For anyone stumbling upon this page who’s just awoken from a decade-long coma, it’s 2008, and for the last 4 years Arnold Schwarzenegger has been the governor of California.

I’ll just let that sink in for a minute…

You alright? Okay. So, Ahnold is running a whole state these days — seriously! — and one of his big causes is The Warming Of The Globe. (This is a theory that WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE because SUV fumes are melting the icebergs and the polar bears are all drowning. Al Gore won an Oscar and a Nobel Peace Prize for it. I told you a lot has happened since ‘98!) In 2006 Schwarzenegger passed the Global Warming Solutions Act, which puts caps on greenhouse gas emissions and penalizes Cullyfornia industries that don’t comply. Here’s what he said when he signed it:

“We simply must do everything we can in our power to slow down global warming before it is too late… The science is clear. The global warming debate is over.”

Hasta la vista, debate!

And how is the Governator showing his own personal commitment to ending this crisis? By flying back and forth between his mansion in Brentwood and his office in Sacramento every day on his private jet. According to the LA Times:

The governor’s Gulfstream jet does nearly as much damage to the environment in one hour as a small car does in a year, according to figures compiled by the Helium Report, an online publication for buyers of luxury items.

Administration officials say Schwarzenegger is well aware of this and makes amends by purchasing pollution credits for the carbon dioxide his jet releases. The credits fund efforts worldwide to reduce greenhouse gases, such as projects that harness energy from wind, landfill gas and farm waste, although they don’t eliminate the pollution from Schwarzenegger’s plane.

Flying the Gulfstream and other jets the governor uses costs as much as $10,000 an hour. Some conservationists say Schwarzenegger is essentially attempting to buy a clean conscience with the carbon offsets, which cost about $43 an hour.

Hey, what do you want the guy to do, live in Sacramento??

(Hat tip: Hot Air)