The Greenest Convention Ever

All of the electricity powering the festivities at the Democratic National Convention has come from renewable sources or an onsite fuel-cell generator. Local Massachusetts farms are supplying food for a handful of the convention events, and leftovers are being donated or composted. Greenhouse-gas credits will offset the carbon-dioxide emissions generated by convention delegates as they travel to and from Boston, and hybrid gas-electric buses are shuttling people between events.

This is the handiwork of the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Conventions, a new organization that has collaborated with the city of Boston and the Democratic National Convention Committee to pull off what CERC executive director Daniel Ruben boasts is "certifiably the greenest presidential convention that's been organized in modern history!"

More notable, though, is the unprecedented level of convention-related activity by environmental groups, including the League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club, Environment2004, Apollo Alliance, Defenders of Wildlife and Friends of the Earth. They've all joined forces to stage environmental events near the convention site this week, featuring big-name speakers such as actor and director Rob Reiner, Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), and Barack Obama, the new Democratic It Boy who looks likely to win Illinois' open Senate seat.

It was quite a surprise, therefore, to read William Safire's jab in Monday's New York Times that "the only Democratic group left out in the cold [at the convention] ... is the tree-hugging set."

Huh? The tree-huggers beg to differ.

Safire's main – no, only – justification for this claim is the omission of two words from the party platform. "Can you imagine a Democratic platform document without a single mention of global warming? I'm told that there was quite a struggle over that litmus-test phrase, but the smokestack set won out," he dishes.

Maybe nobody told Safire that global warming and climate change are the same damn thing. The Democratic platform cites climate change repeatedly, calling it a "major international challenge" and promising to address it "with the seriousness of purpose this great challenge demands."

Or maybe Safire is poking at the Dems for choosing the phrase that's less emotionally charged.

But even if his point is merely rhetorical, he's still full of it, said Beth Viola, a senior environmental advisor to John Kerry who contributed to the platform-drafting process: "There was no argument over using the phrase 'global warming' versus 'climate change,'" she said. "[T]he idea that we were debating with the 'smokestack set' over that phrase is patently ridiculous."

And convention organizers have put the environment on stage as well as in the platform. LCV President Deb Callahan took to the main podium on Tuesday, reiterating what she has said many times before – that Kerry is the greenest presidential candidate America has ever seen.

The Democratic heavy hitters have also made the tree huggers feel right at home. In Al Gore's speech on Monday, he blasted Bush's environmental record with his now-characteristic effrontery. Bill Clinton mentioned environmental issues no less than eight times in his much-lauded speech Monday night (and even used the phrase "global warming"). And Teresa Heinz Kerry kicked off her Tuesday night remarks by noting that she and her husband first connected over environmental issues.

Still, some critics charge that the environmental section of the Democratic platform consists of one vague platitude after another: "[W]e will make our air cleaner and our water purer. We will ensure our children can safely play in our neighborhoods, our families can enjoy our national parks, and our sportsmen can hunt and fish in our lakes and forests."