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fork(2) writes:

On July 14 an unusual video popped up on YouTube in which well-recognized Republicans outline the danger of climate change. (Still fewer than 1000 hits.) The video was posted by The Partnership for Responsible Growth.

Today (July 20), The Guardian carries an article explaining that the Partnership for Responsible Growth and other groups have launched campaigns to urge Republicans and Rupert Murdoch's media empire to accept climate change.

Conservative and free-market groups have staged a rearguard effort to get the Republican party to accept the dangers of climate change, criticizing climate denialism within the GOP and Rupert Murdoch's media empire.

Climate change, and other environmental concerns, are unlikely to receive much, if any, attention during the Republican convention in Cleveland this week. This is despite a slew of temperature records being broken -- June was the 14th consecutive month of record heat around the world -- and extreme examples of Arctic ice decline and drought and wildfires in the US west.

But the Republican gathering has been targeted by conservative voices calling for climate science to be accepted and for national parks to be preserved, rather than opened up for drilling and other development.

A group called the Partnership for Responsible Growth has launched a TV advertisement campaign aimed squarely at conservatives, reminding them of previous Republican acceptance of climate science. The ad, which will run on Fox News throughout the GOP convention in Cleveland this week, shows clips of presidents George W Bush and George HW Bush, as well as former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, outlining the dangers of climate change.

[...] The Partnership for Responsible Growth calls itself a free-market group that supports putting a price on carbon. Its advisory council includes Ted Roosevelt IV, managing director of investment banking at Barclays Capital, former oil executive William Nitze and retired rear admiral David Titley.

[Continues...]

The official Republican platform explicitly rejects the idea of a "carbon tax" and commits the party to withdrawing the US from the Paris climate accord, which was signed by 195 nations in December. The platform also opposes the regulation of carbon dioxide emissions and rejects the idea that species including gray wolves and sage grouse should be protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Nan Hayworth, a former Republican congresswoman and head of the GOP-aligned ConservAmerica group, said many Republicans still don't accept mainstream climate science.

"The default position should really be that even if you are skeptical about the climate change, let's minimize our carbon footprint and our pollution anyway," she said.

Speaking about the problems of getting the Republican politicians to bend on climate issues, she says:

Hayworth said she will continue to battle against the "headwinds" within the party, but insisted that many Republicans care about the environment, only to be stymied by a polarized political system.

"My former colleagues understand the importance of protecting the environment, but one of the problems is the political opposition from environmental groups and the left is so extreme in some cases, even when they try to move towards environmental points of view they get no credit for it politically," she said. "You can't be too far behind or ahead of your district."

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