Arnold Schwarzenegger was once a Republican politician; now he wants to sue oil companies for knowingly causing global warming that “would kill” people.
The body builder, movie star and governor told Politico in an interview published Sunday that big oil is no different than big tobacco: both are guilty of “first degree murder,” he says.
“I don’t think there’s any difference: If you walk into a room and you know you’re going to kill someone, it’s first degree murder; I think it’s the same thing with the oil companies.”
Schwarzenegger says it’s “no different from the smoking issue. The tobacco industry knew for years and years and years and decades, that smoking would kill people…Then eventually they were taken to court and had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars because of that,” Schwarzenegger told Politico. “The oil companies knew from 1959 on, they did their own study that there would be global warming happening because of fossil fuels, and on top of it that it would be risky for people’s lives, that it would kill.”
Schwarzenegger hasn’t decided when he’ll file suit; at the moment he’s too busy promoting another environmental summit in Vienna.
Even though the “Total Recall” star says “it’s absolutely irresponsible to know that your product is killing people and not have a warning label on it,” Schwarzenegger isn’t entirely certain a lawsuit is going to bring in billions of dollars in damage money. He suggests it might at least promote awareness of climate change issues.
Schwarzenegger is also coming to terms with the #MeToo movement, given his own long list of sexual misconduct accusers, who haunted him while he was running for governor of California in 2003. He thinks the attitudinal shift is “fantastic.”
He insists, “It is about time. I think it’s fantastic. I think that women have been used and abused and treated horribly for too long, and now all of the elements came together to create this movement, and now finally puts the spotlight on this issue…”
Schwarzenegger kept the feud between he and President Donald Trump alive and well. He was listening Saturday night when Trump again dissed Schwarzenegger for “failing” at the hosting “The Apprentice” last year.
“I never know really why the Russians make him say certain things,” Schwarzenegger told Politico. “It’s beyond me. Why do you think he says those things? He’s supposed to be very busy.”