Whether it’s the Sandy Hook massacre or Superstorm Sandy, progressives know how to use tragedies to manipulate public opinion and mobilize it behind a left-wing agenda. Environmental groups are using Superstorm Sandy as a weapon to force the public to buy into their plans for addressing “climate change.” 

They are pressuring Barack Obama (who hardly needs pushing; he’s already planning a push in that direction) to host a summit addressing their hysteria.

Bob Doppelt, executive director of the Resource Innovation Group, is spearheading the move toward a White House meeting that would link activists across the country. He said:

What we talked about with the White House is using it as catalyst not just for the development of a national strategy but for mobilizing people all over the country at every level. What I think has excited the White House is that it does put the president in a leadership role, but it is not aimed at what Congress can do, or what he can do per se, so much as it is aimed at apprising the American public about how they can act.

The hysteria was on clear display with Jeremy Symons, senior vice-president for conservation and education at the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), who warned:

The clock is ticking. The threat is urgent, and we would like to see a commitment in time for the president to address it in the State of the Union address. That would be the window I see. We can’t wait forever.

There were others who used the threat of time running out; Betsy Taylor, an environmental consultant, whimpered

We are disappointed that he hasn’t talked or used his bully pulpit. When he went to New York after Sandy he said almost nothing about climate change. In the very short-term there was an opportunity post-Sandy but I don’t think it has been seized.

They needn’t worry. Lefty stalwart Senator Barbara Boxer is going to resubmit climate change legislation:

People are coming up to me. They really want to get into this. I think Sandy changed a lot of minds. I think you’re going to see a lot of bills on climate change.

And Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, said he would give a speech on climate change every week on the Senate floor until action was taken. Whitehouse declared he wanted to fight “a concerted rearguard action to manufacture doubt about scientific concepts that happen to be economically inconvenient to the biggest polluting industries.”