http://www.heatisonline.org/contentserver/objecthandlers/index.cfm?id=4241&method=full
GOP to Bush:
Keep Denying Climate Science
REPUBLICANS AIM FOR SOFTER, GREENER ENVIRONMENTAL
TALK
The New York Times,
March 2, 2003
WASHINGTON -- Over
the last six months, the Republican Party
has subtly refocused its message on the environment, an issue
that a party strategist called "the single biggest vulnerability
for the Republicans and especially for George Bush" in a
memorandum encouraging the new approach.
The Republicans, as
the memorandum advised them, have softened
their language to appeal to suburban voters, speaking out for
protecting national parks and forests, advocating investment
in environmental technologies, and shifting emphasis to the
future rather than the present. In interviews, Republican
politicians and their aides said they agreed with the strategist,
Frank Luntz, that it was important to pay attention to what
his memorandum, written before the November elections, called
"the environmental communications battle."
In his memorandum,
Luntz urges that the term "climate change"
be used instead of "global warming," because "while
'global
warming' has catastrophic communications attached to it,
'climate change' sounds a more controllable and less emotional
challenge." Also, he wrote, "conservationist" conveys
a
"moderate, reasoned, common-sense position" while
"environmentalist" has the "connotation of extremism."
President George W.
Bush's speeches on the environment
show that the terms "global warming" and "environmentalist"
had largely disappeared by late last summer. The terms
appeared in a number of Bush's speeches in 2001,
but now the White House fairly consistently uses
"climate change" and "conservationist."
National environmental
groups say the shift has blunted
the edge of Republican attacks. "They are not playing
defense anymore," said Kim Haddow, a consultant for the
Sierra Club who has helped counter some Republican
advertisements. "It's like a tennis game. The ball is
back in our court, and we need to spend time and energy
educating voters."
Many new Republican
communication strategies match the
recommendations of the 16-page environmental memorandum
put together by the Luntz Research Cos., the consulting
firm run by Luntz, who was also one of the drafters of
Contract with America, the manifesto of House Republicans
under Newt Gingrich, the former speaker.
The memorandum was
given to The New York Times by the
Environmental Working Group, an advocacy group critical
of Bush administration policies. "They are showing the
message discipline they need to get these anti-environmental
policies past suburban voters," said Ken Cook, president
of the organization.
One section of the
memorandum, "Winning the Global Warming
Debate," asserts that many voters believe there is a lack
of consensus about global warming among scientists. "Should
the public come to believe that the scientific issues are
settled, their views about global warming will change
accordingly," it says.
"Therefore you
need to continue to make the lack of
scientific certainty a primary issue." Among the ways
to "challenge the science," the memorandum says, is
to
"be even more active in recruiting experts who are
sympathetic to your view and much more active in making
them part of your message" because "people are more
willing to trust scientists than politicians."
Each party says Luntz's
advice played a role in elections
last fall, including the Senate race in Colorado, where
the Republican incumbent, Wayne Allard, ran advertisements
promoting his work with the Great Sand Dunes National Park
and cleaning up nuclear weapons plants. "The thrust of the
memorandum is consistent with what we tried to do with our
campaign, to take issues that have real impact on people
in Colorado and work on those problems," said Dick Wadhams,
a spokesman for Allard. "The Sierra Club and League of
Conservation Voters spent millions of dollars attacking
Senator Allard and it didn't work."
That kind of success
will encourage more Republicans
to embrace these strategies, party officials say.
"We have not engaged in the discussion as enthusiastically
as we should on occasion - there are so many governors
around the country that have sterling environmental
records," said Marc Racicot, chairman of the Republican
National Committee. "We are going to talk about these
issues a lot over the next election cycle."
