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Schwarzenegger and Macron blow hot air while France swelters

Last Friday afternoon, while a historic heat wave was finally subsiding across France, I strolled by the Elysee Palace, home of the French president, as a massive black Range Rover pulled up to the door. (This at a time when the transit authority was offering locals special rates to get us out of our cars as pollution ticked up and the temperature hit 40 degrees Celsius.) A palace staffer opened the door and out popped Arnold Schwarzenegger, environmental activist. French President Emmanuel Macron greeted Schwarzenegger with a handshake.

They disappeared into the palace and later posted a selfie video together on Twitter, with former California governor Schwarzenegger explaining that he and Macron had met to discuss environmental issues and a green future. Macron added that they had discussed “how (we) can deliver together to make the planet great again.”

How about starting with making Western infrastructure — including French air conditioning — great again?

I could nitpick, as many on social media have, that Schwarzenegger didn’t squeeze all of his muscles into a tiny Smart car. I’m just glad that he was comfortable here in Paris in the extreme heat. The rest of us sure weren’t. Rather than playing superheroes in a buddy movie, perhaps Schwarzenegger and Macron can fix what’s just on the other side of the palace wall before taking on the rest of the planet’s problems?

Let’s ignore the debate on climate change and whether or not its man-made, and whether it’s hotter in the summertime now than it was a half-century ago. Records show that there were hotter days decades ago in France and in North America. The difference is that modern technology has allowed for our societies to adapt to adverse weather conditions so they’re not as noticeable. I still recall lying in bed in my childhood home in Vancouver, Canada, 30 years ago, unable to sleep in 35C heat. That same heat still exists when I go back to Canada in the summertime, except we now have this thing called air conditioning. (Tell that to the French, though.)

While Macron was promoting planetary reform, kids just to the north in the Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis were opening fire hydrants to fill inflatable pools and the streets with water in order to escape the heat. “Streetpooling” resulted in about 600 hydrants being opened, wasting enough water to fill 240 Olympic-sized pools over four weeks, French utility company Veolia told the daily newspaper Le Figaro. That prompted French police to issue a public service notice with a drawing of a fire hydrant and the caption, “This is not a shower.”

Macron would be wise to try making France great again before he tries to take on the rest of the planet, and Schwarzenegger would better serve the world by staying home and supporting a fellow Republican who’s trying to prioritize the citizens of his own country over a globalist money-laundering scam.

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Rachel Marsden is a columnist, political strategist and former Fox News host based in Paris. She is the host of the syndicated talk show “UNREDACTED with Rachel Marsden” Tuesdays at 7 p.m. Eastern: http://www.unredactedshow.com.

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