Arnold Schwarzenegger’s advice to environmentalists dismayed over the Trump administration’s policy approach is simple: “Stop whining” and do the work.
The actor and former California governor, 77, who has long championed environmental causes, said Tuesday at the Austrian World Summit that he has been hearing the grievances of those who are wondering why they should bother fighting for green policies when the current administration will only deliver pushback.
“Be the mayor that makes buses electric; be the CEO who ends fossil fuel dependence; be the school that puts [up] solar roofs,” Schwarzenegger advised.
“You can’t just sit around and make excuses because one guy in a very nice White House on Pennsylvania Avenue doesn’t agree with you,” he added.
Schwarzenegger even pointed to his 1991 movie “Kindergarten Cop” to make his point, where he famously told the youngsters to stop complaining.
“What’s interesting is every time I talk lately to environmentalists, and to policy people, they say, ‘Arnold, what is the point of fighting for a clean environment when the government of the United States says climate change is a hoax, and coal and oil is the future? The politicians in Washington don’t care,'” he said. “You know what I say to them? Exactly what I said in my movie ‘Kindergarten Cop’ to the kids. Stop whining! Stop whining.”
“Whining doesn’t change anything. Whining doesn’t build anything. I know that sometimes politicians in Washington, D.C., or many other capitals of the world won’t always agree with everything that we do and that we believe in.”
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He added that attacking the president is “not [his] style,” according to ABC News, and that he doesn’t criticize the president when outside the U.S.
Schwarzenegger also said that the whining and complaining are tiresome to people, and the “only way” to “win people’s hearts and minds is by showing them action that makes their lives better.”
He has embraced environmentalism in multiple ways, leading the Schwarzenegger Climate Initiative and working in office to pass green legislation that cuts carbon emissions, focuses on alternative resources and puts emphasis on clean water and air.
He has long been at odds with Trump, offering his endorsement for then-Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024 and sharply criticizing him on multiple occasions, including for pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord.
