The vast majority of the scientific community now accepts that global warming is a genuine problem that’s caused by humans, but a small but very vocal minority is still adamant that it’s not.
As it turns out, climate change deniers will now have to answer to none other than former Mr Universe and governor of California, the Terminator himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Arnie, who was in Paris last week for the important climate discussions at COP21, took to Facebook afterwards to ask some important questions to doubters of climate science and trolls who abuse those who want to clean up the planet.
“I don’t give a f*** if we agree about climate change,” the post reads; a strong start from a strong man who also happens to be an incredibly strong proponent of renewable energy.
“I see your questions,” he adds. “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.”
His post goes on to pose three questions to his Facebook followers, firstly asking whether they believe it’s acceptable than seven million people die every year from pollution: a number higher than all murders, suicides and car accidents combined.
Reading like something ripped straight from the script of one of his films, he challenges climate change deniers to question whether they accept that fossil fuels cause children all over the world to grow up breathing with inhalers.
Secondly, he asks whether, in the face of unanimous consensus that fossil fuels will one day run out, that coal, oil and gas will be the fuels of the of the future. “What’s your plan then?” he demands.
But with his final question, Arnie knocks it straight out of the park with a Monty Hall-style dilemma that asks his Facebook followers to imagine being trapped in a room with two different vehicles.
“There are two doors,” he says. “Behind Door Number One is a completely sealed room, with a regular, gasoline-fuelled 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, he says, is the choice the world is making right now, and it’s pretty hard to argue with. So what has any of this got to do with cars? As it turns out, a lot.
Estimates of exactly how much vehicle tailpipe emissions affect the atmosphere as a whole vary, but it’s generally accepted that in cities around the world, the car is the single greatest polluter.
Emissions from more than a billion vehicles on the road add up to a planet-wide problem, poisoning populations and contributing to deadly smog that engulfs cities and harms populations from London to Beijing.
It’s a problem on a truly worldwide scale, and though Arnold Schwarzenegger’s averted global destruction countless times before in his films, this is one villain that can’t be defeated with bullets and snappy one-liners.
But it’s not a fight he’s taking lightly, and it’s not something he’s recently started, either. Back in 2004, when he was still The Governator, he introduced plans to create a ‘Hydrogen Highway’ of 100 hydrogen fuel stations in California.
A modest beginning, he claimed at the time, but one that would hold the promise of a revolution. Unfortunately, that revolution was not to be and Schwarzenegger’s dream of Californians tootling around in carbon-free hydrogen fuel cell cars crashed and burned with the state’s economy in 2008.
Yet, just like the Terminator, the hydrogen highway is back. Last year, the California Energy Commission planned to divide $50 million among eight companies to build 28 hydrogen fuel stations across the state.
The hydrogen revolution isn’t just limited to California, either. Here in the UK, you can now buy a hydrogen-powered version of the Hyundai ix35, while Toyota introduced its futuristic Mirai fuel cell car back in September.
Along the new cars comes new plans to install hydrogen fuel stations in the UK, and Toyota reckons uptake will be so successful that it’s planning to make all of its cars hydrogen-fuelled only as early as 2020.
If that goes to plan and Toyota does indeed make its lineup exclusively hydrogen powered, no doubt one of the first people in line to buy one will be Schwarzenegger himself. More often seen sat atop a Harley or behind the wheel of a tank on screen, in everyday life Arnie is a firm fuel cell convert.
Take his famous hydrogen-powered Hummer H2H prototype as an example, which served as Schwarzenegger’s steed during his tenure as governor and was built to “demonstrate the economic and technical viability of hydrogen”.
Hummer, maker of some of the most fuel-inefficient and wasteful automobiles ever to roll off a production line, presumably wanted a slice of the pie because Arnie already liked its cars, and also to try and change its image.
Putting lipstick on a pig by turning a car with fuel economy as low as 10mpg into a futuristic alternatively-fuelled car, the H2H swapped the regular truck’s 6.0-litre V8 for a unique combustion engine powered by compressed hydrogen.
Although the H2H never saw production and it’s unlikely ever to see the light of day again after the Hummer brand was dismantled in 2010, the battle against vehicle emissions rages on and you can be sure, wherever he is, Arnie will be leading the fight.
He might have swapped the M16s for facts and figures, but with the effects of climate change becoming an increasingly present threat, his message couldn’t be any clearer: “Come with me if you want to live”.
