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The Information Council on the Environment (ICE) was a skeptic organization created to promote the idea that there is no scientific consensus on global warming. ICE was a public information group funded by the Edison Electrical Institute, the National Coal Association, and the Western Fuels Association. Its mission, supported by a $500,000 advertising budget, was to "reposition global warming as theory rather than fact," according to internal documents of Cambridge Reports, the Council's polling firm. The group employed a scientific advisory panel comprising geography professor Robert Balling, research physicist Sherwood B. Idso, and climatologist Patrick J. Michaels, as well as environmental scientist S. Fred Singer, to promote skepticism in television and newspaper interviews, opinion columns, and advertisements. The polling firm advised the council to emphasize that "some members of the media scare the public about global warming to increase their audience and their influence."

In addition to the messages carried by its spokespersons, ICE conducted polls about global climate change and greenhouse gas emissions, purporting to gauge public opinion about these issues (Axelrod, 2004). In fact, according to strategy documents, pollsters targeted "older, less-educated men from larger households who are not typically information seekers" and "young, low-income women" in areas whose electricity was generated by coal, in an attempt to skew the poll results in favor of less regulation of coal.

ICE also purchased magazine and newspaper ads in key sections of the country, including one that ran in Minnesota reading, "If the earth is getting warmer, why is Minneapolis getting colder?" Another ad showed a ship sailing off the edge of the Earth, with an open-mouthed dragon waiting to catch it. The caption read, "Some say the earth is warming. Some also said the earth was flat (Botterill, 2003)." The Arizona Public Service Company declined to join ICE, declaring that the ads over-simplified a complex issue.

ICE was disbanded after only a few months, after a packet of internal memos describing the organization's public relations strategies was leaked to the Energy Daily, a trade publication, and follow-up stories appeared in the Arizona Daily Sun, the National Journal, and The New York Times. After the press stories, Balling and Michaels broke with the council. In 1999, a former board member of ICE expressed regret that the campaign had not lasted longer, writing that ICE had resulted in a "dramatic turnaround in how people viewed the issue of global warming."

References

1. Axelrod, Regina S., David Leonard Downie, and Norman J. Vig, eds. The Global Environment: Institutions, Law, and Policy. 2d ed. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2004.

2. Botterill, Linda C., and Melanie Fisher, eds. Beyond Drought: People, Policy, and Perspectives. Collingwood, Vic.: CSIRO, 2003.

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