California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger compared the challenges faced by the environmental movement to the struggles of bodybuilders when he spoke to a packed house of amused students in Gaston Hall yesterday, declaring that the environmental movement is now at a “tipping point.”
At ease with the audience, Schwarzenegger sprinkled jokes and pop culture references into his speech at the Newsweek Conference on Environmental Leadership. He described the American perception of environmental activists as “prohibitionists at the fraternity party” and compared the current surge of environmentalism to bodybuilding’s attempt to dispel its “sketchy” image in the 1970s.
“We consciously changed [bodybuilding’s] bad image with the movie Pumping Iron,” Schwarzenegger said. Although the movie propelled body-building into the mainstream, parts of it include Schwarzenegger psyching out a deaf competitor, taking steroids and smoking a joint. He went on to point out that Saturday Night Fever similarly, and single-handedly, brought back disco-dancing, at least in Austria. In order for environmentalism to make this kind of jump, it must be “mainstream, sexy, attractive,” according to Schwarzenegger.
“We don’t need to take away muscle cars, humvees. We [just] need to make them environmentally muscular,” he said, mentioning that one of his Hummers runs on bio-fuel and another runs on electricity.
Schwarzenegger emphasized California’s leading role in the movement for a cleaner earth.
“California is giving the nation and world a push,” Schwarzenegger said. “We don’t want to wait for anyone, we don’t want to wait for the federal government … because they’re slower than we are. The important thing is we create partnerships with other countries, other states.” According to Schwarzenegger, California is working with Great Britain and provinces in Canada.
“Green, clean technology will be the next wave in California’s technology. The nation’s biggest scientists … [are] all racing to find the answer [in a] race fueled by billions of dollars,” he said. He added that the scientists and CEOs who are convinced of global warming and climate change are mainstream.
“These are not wacky people,” Schwarzenegger said.
Repeating the word “sexy” several times throughout his speech, Schwarzenegger emphasized the importance of promoting the issue in a way that will draw a critical mass of supporters to the environmental cause. But considering the numerous students who left Gaston after Schwarzenegger finished his speech and Fran Pavley, a former Los Angeles assemblywoman, replaced him at the podium, the governor himself may have been a bigger draw than the threat of global warming.
“I couldn’t stop laughing throughout,” Conor Hickton (SFS ‘08) said. “I mean, the message was great, but I came for Arnold.”
During the question-and-answer session, a student wearing a white t-shirt with bodybuilder.com emblazoned across his back gushed over Schwarzenegger, who returned the compliment by praising his triceps.
Noah Hall (COL ‘09) didn’t even attend the speech; he just came at the end to catch a glimpse of Schwarzenegger.
“It was worth it,” Hall said. “He looks just like he looks on TV.”
