Speaking Thursday at a largely-boycotted 'greenwashing' climate summit in Vienna, Austria, big-talking, Hummer-driving, enemy-terminating, former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said that he thinks climate facts are all "doom and gloom" and is calling on leaders to "sex" up the environmental debate.
"There is a new way, a more sexy, a more hip way. Instead of using doom and gloom and telling people what they can't do, we should make them part of our movement and tell them what they can do," he said.
Schwarzenegger was speaking at the first conference of his new green movement, R20 Regions of Climate Action, which calls on local governments to "follow California's lead" and implement environmental legislation ahead of federal governments. However, largely absent from the conference are environmental organizations including Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund, who criticized the event for being "elitist" and "greenwashing."
"I mean I still drive my Hummers but now they are all on hydrogen and biofuel ... We need to send a message that we can live the same life, just with cleaner technology," he added, illustrating his unfamiliarity with the criticism that biofuels threaten international food security and encourage corporate land grabs.
“If we want to inspire the world, it is time for us to forget about the old way of talking about climate change, where we crush people, where we overwhelm people with data.”