Changing the Climate Change Conversation Before the Environmental Movement Is Terminated
Given the volatile state of the world these days, rather than presenting a new technology to add to the docket, let’s rethink how to best map out a path for the cleantech movement. There’s one guy who saved the world before and said he’d be back.
When Arnold Schwarzenegger isn’t busy dropping the mic on the president he’s championing the environmental effort. Arnold was on a fitness crusade for 45 years, but something changed within him when he became governor. Gazing slightly upward, he noticed how close the shit was to hitting the fan for the environment.
How would he go about reverting the world onto the path of sustainability?
Governator, Tell Us your Thoughts
A) Yes, climate change is occurring and we must acknowledge the present and future effects from it.
B) 7 million people die each year from air pollution. No one ever talks about this. Why aren’t people obsessed with this?! That’s much more than deaths caused by traffic accidents, war, ISIS, suicides, and homicides together.
When Arnold helped run the effort to drive oil interests out of California and vote down Prop 23, he successfully used the health aspect to catalyze people to get out and vote. Everyone, regardless of other beliefs, wants to have healthy air, clean water, and a clean ground.
C) The renewable energy industry provides jobs. Everyone agrees that eventually fossil fuels will run out. What’s the gameplan then?
Many people have lost their jobs because of the tech boom. Industries continue to get disrupted by innovations, such as the coal industry getting undercut in price by the invention of fracking. For every antiquated job displaced, a new one can be born to produce clean energy.
Ironic isn’t it? Arnold played a high-tech cybernetic organism who uprooted the human race but now outlines a plan to help people who have been dealt a blow by technology.
D) The U.S. must become energy independent to secure national security so that it doesn’t rely on malign countries that don’t wish it well. The faster the U.S. can wean itself off oil’s teat, the faster it can stop poking its finger in the business of other countries.
“When there’s an accident and someone hurts their leg, you don’t think about how you’re going to fix the leg. No, first you figure out how to stop the bleeding. The same with the environmental movement. We have to talk about how it affects us right now.”
To recap, we can do that by:
- Acknowledging climate change, but not solely talking about it
- Giving due attention to the 7,000,000 people that die every year from air pollution
- Renewable energy production provides plentiful jobs
- Not relying on other countries for fossil fuels will lead to better national security
Check out this short video made by James Cameron; like in many of Arnold’s other films, it’s unintentionally comical.
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