The Guvernator just announced that California is striking out on its own to enter into greenhouse gas emissions deals with developing countries in partnership with the United Nations. So, keep reading. You might be surprised.
You know I always find it funny (in every way you can use the term) how often right wing people who post comments on climate blogs or online new sites that run a climate change story invariably mention Al Gore (or algore) in a disparaging way. It’s as if they need a specific easily identifiable figure to personify the evilness of “environmentalist whackos” and for the last 10 years Gore has been that figure they love to hate. Scientists whose names no one knows or organizations like the IPCC just don’t have the name recognition that Gore has when it comes to a target figure for them to use to besmirch the science of climate change.
But in reality, Gore is merely a popularizer of the research and advocate for the concerns raised by real scientists. He holds no official position in government. He has no power to issue decrees or sign into law climate change legislation, and apparently little influence on those who do, even among the members of the Democratic party. He’s almost been a better anti-champion for the Climate Deniers than a champion for those of us who accept the scientific consensus that human beings are primarily responsible for climate change.
Deniers don’t have to come up with factual arguments to contest our claims (and they can’t in any case given that all the evidence goes against them). All they often need to do to discredit the the undeniable evidence of climate change among the many people who are ignorant of the facts and the research that supports the science is tell their designated lie of the week and then couple it with another another ad hominem attack on Gore. It’s been an effective approach since for many people Gore is a highly unpopular figure. For all the good that Gore has done around the world, he has had little honor or respect in his own country.
Interestingly enough, another flawed man, one whose politics I personally don’t particularly care for, has been over the last five years a more significant factor in promoting and implementing policies that actually address the problem of climate change. I hate to admit it, but Arnold Schwartzenegger, outgoing Republican Governor of California, may have been the single individual who has done the most to promote action that addresses climate issues. Certainly he has been the most prominent political figure in either party to identify himself with addressing the threat of climate change since Gore’s release of “An Inconvenient Truth.”
Emboldened by what Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called clean energy’s “greatest referendum in history,” California officials are pushing ahead with a new greenhouse gas deal with foreign countries.
Schwarzenegger on Monday launched his third Governors’ Global Climate Summit at the University of California, Davis. He said this month’s landslide defeat of Proposition 23, a ballot measure backed by oil companies that would have rolled back the state’s landmark climate change law, shows broad support among voters for policies to cut greenhouse gases. […]
Of the Proposition 23 defeat, Schwarzenegger said, “I hope that our success here in California encourages you to fight when you have those challenges and keep fighting and fighting because science is on our side, the economics is on our side and the people are on our side.”
The administration released few details of the greenhouse agreement with developing nations that it will announce today. But the program that’s being considered – with the United Nations as a partner – will help provide funding for carbon-reduction programs in states and provinces in 20 developing and industrialized nations. […]
Schwarzenegger said the failure to reach an international climate accord in Copenhagen and the failure by Congress to pass national climate legislation this year were discouraging. But he said Proposition 23’s 22-percentage point margin of defeat shows that voters across the political spectrum want to do something about the climate and create new jobs.
“The truth … is that the green revolution is moving forward full-speed ahead without the international agreement,” he said.
Say what you will about Schwarzenegger’s record (and I could say a lot of bad things about it), on the climate front he has been an ally to those of us who recognize the danger to the planet from ever increasing carbon emissions. And frankly, this is an issue that should be bipartisan because it effects everyone, regardless of whether their politics are right, left or none of the above.
California may be a mess, and no doubt Schwarzenegger’s actions as Governor shares much of the blame for that, as do the actions of the legislature, the housing market collapse and the insane Proposition 13 tax laws passed back in 1978. However, Scwartzenegger’s future legacy undoubtedly will rest on his support for the “Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006”. When he signed that that bill into law it was the first in the nation to call for limits on greenhouse emissions in accord with the Kyoto Protocol.
California produces roughly 1.4 percent of the world’s, and 6.2 percent of the total U.S., greenhouse gases. Our state has been working on and finding solutions to our impact on climate since 1988. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2005 executive order on climate change kicked into high gear to further advance clean renewable energy and other solutions to lower our state’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. And the landmark California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 established the first-in-the-world comprehensive program of regulatory and market mechanisms to achieve real, quantifiable, cost-effective reductions of GHG.
I wonder what Schwartzenegger will do now that his term as Governor is coming to an end. Will he go back to making or producing movies or simply enjoying the benefits of his celebrity, resting on his laurels so to speak? Or will he take the far more audacious path of becoming the primary voice from the conservative side of the political spectrum for addressing climate change instead of ignoring or denying that it exists, which is the predominant position of the current Republican Party at the national level?
I’d like to see the latter. The number of people who doubt the science of climate change in America and the problems it poses staggers the imagination. Many of them will never be convinced by anything Al Gore has to say on the matter. Perhaps they might listen better and be more open to accepting the reality of the problems we face from human made climate change if the Terminator is the messenger.
