Arnold Schwarzenegger wants warning labels on fossil fuels, but let’s start here first

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**Written by Doug Powers

Arnold Schwarzenegger has an idea that could have an impact, as long as you believe somebody 100 miles from home might stop at a gas station for a fill-up and say to themselves, “You know, I was going to get enough fuel to get home but because this warning label says it might contribute to polar ice cap melt I think I’ll try and walk it”:

Arnold Schwarzenegger, former California governor and Hollywood actor and film producer, issued a challenge on Sunday to governments to start labeling fossil fuels with a public health warning that their use could cause illness and death.

He lauded the World Health Organization (WHO) for sealing a 164-nation tobacco control pact in 2003 that led to consumers of cigarettes and cigars being alerted to the health risks of smoking, including lung cancer.

A similar accord could be put in place for products derived from fossil fuels such as oil and coal, which emit planet-warming gases when burned, said the politician and environmental activist.

“Wouldn’t it be great now if they could… make the same pact with the rest of the world to go and say, ‘Let’s label another thing that is killing you – which is fossil fuels,’” he said to applause on the sidelines of U.N. climate talks in Bonn.

I’ve got a better idea to try first: Require rich celebs to put “Warning: Eco-Hypocrite Aboard” stickers on their private jets:

It’s a little like standing in a room in the 1940s and listening to Humphrey Bogart call for warning labels on cigarettes while he’s blowing the smoke from a half pack of Winstons in your face.

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File photo: Schwarzenegger, pictured above in 2009, demonstrates how climate change could cause a giant hand to envelop San Francisco’s Treasure Island

**Written by Doug Powers

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