Arnold Schwarzenegger Will Fight Climate Change, Doesn't Give a #$@% What Haters Think
Arnold's back, and he's got a strongly worded message for climate change deniers.
"To use one of the four-letter words all of you commenters love, I don't give a damn if you believe in climate change. I couldn't care less if you're concerned about temperatures rising or melting glaciers. It doesn't matter to me which of us is right about the science," Arnold Schwarzenegger wrote in a letter Monday posted to his Facebook page.
The Governator asked everyone to think of other damaging effects of pollution.
"Let's put climate change aside for a minute. In fact, let's assume you're right," he wrote. He went on to question whether these same people are content with the fact that 7 million people die each year because of air pollution, or what their plan will be when fossil fuels inevitably run out.
Finally, he asked if, given the choice, his followers would rather sit in a locked room behind "door No. 1" with a gasoline-fueled car running full blast or a room behind "door No. 2" with an electric car running full blast.
"I just hope that you'll join me in opening door No. 2 to a smarter, cleaner, healthier, more profitable energy future," he concluded.
The message here isn't ideological. For Schwarzenegger, it's practical: At the very least, he argues, deniers must come to terms with pollution's other consequences.
He's also big on the economic argument. "I, personally, want a plan," he said of alternative energy sources. "I don't want to be like the last horse and buggy salesman who was holding out as cars took over the roads." He highlighted California's growing economy as evidence that investing in proactive environmental policies worked.
The letter comes on the heels of the COP21 talks, which have brought almost 150 leaders from around the globe to Paris to hammer out a universal agreement on climate change. This week, Schwarzenegger joined California Gov. Jerry Brown in France's capital to champion a bipartisan approach to the issue.
"It's important for people to know that Republicans can work with Democrats and vice versa," Brown said, according to the Los Angeles Times. "That is a very important message for the international community, that they should not look at [climate change] in a political way," Schwarzenegger said, a position that falls in line with his Facebook letter.
Then again, he could have just given it to his climate change denying Facebook followers straight. No one would have faulted him.
h/t Huffington Post
