WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations Thursday, California GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger warned politicians about the political consequences of ignoring global warming and not taking measures to curb carbon emissions.

"Your political base will melt away as surely as the polar ice caps -- I can guarantee you of that," Schwarzenegger said. "You will become a political penguin on a smaller and smaller ice flow, drifting out to sea. Goodbye my little friend."

Schwarzenegger has helped pass revolutionary laws in California to decrease greenhouse gas emissions. He signed two laws, one to curb emissions 25 percent by the year 2020 and the other to cut the carbon content in transportation fuel by ten percent.

He explained how get people interested in doing their part to help the environment. He said trying to get people to stop driving gas-guzzling SUVs is a "formula for failure."

"If they make things cool. If they make things sexy and cutting edge," Schwarzenegger said. "We don't have to take away the cars from the people. Instead, what we have to do is make those muscle cars and those SUVs and those hummers environmentally muscular."