Malibu Pool Cleaner Save the World

The surprising part of it is, Tamminen may have actually found a way to do it. Through his efforts, the tools and determination to roll back greenhouse gas emissions may now be California s most important export, spreading to other states and the private sector, with Tamminen in the self-described role as the Johnny Appleseed of climate change.  

Schwarzenegger, at the time best known for his role as a robotic assassin in the Terminator films, was immediately declared the sensible choice and the front-runner. The weekend after his announcement, he and his family flew to Massachusetts for a visit with his in-laws— the Kennedy family. Politics is the Kennedys lifeblood, and he was peppered with questions about his platform, his policies, his plans, his staff, and his campaign. At that point he could offer few specifics beyond the conviction that someone from outside Sacramento with a businessman s eye and a nonpolitical perspective—this is how he defined himself at the time—could bring fresh ideas to the task of fixing California s considerable problems. One of the areas he intended to tackle was the environment, he said, because the dirty ocean, beaches, and air in Southern California troubled him. He needed help to translate his concerns into policies, though. As it happened, there was an 

Schwarzenegger was so eager to put the green part of his campaign in place that he phoned while still at the Kennedy compound in Massachusetts. Would Tamminen meet with him the following week  

Despite a successful start at fulfilling a substantial number of environmental campaign promises, Tamminen s work that year was marginalized by some of Schwarzenegger s other staffers, who considered him too liberal. There was little effort to publicize or generate excitement about Cal-EPA s accomplishments. 

It had taken more than a year to study the problem, inventory the state s greenhouse gas emitters, and develop a plan. The task was slowed because when Tamminen arrived there was not a single climate scientist at Cal-EPA. Within two years, he had 200 people in state government working on the problem. 

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