KEY POINTS:
The United Nations' chief environmentalist may have flown half-way round the world to celebrate World Environment Day in New Zealand, but it was the Terminator who stole the show, by video link.
UN Environment Programme executive director Achim Steiner has spent the past few days in Auckland where
he is helping put the international spotlight on World Environment Day, this year hosted by New Zealand for the first time.
Today is officially World Environment Day but yesterday Auckland business leaders were treated to a special appearance by Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Governor of California, at a breakfast meeting held at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron headquarters at Westhaven.
Mr Steiner was there as the special guest of the NZ Business Council for Sustainable Development but at short notice Mr Schwarzenegger confirmed he was also available to speak at the meeting by video link from California.
The ensuing scene wasn't exactly of Hollywood quality - the sound was poor and the large four-panelled screen initially featured a po-faced stand-in for Mr Schwarzenegger until the boss was ready to speak.
When Mr Schwarzenegger finally appeared the audience was transfixed as he peered into the room like a possum in the headlights and then embarked on an animated speech, carrying on unfazed after his ear piece fell out.
But it turned out that was just the Governor doing a practice run and Mr Steiner was invited to address the audience in the meantime.
He did his best but Mr Schwarzenegger's larger-than-life screen presence in the background proved something of a distraction.
Even when someone threw a tablecloth over the screen the former Hollywood actor's star quality shone through until someone worked out how to turn the video link off.
About half way through Mr Steiner's presentation it was "action" as Mr Schwarzenegger was finally ready to roll.
In greeting New Zealand he told the audience he was wearing a green tie, green belt, green cowboy boots and green watch band for World Environment Day.
With the distorted audio making his voice sound almost robotic at times, Mr Schwarzenegger compared the change in attitude to green issues with the change of attitude to bodybuilding, of which he had been an early proponent.
"Now you can't go anywhere without a gym ... people are talking about six-packs and abs."
Mr Schwarzenegger said the image of environmentalists had all been "weirdos and tree huggers" and for a long time the issues had been powered by guilt over things such as smoke stacks, big screen televisions and hot tubs.
Now there was a move towards more positive drivers, such as innovation, which would be more capable of bringing about a revolutionary change, he said.
Mr Schwarzenegger said in California, warehouses were putting massive solar panels on their roofs and companies were racing to develop new technologies, investing "billions and billions of dollars".
"It has been called California's new gold rush."
Mr Schwarzenegger said he was ready to do anything to help other countries such as New Zealand. "Just let us know what we can do ... You know how to get hold of us."
