Enviros want climate question at Obama-Romney debate

Environmentalists are trying a new strategy to bring climate change into the 2012 White House race: Work the refs.

The League of Conservation Voters has launched a petition drive pressing the moderator of the first presidential debate, Jim Lehrer of PBS, to ask about the topic. The first debate is Oct. 3.

“We urge you to ask President Obama and Gov. Romney how they will confront the greatest challenge of our generation — climate change,” states the online petition, launched Wednesday.

“Millions of voters will get their information about the presidential candidates by watching the debates this year. That gives you the responsibility to ensure that they know where the candidates stand on issues that will affect not only their own lives, but also their children and grandchildren's futures,” the petition states.

It also claims the media has been asleep on the job, citing a study by the liberal watchdog group Media Matters for America that found very few TV news segments connecting July’s record heatwaves to climate change. From the petition:

By asking bold questions in this debate, you can change this trend. We appreciate that the PBS NewsHour has covered issues of climate change with the gravity that it requires. Now we ask that you apply that same integrity to your questions during the presidential debate and generate the substantive discussion about global warming on the national stage that our country needs to have right now.

The petition arrives at a time when some activists have been disappointed that climate change has played such a small role on the stump.

Al Gore recently expressed concern that Obama and Romney have largely steered clear of the topic despite this summer’s record-setting heat and extreme drought.

The League of Conservation Voters is seeking 50,000 signatures.