Gov. Jerry Brown delivered an ominous message to deliver at a climate change conference with representatives from across the Americas.
In an interview before his trip, the governor said the world needs to make significant changes in order to prevent an irreversible “tipping point” in the environment, and he compared the situation to the sinking of the Titanic.
“The music was playing. They were all in their finest clothing. But the damn thing went down,” he said. “We’re talking about something like that for the whole human experiment.”
Brown said the threats from climate change are grave and numerous: “Migration, hunger, war, a major assault on civilization as we know it. The stakes couldn’t be higher, even though they’re not immediate.”
The governor is one of the featured speakers at the conference, along with former Vice President Al Gore and former Mexican President Felipe Calderón.
“What we’re seeking is to increase the number of states and provinces that join with California in committing themselves to serious and significant climate reductions,” Brown said. “That’s the purpose of the meeting.”
With some countries slow to take action on a national level, Brown is pushing a “bottom up” approach to addressing climate change, in which individual states and provinces set their own targets in hopes of spurring broader action. World leaders plan to meet in Paris this year to develop a new environmental accord.
“I’m going to do whatever I can. You can say, well, is that enough?” he said. “Nothing is enough. But doing nothing is not an option.”
After two days of rubbing shoulders with an international collection of politicians in Canada, Gov. Jerry Brown emerged from a climate-change conference here with new partnerships in the fight against global warming.
In a speech to government officials and environmental advocates that capped his trip, the governor took aim at “troglodytes” who deny the threat of climate change, and insisted that all aspects of modern life must be scrutinized to save the planet.
“We have to redesign our cities, our homes, our cars, our electrical generation, our grids — all those things,” Brown said. “And it can be done with intelligence. We can get more value from less material.”
Addressing climate change, Brown said, requires reckoning with things that have made life comfortable for billions of people.
“Oil, gas, coal has created the wealth we enjoy,” he said. “What was the source of our wealth now becomes the challenge of our future.”
He criticized politicians, particularly Republicans in Congress, who refuse to take action.
“We have a lot of troglodytes south of the border,” he said.
The conference, attended by people from across the Americas and the other side of the Atlantic, was a chance to showcase California’s growing environmental reach.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who also attended the conference, is interested in joining as well, but lawmakers in his state have blocked such a move.
In California, Brown is fighting his own legislative battle to reduce gasoline use, increase energy efficiency and boost renewable energy. The bill is pending in the state Assembly, facing opposition from oil companies and skepticism from utilities.
Asked whether he thinks it will pass, Brown said, “I never want to predict, but there’s some very strong legislative leadership in support of these climate goals.”
The governor was warmly received at the Toronto conference, which functioned as something of a pep rally for green-minded government officials weary of resistance to stronger action from national leaders.
Glen Murray, Ontario’s environment minister, described the event as “a great big group hug” and said Brown’s role has been “transformational.”
“He’s stepped up as a major international leader on the issue,” he said. “Certainly we couldn’t be doing this without Gov. Brown.”
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne thanked Brown for “modeling what we all need to be doing.”
Much of the conference was geared toward preparing for a United Nations event in Paris later this year, which is intended to forge a new global environmental accord.
Brown said in his speech that it’s important to not wait for national leaders to take action.
“The real source of climate action happens to come from states and provinces,” he said. “The real energy has to come from below.”
“We’re going to build up such a drumbeat that our national counterparts, they’re going to listen,” he added.
Brown expands on his climate change views in relation to the Pope’s recent encyclical:
http://americamagazine.org/content/dispatches/front-lines-interview-california-governor-jerry-brown-laudato-si