Arnold Schwarzenegger: Climate change is not science fiction

Guest essay by Eric Worrall

Arnold Schwarzenegger has joined an unprecedented group of politicians, celebrities and faith leaders gathered at the summit of conscience meeting Paris, who have demanded immediate action on climate change.

According to the Guardian (quoting Schwarzenegger);

“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.

“I believe the science is in. The debate is over and the time for action is now,” he told an invited audience of intellectuals and spiritual leaders from all faiths. “This is bigger than any movie, this is the challenge of our time. And it is our responsibility to leave this world a better place than we found it, but right now we are failing future generations.”

“This year alone we will dump 40bn tonnes of carbon emissions into our atmosphere. The World Health Organization says that air pollution causes over 7 million premature deaths every year and all over the world we can see flooding, monster storms, droughts and wild-fires that are completely out of control.”

I’m an Arnie fan, but this doesn’t mean I’ll defer my reason to Schwarzenegger’s authority as a climate expert. I don’t doubt Schwarzenegger is sincere, but the grouping now gathered in Paris, whether individual members know it or not, in my opinion represents part of an unprecedented attempt to shackle the global economy, to provide rent seeking renewable corporatists with an open opportunity to enslave and plunder the poor, by driving up the price of food and energy. To drive up prices to the point that some poor people will begin to starve to death.

If there was a climate emergency, the appropriate response would be to decarbonise the economy with nuclear reactors, not to push for renewables which even top Google engineers admit simply don’t work. Since nobody can demonstrate any global warming whatsoever since 1997, without overcooking the numbers, there clearly isn’t a problem urgent enough to justify inflicting unspeakable horror and starvation on the most vulnerable people of the world.

If you want to exercise your conscience Arnold Schwarzenegger, do some more research. Do what Bill McKibben recently did, take a short drive down the road to Chico, CA, and listen to another side to the story. Anthony might or might not persuade you – but at least you will have made an effort, to hear both sides of the story. Don’t blindly place your credibility and good faith into the hands of people who, in my opinion, knowingly or unknowingly represent the interests of unscrupulous rent seeking corporatists.