Because nobody cares Arnie

COP26: Schwarzenegger tells president of this year’s climate summit Sharma, ‘no one knows what COP stands for’

Schwarzenegger had a virtual chat with Alok Sharma, president of this year’s COP26 conference, for web series Arnold’s Stammtisch.

But he had always been a man of imagination, seeing things on too grand a scale, transforming his shady dealings as an adventurer into poems; and this time, with this really colossal and prosperous enterprise, he had been carried off into extravagant dreams of conquest, to so crazy, so vast an idea, that he did not even clearly formulate it to himself.

Emile Zola – L’Argent (1890)

If anyone is incautious or dishonest enough to become enmeshed in a false position they commonly do as Zola’s anti-hero did – they do not clearly formulate the position to themselves. It is embarrassingly clear that the consequences of failed climate predictions obviously made in bad faith are not clearly formulated by believers.

We see this failure to formulate all over the place. It has been called cognitive dissonance, but Zola’s words are good enough in that what we are seeing is avoidance behaviour from the climate faithful. The climate game really is a case of dreams of conquest, to so crazy, so vast an idea, that he did not even clearly formulate it to himself. And in a sense it really is a dream of conquest. Our individuality is lined up for conquest. 

If the global climate suddenly cools then the political situation may change, but sceptics will still struggle to make themselves heard against the sheer weight of power, money and abuse. COP26 is political theatre performed by the rich and ridiculous. Arnie must be down for both roles.