If you listen to the “debates” of those who want to be our president, you hear a lot of banter. You hear a lot of he said/she said. You hear things that are pulled out of their rear ends for shock and awe and front-page headlines. Very rarely, with the exception of Bernie Sanders, do you hear a case being presented for solutions that challenge the way we think or should think about issues.
I had a hard time accepting Arnold Schwarzenegger as a serious candidate for governor of California for all the wrong reasons. Just having a high Q-score should not a candidate make, but read this post he had on Facebook- and see if it makes sense to you. He reframes the discussion of renewable energy, dependence on fossil fuels in a way that even a moron should understand, and for that, he deserves a gold star.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
I don’t give a **** if we agree about climate change.
December 7 · Public I see your questions. Each and every time I post on my Facebook page or tweet about my crusade for a clean energy future, I see them. There are always a few of you, asking why we should care about the temperature rising, or questioning the science of climate change. I want you to know that I hear you. Even those of you who say renewable energy is a conspiracy. Even those who say climate change is a hoax.
Even those of you who use four letter words.
I’ve heard all of your questions, and now I have three questions for you.
Let’s put climate change aside for a minute. In fact, let’s assume you’re right.
First – do you believe it is acceptable that 7 million people die every year from pollution? That’s more than murders, suicides, and car accidents – combined.
Every day, 19,000 people die from pollution from fossil fuels. Do you accept those deaths? Do you accept that children all over the world have to grow up breathing with inhalers?
Now, my second question: do you believe coal and oil will be the fuels of the future?
Besides the fact that fossil fuels destroy our lungs, everyone agrees that eventually they will run out. What’s your plan then?
I, personally, want a plan. I don’t want to be like the last horse and buggy salesman who was holding out as cars took over the roads. I don’t want to be the last investor in Blockbuster as Netflix emerged. That’s exactly what is going to happen to fossil fuels.
A clean energy future is a wise investment, and anyone who tells you otherwise is either wrong, or lying. Either way, I wouldn’t take their investment advice.
Renewable energy is great for the economy, and you don’t have to take my word for it. California has some of the most revolutionary environmental laws in the United States, we get 40% of our power from renewables, and we are 40% more energy efficient than the rest of the country. We were an early-adopter of a clean energy future.
Our economy has not suffered. In fact, our economy in California is growing faster than the U.S. economy. We lead the nation in manufacturing, agriculture, tourism, entertainment, high tech, biotech, and, of course, green tech.
I have a final question, and it will take some imagination.
There are two doors. Behind Door Number One is a completely sealed room, with a regular, gasoline-fueled car. Behind Door Number Two is an identical, completely sealed room, with an electric car. Both engines are running full blast.
I want you to pick a door to open, and enter the room and shut the door behind you. You have to stay in the room you choose for one hour. You cannot turn off the engine. You do not get a gas mask.
I’m guessing you chose the Door Number Two, with the electric car, right? Door number one is a fatal choice – who would ever want to breathe those fumes?
This is the choice the world is making right now.
To use one of the four-letter words all of you commenters love, I don’t give a damn if you believe in climate change. I couldn’t care less if you’re concerned about temperatures rising or melting glaciers. It doesn’t matter to me which of us is right about the science.
I just hope that you’ll join me in opening Door Number Two, to a smarter, cleaner, healthier, more profitable energy future.
Source: I don’t give a **** if we agree about climate change. [1]
I got the lead on this from subscribing to Seth Godin’s blog [2]. I find it a nice daily reminder that there are other intelligent people out there questioning the status quo.
Now, does my “Walk to work tax credit” [3] sound sensible to you?
Thanks for posting this, David. Wonderful alternate to address the issue!
As a fiscal conservative, I have never had a problem with recycling, clean energy, new technology, or anything like that.
I, however, do you have a problem with the “climate science alarmists” who constantly declare the world is going to end if we don’t do something drastic now. Because they’ve been doing that for 40 years now, the glaciers will melt, there will be food shortages, riots in the streets, and organized society will collapse as we know it. None of that has happened, which has cost them all their credibility.
The truth is, they stand to benefit the most financially, when the middle class is forced to pay additional taxes, carbon credits, fees, and offsets, to companies and organizations that many of these so-called “climate scientists” themselves are heavily invested in. It is just another wealth transfer from the middle class to the elites, that’s why I could never support the current “climate science” agenda.
I will continue to drive a fuel-efficient car, I will live close to my work, and I will recycle when possible. But I will have nothing to do with global warming, global cooling, extreme weather, or whatever it’s called nowadays.
There are those who would penalize me because I live in Dayton and my office is in Columbus but Dayton is such an arm pit, I can’t find reasonable employment here. I can’t afford to sell my home in Dayton and move to Columbus due to our fecal economy and miserable real estate market so I’m stuck. I would love to be able to walk to work (although I’m pretty crippled). Under some “do-gooder’s” plan however, I’m going to be considered a scourge because I can’t fit into their ecological mold. We continue to live in a world of ecological Nazis, and those who put their heads in the sand and pretend it doesn’t matter. I don’t consider those democrats and republicans although the dems sure try to portray that they are the “ecologist” and the republicans are the “polluters.” Nonsense. Now there are those “more ecological than thou’s” who would damn me since I drive more than 10 miles to work and can’t take public transportation (and risk my life doing so). Obama would prefer to see coal producing West Virginia rot away and die (since this typical democrat stronghold didn’t vote for his sorry ass). Our self-imposed king dictates and harms those the most that he claims to cater to. I find it completely false to think that fiscal conservatives are less ecologically minded. It makes sense on a vast economic scale but not through the typical democrat edicts of penalizing the middle class to get their way. So, as a fiscal conservative and ecologist, I drive my Prius to Columbus regularly and work from home as much as possible. As a country, we must re-think work. For many of us, there’s just no goddamn reason to drive to work when we have computers, internet and telephone connections to do our jobs from home on a fairly regular basis. Perhaps if we could start with the mindset of “good for ecology, good for the economy,” rather than, party politics we can start making progress. As for Bernie Sander’s “presenting solutions and challenging our thoughts,” Vladimir Lenin already did… Read more »