Global-Warming Treaty Lobbyists Hit The Internet
WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, May 18) -- Taking traditional lobbying efforts into cyberspace, a U.S. Chamber of Commerce-sponsored event Monday linked foreign policy experts with the public via the Internet to build opposition to a global-warming treaty.
Featured foreign policy veterans, including former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger and former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, spoke to a group of 200 at the Washington office of the Chamber of Commerce.
The forum was also broadcast live over the Internet which Chamber officials hope was watched by thousands more. Due to a technical hiccup, though, the start of the broadcast was delayed.
Visitors to the chamber's special Web site could watch and listen to the speeches as they were given. They could also read the policy papers being presented at the conference or watch a video about the treaty.
"This is our new means of communicating," Bill Kovacs, the chamber's vice president for environment and energy policy, told The Associated Press. "We can reach the world almost instantaneously."
The ability to quickly communicate has made the Internet an increasingly popular tool for grass-roots lobbying campaigns.
The chamber wanted to use the medium to inform people of its opposition to the global-warming treaty, which has been endorsed by the Clinton Administration. A Senate ratification vote is pending.
The treaty would limit the carbon-dioxide and greenhouse gases emissions of most industrial nations. Many scientists believe those gases are contributing to a rise in the Earth's temperature.
Following their presentations, the speakers answered questions sent by e-mail during the conference. A video of the day's event is planned to be offered on the Web site.
Chamber spokesman Frank Coleman told The Associated Press that Internet broadcasts will replace the organization's town hall meetings, where speeches and interviews are broadcast via satellite to conference rooms and other gathering spots.
"That required people to get up from their houses or their desks to go someplace," Coleman said. "Now anyone who has a computer, a modem and an Internet service can log into these conferences. It becomes an easier tool for getting the message."
In the future, the chamber plans to use the Internet to set up an electronic lobbying network to instantly inform members of key votes. "The linkage between a direct lobbying effort and the Internet is going to improve the capacity of these large organizations to pressure individual members of Congress to do what they want them to do," Thurber said.
"With these sites, they can just click an icon, and they have programs that will automatically send a letter to the right members of Congress."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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