NEWSWEEK COVER: Save the Planet -- or Else

  Schwarzenegger Taking the Lead in Climate Change Policy; Says He Doesn't
 Need Washington; 'Let us create the partnerships and let us let the world
           know that America is actually fighting global warming'
  Calls California a Nation-State; Wants to Export His Policies Around the
                        Country and Around the World
 New generation of environmentally-aware activists not protesting; instead
         using marketing, technology to attract people to the cause

    NEW YORK, April 8 /PRNewswire/ -- California Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger, who recently called America's sideline position on global
warming "embarrassing," has taken the lead on climate-change policy. "What
we're basically saying to the federal government is, 'Look, we don't need
Washington'," Schwarzenegger tells Newsweek in the current issue. "And so
let us create the partnerships and let us let the world know that America
is actually fighting global warming."
    (Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070408/NYSU003 )
    San Francisco Bureau Chief Karen Breslau talks to Schwarzenegger about
his policies that he hopes to spread to the rest of the country, and the
world, in the April 16 cover "Save the Planet -- Or Else" (on newsstands
Monday, April 9). This comprehensive cover package on the environment not
only looks at Schwarzenegger's crusade, but also at several mayors' efforts
to make their cities green; science and carbon dioxide emissions; how a
younger generation of activists is speaking up and offers some tips on how
to live a greener life.
    In an interview with Breslau, Schwarzenegger says California's impact
will be huge. "We have such an unbelievable influence on the rest of the
globe. We are a nation-state. We are the sixth largest, seventh largest
economy in the world. We make our own deals with countries, with Japan,
with China and Canada. We rely on the federal government, but we are also
relying on ourselves. We're acting as a new country."
    Schwarzenegger has met with his counterparts in British Columbia and
Baja California to talk about setting up a carbon-trading scheme, which
would allow companies able to exceed their emissions targets to sell
emissions credits to those who need them via a carbon market. He's also
negotiating with them for a "hydrogen highway" dotted with liquid-hydrogen
fueling stations up and down the 5,300-mile Pacific coastline, Breslau
reports.
    Last month Schwarzenegger signed a compact with four other Western
states to establish a regional "cap and trade" system for greenhouse-gas
emissions that would allow companies that reduce their emissions below
certain target levels to sell credits to those that don't or can't. Among
the signatories: New Mexico Gov. (and Democratic presidential hopeful) Bill
Richardson, who told Newsweek that Schwarzenegger's "star power" was more
important to the development of the nascent American carbon-trading system
than any bill in Congress. The system, similar to one launched in the
European Union in 2005, would create financial incentives for companies to
save energy and adopt cleaner fuel sources.
    Schwarzenegger's carbon diplomacy has been especially well received in
Britain, where he and Prime Minister Tony Blair have signed agreements to
trade scientific and economic expertise, with the goal of creating a global
cap-and-trade system for greenhouse-gas-emission credits. In the stuffy
world of climate-change policy, says the prime minister, Schwarzenegger has
made himself a welcome player. "He adds a certain spice to it, that's for
sure," Blair tells Newsweek. "To have California, the sixth largest economy
in the world onboard, sends a vital signal."
    Also in the cover package:

    -- Correspondent Anne Underwood reports on several cities' mayors who are
       spearheading movements to make their cities green. In February 2005,
       when 141 nations were preparing to put the Kyoto Protocol into effect,
       and the U.S. was not one of them, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels drafted a
       document called the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement and
       presented it along with eight fellow mayors at the U.S. Conference of
       Mayors in March of that year. To date, 435 mayors have signed on,
       Republican and Democratic. Some of them govern cities with longstanding
       records of environmental activism, such as Chicago, San Francisco and
       Portland, Ore. But their ranks also include recent converts like
       conservative Republican Robert Cluck of Arlington, Texas, and Tom
       Barrett of Milwaukee.

    -- Science Editor Sharon Begley writes about the efforts being made by
       environmental leaders to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The
       reductions in the Kyoto Treaty will only slow the rate of increase of
       CO2 emissions, not stabilize it, argues one climate researcher. As we
       head toward increasing amounts of CO2 emitted in the atmosphere, the
       U.S. Department of Energy is spending $100 million this year for R&D on
       carbon storage, up from $1 million in 1997. The idea is to suck carbon
       out of the ambient air or -- even more feasible -- out of power plants
       where it's produced, and store in the deep ocean or in depleted oil
       and natural-gas fields.

    -- General Editor Anna Kuchment reports on how a younger generation of
       environmental activists are dealing with global warming. Reared on MTV,
       YouTube and celebrity magazines, young people are attacking the
       environmental movement with a different strategy than those who became
       politically active in the 1970s. Rather than boycotting companies and
       organizing violent demonstrations, many activists are marshaling savvy
       marketing and technology skills in order to attract a wider, more
       diverse group of people to the cause.

    -- Senior Editor Jerry Adler reports that before any action can be taken
       on the environmental crisis, it needs a name.  "Global warming,"
       "greenhouse effect," "climate crisis," "climate change" have all been
       used. They all refer to the same thing, but the first rule of modern
       political discourse is that before addressing any empirical problem,
       each side must "frame the debate" in the most favorable way. Behind the
       overt campaign to head off whatever it is -- environmental heating?
       thermal catastrophe? -- is a covert struggle over what we should even
       call it.

             http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17988870/site/newsweek/

               (Read entire cover package at http://www.Newsweek.com)

SOURCE NEWSWEEK