfort at the pump. The trouble is that Americans should feel discomforted. We want a return to cheap, secure oil; we want painless pathways to lower greenhouse-gas emissions. These are fantasies; they should not be indulged.

In 2006, coal, oil and natural gas provided 85 percent of U.S. energy. In 2025, regardless of what we do, they will almost certainly remain the leading energy sources. We will still import huge volumes of oil and face global disruptions. And any serious effort to curb oil use and greenhouse gases will require high energy prices — whether imposed by the market or taxes — to induce conservation and conversion to nonfossil fuels.

A serious column about the serious challenges facing the United States and the sometimes unserious responses.

Extrapolate from the politicking, pandering, wishful thinking and fantasies, and you get dangerous fantasies. The We Campaign is a reliable purveyor of fantasmalgorical proposals for the U.S. economy and in its latest e-mail pitch:

Repower America! This country has all it needs to make the switch to 100% renewable and clean electricity within ten years — except the policies to make it happen. I’m writing as the CEO of the We Campaign to ask you to take five minutes and call your member of Congress today. Even better, stop by their local office not far from your home and deliver the message in person before they get back to Washington after Labor Day….[snip]Last week, thousands of We Campaign members wrote letters to the editor in support of repowering America with 100% clean electricity in ten years. It was an amazing response and these letters are now showing up in papers and on websites across the country.

Now, we’d never belittle organized letters to the editor, but history tells us restructuring an entire economy and society in 10 years requires a more aggressive approach, a la Kolyma.

Soon after it convenes at 10 a.m. today, the Senate will turn to S. 3268, the expedited anti-speculation bill introduced on Tuesday by Senate Democratic leadership. (To read the text, start here.) The bill will provide an opening for Round Next of the Great Energy Debate, 2008.

But across town in DAR Constitution Hall, former Democratic President of the Senate Al Gore will present his own grand plan for the globe, the implementation of a world view fundamentally hostile to fossil fuels. Including gasoline. Which is more than $4 a gallon. A world view that despises coal, which generates more than half of U.S. electricity. And prosperity, Gore doesn’t much like U.S. prosperity.

So you can understand some Senators’ consternation about messages being stepped on, mixed, stepped on again, then doused in cold water, and mixed. Kind of like a campfire.

From The Hill:

The former vice president-turned-elder statesman has achieved rock-star status within his party, not to mention a Nobel Prize, for his environmental activism. But Democrats’ political troubles over the issue of gas prices and domestic drilling prompt some lawmakers to wonder about Gore’s timing.

The question some Democrats have is whether a high-profile speech about the importance of protecting the environment might be exploited by Republicans who want to portray their ideological opponents as caring more about polar bears than Americans who have had to pay record prices for gasoline.

Gore’s profession these days is public lecturer, so we’re not sure why we should pay more attention to these remarks than the last 429 Powerpoint presentations he’s given, but since he may conceivably affect legislation, we probably will.

Bet he’ll embrace a new Manhattan Project for alternative energy. An Apollo program to end our reliance on fossil fuels. A Marshall Plan for energy independence. An East German national sports program to achieve VICTORY!

UPDATE: (10:25 a.m.): Ah, Gore’s going with JFK’s “Man on the Moon” program, the 10-year plan. Really not very original.  Still, it’s better than: “We a need new White Sea Canal project.”

Former Vice President Al Gore is speaking Thursday at the Daughters of the American Revolution Constitution Hall here in Washington. The event is being organized by his The Climate Project, and he’ll probably give a version of this anti-global-warming presentation.

The We Campaign has been sending out tickets via e-mail to its mailing list. Here’s part of the response you get if you’re wait listed.

Items not permitted at the event include, but are not limited to, animals (except service animals), cameras/recording devices, drink/food, large bags/suitcases, or weapons. No signs, banners or posters will be permitted.

All attendees must maintain reasonable and appropriate behavior at all times. Attendees using offensive language or engaging in disorderly conduct may be ejected from the facility.

Please use public transportation, bicycling or other climate friendly means to attend this event.

If we were part of the crowd of angry conspiratorial lefty bloggers, we’d shout: No cameras, no recording devices? Censorship! It’s a big propaganda event, and they want to control the message and probably maximize their profits.

But to be fair, if everyone brought a  camera or video recorder, the scene could get awfully chaotic, with people elbowing for the best view. Think a high school graduation times 10. But no recorders at all? No little handheld digital sound recorders?

Censorship!

UPDATE (3 p.m.): Immanentizing the eschaton: Marc Ambinder at The Atlantic has more details, and per Gore’s office: “The speech will offer a new way of thinking about our energy production and consumption and a new sense of what is possible when we choose to work together. It will propose a means of tapping America’s innovative skills to build a more secure energy future.”