Noted scientist, Arnold Schwarzenegger, casts his eye over the political landscape and wags his finger at the Bush administration. Schwarzenegger, the Governor of California, said the decision to delay a decision on regulations affecting greenhouse gases showed it did not believe in global warming.
Schwartzenegger might not have realized he was also lecturing a majority of Americans for being nonbelievers. According to Pew Research Center:
Americans generally agree that the earth is getting warmer, but there is less consensus about the cause of global warming or what should be done about it. Roughly four-in-ten (41%) believe human activity such as burning fossil fuels is causing global warming, but just as many say either that warming has been caused by natural patterns in the earth's environment (21%), or that there is no solid evidence of global warming (20%).
Though the above info is two years old, a recent (June 22 2008) poll of Britons confirmed that a majority doubt that any warming is caused by human activity.
The majority of the British public is still not convinced that climate change is caused by humans - and many others believe scientists are exaggerating the problem, according to an exclusive poll for The Observer.
The results have shocked campaigners who hoped that doubts would have been silenced by a report last year by more than 2,500 scientists for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which found a 90 per cent chance that humans were the main cause of climate change and warned that drastic action was needed to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Schwarzenegger's headed for political obscurity, a politician blown about by the winds of eco-fashion in a state famous for such posturing.
Schwarzenegger, in an interview with ABC television broadcast Sunday, said it would have been insincere for the administration to take action on the harmful emissions with only six months left in George W. Bush's presidency.
"Well, to be honest with you, if they would have done something this year, I would have thought it was bogus anyway... because you don't change global warming and you don't really have an effect by doing something six months before you leave office," he told ABC on Friday.
Schwarzenegger spoke on the day the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a report offering no new action against emissions and calling for 120 days of public comment, essentially leaving any decision to the next administration.
Taking action at this late stage in Bush's second four-year term would not have been credible, said Schwarzenegger, who signed a historic bill in 2006 that made California the first US state to impose limits on global warming gases.
His political future stymied--at least for the foreseeable future--Arnold must be contemplating a career as a writer for science textbooks.
"It doesn't sound to me believable at all [the Bush's sincerity on global warming]. The sincerity is not there," the governor said.
"I think that the way they have done it is much better, because it just really means basically this administration did not believe in global warming, or they did not believe that they should do anything about it since China is not doing anything about it and since India is not willing to do the same thing, so why should we do the same thing," he said.
Schwarzeneggar unwittingly mentions one problem of the U.S. hamstringing its economy: if China and India do nothing, it doesn't matter. What he doesn't mention is the pouring of billions of U.S. dollars down the global warming rat-hole, to address a faux science cause célèbre.
RidesAPaleHorse's Arnold Assessment: "Teutonic Twit".
We agree--with one addition. After looking at Arnold Schwarzenegger and his academic background, our verdict on Arnold's latest scientific pronouncements:
We liked him in "Terminator".
by Mondoreb
image: RidesAPaleHorse
Sources:
* Schwarzenegger slams Bush administration on global warming
* Little Consensus on Global Warming
* Poll: most Britons doubt cause of climate change