Gov. Brown to help lead Doomsday Clock group

SACRAMENTO — Few topics produce more fiery rhetoric from Jerry Brown, delivered with equal doses of exhortation and exasperation, than the threat posed by nuclear weapons. And as he exits the state’s political stage, California’s governor will expand his role in the global debate over nuclear disarmament.

Brown accepted an invitation Thursday to become the executive chairman of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the Chicago-based organization best known for its Doomsday Clock that is reset periodically to measure the threat of global annihilation. He will join the group’s leaders at their next meeting in early November.

“There’s no doubt we’re at one of the most dangerous, if not the most dangerous point, since the atomic bomb was first dropped,” Brown said in an interview. “There’s great and mounting hostility.”

The position is the second of its kind for the outgoing Democratic governor. Brown last year joined the board of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, an organization founded in 2001. He traveled to Washington last week for meetings at the group’s headquarters.

His trip, which ended Wednesday, also included an hourlong meeting about nuclear weapons with Defense Secretary James N. Mattis. The governor declined to say what he and Mattis discussed, but he said the secretary “affirms the dangers” posed by nuclear weapons.

“I like to deal with the big stuff,” Brown said. “And there’s nothing bigger than this.”

The role with the Bulletin also allows Brown a continued focus on climate change, as the organization states its mission is now to “support public policies that reduce manmade existential threats.” The governor convened an international climate summit in San Francisco in September.

William J. Perry, who served as Defense secretary under President Clinton and is chairman of the Bulletin’s board of sponsors, said the organization gains a passionate anti-nuclear advocate in California’s governor.