by Mark Silva
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pumped up President Bush in a re-election campaign rally at a Columbus, Ohio, hockey arena four years ago. But Bush has let Schwarzenegger, and the world, down on global warming, the governor maintains.
""This administration did not believe in global warming," Schwarzenegger told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos in an interview that will air Sunday on ABC's This Week.
"They just didn't believe in it or they didn't 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?" Schwarzenegger maintains - and that's not the American way, says this son of Austria who found his fortune in his adopted homeland.
"We don't wait for other countries to do the same thing,'' Schwarzenegger tells Stephanopoulos (there's a couple of mouthsful for you). "That's what makes America number one... And I think we have a good opportunity to do the same thing, also, with fighting global warming.''
Schwarzenegger's comments follow the Environmental Protection Agency's decision not to take further action against global warming during the remainder of Bush's presidency.
"To be honest with you, if they would have done something this year, I would have thought it was bogus anyway," the governor says. "You don't change global warming and you don't really have an effect by doing something six months before you leave office....
"This administration did not believe that [carbon dioxide] and greenhouse gases is a pollutant,'' he says. "They fought this in court and then finally the Supreme Court had to tell them, 'Yes, it is a pollutant.''
The Republican governor also seizes the opportunity of this appearance on the Sunday morning talk show to tout his own state's initiatives on climate change: "I'm very happy that California is in the forefront. We are very aggressive. We have made a commitment to roll back our greenhouse gas emissions to the 1990 level ... We didn't wait for Washington.
"The administration and the federal government have been terrific partners in a lot of things for us and we have worked together very well,'' Schwarzenegger says, "but environmental issues was not one of them."
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Comments
The Supreme Court said carbon dioxide is a pollutant? Wow, that's settled. Lawyers are now scientists. Amazing how the leftists disbelieve the court on things like allowing people to own guns to defend themselves but line up at the trough when those same lawyers make a judgment totally out of their realm of expertise. And for those of us from CA, Arnold's name there is Schwarzenkennedy.
Posted by: Sheffield | July 12, 2008 7:20 AM
sheff, their judgement is backed by irrefutable, peer-reviewed science. big difference.
Posted by: crud | July 12, 2008 9:29 AM
Obviously Schef doesnt believe in factual scientific proof. Perhaps he still believes that Noah built an ark...
Posted by: Scot S. Blakeley | July 12, 2008 10:44 AM
Arnie is a liberal Republican who ran as a conservative and governs like a Global Warming liberal Democrat.Too bad if W bothers you Arnie you are not worth President Bush's time.You are a weirdo in every sense of the word. Jerry White, Springfield, IL
Posted by: Jerry White | July 12, 2008 10:57 AM
If you do NOT believe it is a pollutant and that it won't harm life, let's see how long you last if you lock yourself in a garage with a running automobile. Pollution is pollution is pollution no matter what side you sit on.
Posted by: lochnessmonster | July 12, 2008 11:52 AM
Carbon dioxide is a necessary ingredient for the growth of our food, growth of plants to give off oxygen for us to breath, and growth of trees to give us lumber and more oxygen.
The climate/atmosphere of this planet was once mostly carbon dioxide. This kick started plant life - plant life flourished, then animals - then animal life flourished - the climate changed again for whatever reason and this brought forth mammals this brought MAN into existence. oh that ugly pollutant, carbon dioxide!
The earth may be warming, something it has done numerous times over its history. In fact the earth has, in its history, had many different climates/atmospheres. Where is it written that the climate suitable for man on this planet is supposed to last indefinitely?
While the planet may be warming, where has it been proved that man has caused it? In science nothing is fact until it is proved - scientists routinely do not act on of belief in theory, apparently except in this case.
Are we willing to bet the economy of this nation on a change in climate that we have almost no chance of reversing. We would do better to adapt.
http://brokengovernment.wordpress.com
Posted by: Ken Moyes | July 12, 2008 1:13 PM
"Loch Ness", I would call Carbon Monoxide a poison, not a pollutant! All this hype about GW is just "HOT AIR". The world cycles into cold then hot! If you are around in a million years, you will be claiming that we have "Global Chilling"!
Posted by: henry | July 12, 2008 2:09 PM
When someone like the aptly named "crud" asserts that the evidence for global warming is "irrefutable", I can only chuckle.
It's refuted every day, by--among other things--actual temperature readings showing that, contrary to Gore-baloney predictions, earth temperatures have COOLED the last decade.
"crud" and his cult of Climate Change Deniers pretend that temperature variance has only occured in the last 30 years. But temperatures have varied from decade to decade, century to century.
Posted by: Bruce | July 13, 2008 4:49 PM
bruce, keep swimming with the scientifically challenged ten percenters. it's where you belong.
Posted by: crud | July 13, 2008 9:25 PM
Crud - keep being a kool-aid drinker.
http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/ice_ages.html
Posted by: Terry | July 14, 2008 9:42 PM