Arnold Schwarzenegger - 218

When thinking of climate science advocates, Arnold Schwarzenegger is not someone who come to mind. Yes, I recognize him as a champion bodybuilder. He won the Mr. Olympia title seven times. Yes, I recognize him as an actor. He starred in 35 films and became one of the most successful action-adventure actors ever. I also remember him as a Republican who was elected Governor of California. But, as a climate champion, he was not so recognizable to me until now.

It wasn’t until I purchased the book, “39 Ways to Save the Planet” by Tom Heap did I get an inkling of Governor Schwarzenegger’s early, strong, and continuing role as a climate champion. “39 Ways to Save the Planet” was written by Tom Heap to catalog the many ways innovative, dedicated, and imaginative people are creating solutions to solve the climate crisis. Tom Heap is a documentary presenter who covers issues in science, energy, and climate for the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC.

Arnold, “I’ll be back” Schwarzenegger wrote a rousing endorsement of Mr. Heap’s book. I was wondering why this well-known science advocate in the UK sought out Arnold to write his forward. Why have a body builder and movie star be your primary science promoter?  

As Governor of the state with the nation’s strongest economy, Governor Schwarzenegger was pivotal at getting California on track to curb its greenhouse emissions. (If CA was a country, it would rank as the 5th largest economy in the world so cleaning up its carbon pollution is a big deal.)

Since retiring as the California Governor, he has continued to aggressively promote saving the earth. In this short column I’ll try to do justice to his service and his many accomplishments.

In 2005 he issued a California executive order calling to reduce greenhouse gasses, ghgs, to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

A year later he signed the “Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006” which created the first cap on California ghg emissions.

Also, in 2006 he signed an executive order which allowed California to work with the Northeast States in their “Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative”.

Closer to our Michigan home, he opened the 2009 SAE World Congress in Detroit promoting clean vehicles. He has personally had two gas guzzling Hummers converted to Green Hummers. One runs on biofuel, the other on hydrogen.

In 2011 he founded the “R20 Regions of Climate Action” to develop sustainable low-carbon economies.

In 2012 he helped found the “Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy” which is part of the University of Southern California. Its mission is to, “(advance) post-partisanship, where leaders put people over political parties and work together to find the best ideas and solutions to benefit the people they serve.” He serves today as chairman.

In 2015 he was offered and accepted the opportunity to join Pope Francis as a Climate Advocate ahead of the Paris Climate Conference. In one of his statements running up to the conference he said, “I’ve starred in a lot of science fiction movies and let me tell you something, climate change is not science fiction, this is a battle in the real world. It is impacting us right now.” Climate change was obvious to him because he listened to the world’s best scientists and science organizations. Since 2015 climate disasters worldwide, especially in our Southwest, have made it obvious he and the world’s scientists were right.

In 2017, back in the country he was born, the “Schwarzenegger Climate Initiative” launched the “Austrian World Summit” in Vienna. Here pollical, industrial, and environmental leaders gather to share and speed solutions to the climate crisis. They meet annually. This July will be the 6th meeting.

In 2018 he helped create the Netflix documentary about the rise of vegan champions in the athletic world. In 2022 he says his own diet has been converted to 80% plant-based foods and claims the switch has made him feel, “healthier and younger overall”.

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s life has been an extraordinary personal endeavor to excel and succeed.  His journey has been a maturation of focus from personal achievement to service to society. While still working in Hollywood he said, “When I feel the time is right, I will then consider public service. I feel that the highest honor comes from serving people and your country.”

As Governor of California, he honored that aspiration.

Today at 74 he still serves the people of the world as an action hero, a climate action hero.

References: Time magazine, the Schwarzenegger Climate Initiative, Wikipedia, the Netflix documentary “The Game Changer”, and the book “39 Ways to Save the Planet” by Tom Heap.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Legacy

Legacy is the masterpiece of Yann Artur-Bertrand. It is a must watch 1 hour and 41-minute documentary offered on Amazon Prime. (Prime is available for free on a one-month trial basis.) Inspired by his love of nature and humanity Bertrand has taken the wisdom attained through 50 years of observing nature and employed his mastery of film to give us a spellbinding history of earth and man. At this critical juncture in man’s ascent, it is his passion, a grandfather’s passion to protect his grandchildren, which drives him to excel at 76. If we look back to the days of Leonardo De Vinci or Michelangelo these geniuses had a very small audience with whom to communicate, to make a positive impression, and to create change. They communicated primarily with the aristocracy and the clergy.   There was no need to influence the masses since the common man was not involved in decision making. Commoners could not even read or write. Democracy has widened the base of decision making. By voting ...
Read more

Your Hero: Plato or Joe the Plumber?

My appreciation for the plumber came to me from opposite directions. As a semi-successful do-it-yourself plumber, I slowly learned a bit about the trade. I learned that when the sewer starts to backup plumbers should be reached by dialing 911.   Sorry Plato, you lose round one. But, what about the history of plumbing and its importance to human civilization? Plumbing history came to me accidentally.    While employed by the Military Sealift Command, I was “stuck” on the Island of Crete. Being stuck on Crete is not a hardship. In fact, you might pray that you suffer this fate one day. Before docking, I read in National Geographic, about an ancient civilization on Crete called the Minoan. In its heyday, young nimble girls would leap over charging bulls at festivals. In a way it was like modern Olympic gymnastics springboard competition between the horns. The article said there were frescos on preserved walls of the ancient Palace of Knossos depicting the event. ...
Read more

Becoming Wise Gardeners

Often, when we talk about saving the earth’s climate we talk about the number one problem, the need to switch energy sources from polluting and archaic fossil fuels to modern clean energy sources. More so, I enjoy reading and learning about the second simultaneous step we need to take to save the climate. Some of the Carbon Dioxide must be removed from the air and stored. Scientists use the terms Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS), or Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU) to describe this. When carbon is captured it must be used or safely put somewhere. Today it is pumped back into the earth into old mines or oil fields. These mines and oil fields are called “sinks”. Mother Nature has a lot of natural sinks. For instance, I am sitting in my favorite rocking chair listening to music. My chair and my speakers are made of wood. Alive, or dead, a tree and its commercial product timber, are natural carbon sinks. In fact, any plant is a carbon sink. Far and away the best carbon sink...
Read more