Posted on 04/11/2007 9:25:40 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger boasted Wednesday that California's leadership is making environmentalism hip, sexy and mainstream, no longer just a guilt-driven movement for "tree-huggers" and "fanatics."
"Environmentalists were no fun. They were like prohibitionists at the fraternity party," the moderate Republican governor told a student audience at Georgetown University, part of an East Coast swing to promote his increasingly enthusiastic embrace of the environment.
"Successful movements are built on passion. They aren't built on guilt," he said, predicting that environmentalism was reaching a "tipping point" where it will move into the mainstream.
"I don't know when the tipping point occurs, but I know where -- in California," he said.
Schwarzenegger likened environmentalism to bodybuilding, his first arena of success, which he said was once considered a marginal sport for weirdoes.
"It became mainstream, it became sexy, attractive, and this is exactly what has to happen with the environmental movement," he said.
Schwarzenegger appeared at a conference sponsored by Newsweek magazine, which put him on its current cover balancing a globe on his finger with the caption "Save the Planet -- Or Else."
A blowup of the cover was behind him as he spoke Wednesday. Even Schwarzenegger -- whose environmental record isn't as spotless as he sometimes portrays -- expressed some amazement about that.
When he ran for governor in 2003, he recalled, he was hounded by environmentalists complaining about his personal fleet of gas-guzzling Hummers.
"Here we are, three-and-a-half years later, and I'm on the cover of Newsweek as one of the big environmentalists," he marveled. "Only in America, that's all I can say."
Schwarzenegger's biggest claim to environmental fame lies in California's landmark global warming law that he signed last year. It imposed the country's first statewide cap on emissions of the heat-trapping gases that are blamed for global warming.
The law, written by Democrats, requires California to reduce emissions by an estimated 25 percent by 2020 -- an estimated 174 million metric tons.
Some Democrats in Congress, including California Sen. Barbara Boxer, who chairs the environment committee, want to use California's law as a model as Congress seeks to write federal global warming legislation.
Schwarzenegger acknowledged California's measure alone will not have a significant impact on carbon emissions. But he said it would serve to push the rest of the country, and the world, in the direction the most populous state is moving.
California is the world's 12th largest producer of the emissions blamed for warming the earth.
"California is big, California is powerful, and what we do in California has unbelievable impacts, and it has consequences," he said.
"What we are doing is applying leverage so at some point the entire environmental thing tips -- that is what we are trying to do. ... We are sending the world a message."
Schwarzenegger didn't mention that before signing the state's landmark bill he sought to weaken it in favor of business interests and threatened a veto if Democrats didn't cede to his requests.
Schwarzenegger maintains those changes were not meant to weaken the bill's environmental goals, but instead represented a difference of opinion with legislative Democrats over how they could be achieved.
He has been making frequent public appearances outside California, by his own account trying to influence the presidential campaign with his own views on politics and the environment. A native of Austria, Schwarzenegger is not eligible to run for president.
He was last in Washington in February when he lambasted politicians of both parties for not working together the way he said lawmakers in California do.
Schwarzenegger travels to New York Wednesday night for dinner with Gov. Elliot Spitzer and for a fundraiser. On Thursday, he delivers an environmental speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in Manhattan.
Schwarzenegger appeared at a conference sponsored by Newsweek magazine, which put him on its current cover balancing a globe on his finger with the caption “Save the Planet — Or Else.”
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A Gorebalist and a TWirP, to boot.
Oh, pleaaase, Arnold, your making me ill.
We are past the crossroads. We either build power plants, or we return to the stoneage.
Like it or not.
California, green means no more conveniences for the middle and lower classes.
Oh, pleaaase, Arnold, your making me ill.
We are past the crossroads. We either build power plants, or we return to the stoneage.
Like it or not.
California, green means no more conveniences for the middle and lower classes.
Oh, sheesh.....when you can control the SUN, Ahnold...we'll talk.....sheesh.....and speaking of "weirdoes"....
I don’t even have to read the article to know what an idiot Ahnold is!
"...solar activity is influencing in some way the global climate causing the world to get warmer."
But this explanation does not allow for nearly the same level of response from those who wish to increase the power of government over private activities.
Arnold is a left wing fascist who believes government should control private property for the Marxist common good, as defined by the state.
When it comes to land, the entire state is run by putrid unelected bureaucrats who are building a fascist hellhole.
People are paying big bucks for the privilege to live in a dictatorship. The fact that Prop 90 was defeated is an indicator that the majority of Californians are happy to live as slaves and serfs and carry out the will of their Marxist masters.
Is he fundraising for Spitzer?
On Thursday, he delivers an environmental speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in Manhattan.
Getting orders from his masters?
Yes! The SS!!! (Spithead & Schwartzenfrauder)
The Chron’s take (Marinucci):
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=14&entry_id=15351
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, always pushing the envelope of public discourse, did it again today in New York — becoming, we can safely say, the first speaker ever to raise the subject of “Pimp My Ride” before the high-brow Council on Foreign Relations.
Schwarzenegger’s appearance was warmly received by the A-list audience of diplomats and business leaders who make up the prestigious crowd. But one in the crowd noted — with some humor — that the California Republican was the first speaker to use the word “pimp” before the brain trust of the big think tank, whose members include Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and a passel of former secretaries of state (Madeline Albright, Colin Powell, Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinksi and Warren Christopher).
CFR... Phhhhhhhht!!! Schwartzenegger... Spitoui!!! Spitzer... Yeck!!!
Hey! Din't I ping ya to the Pimpinator's "Pimp My Ride" thread of yesterday? I was sure I had!!!
You probably did. After seeing the “buy California health insurance or get locked up” thread, I wasn’t in a very good mood. LOL.
Dang! Now I gotta go find it...
Isn't is just lovely what's happening to our society, my former Party and our state? I couldn't be more unhappier!!! (sob)
It’s a doozy! Take a deep breath before clicking:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1815593/posts
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