Schwarzenegger: War against climate change must become ‘sexier,’ ‘hipper’

Aah-nold is here to pump us up about climate.

SwissInfo reports:

The war against climate change must become “hipper” to interest more people, says former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The Hollywood action hero was in Geneva this week in his latest role as green activist to inaugurate his R20 non-profit environmental group, which has established a headquarters at Versoix, on the city outskirts.

During his three-day visit Schwarzenegger broke Geneva University audience records at a public conference on his latest “crusade” – climate change and the economy.

On Wednesday night 2,000 people packed into the main university auditorium and two separate conference rooms were opened especially to broadcast the Governator’s live performance.

“I won’t stop until we’ve spread our green revolution everywhere,” he told the audience.

Schwarzenegger served as governor of California from 2003 until 2011, during which time he became steadily more committed to green policies. In 2006, California became the first US state to place a cap on greenhouse gases.

The 64-year-old hammered home his message about better communication on climate change and greenhouse gases.

“We have to make the environment movement sexier, more attractive and hipper so everyone takes part,” he said. “And we have to banish the word ‘impossible’ from our vocabulary.”

Communication should be like a “four-legged stool” and not the current one-legged version based solely on climate change, said Schwarzenegger.

The second leg should be about jobs, as “the green economy is a growing economy”, and the third and fourth must focus on national security and health.

“Clean economies can save millions of lives,” he pointed out.

Citing Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi in his speech, he said citizens could not hang around waiting for governments to seal an international climate change accord.

“There are countries, states, cities and people who think they can’t create a green energy future without an international agreement. I’m on a crusade to change that,” he declared…

Read the entire report.