Brown: Climate change ‘is the enemy of humanity’
Governor discusses his concern about the environment, risks facing state and world
Gov. Jerry Brown has made climate change a centerpiece of his terms in office. He is co-hosting a global climate summit this week.
California Gov. Jerry Brown has made renewable energy and climate change a centerpiece of his final term, which ends in January. This week, he co-hosts the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco.
Thousands of scientists, political leaders, business representatives and celebrities from around the globe are arriving all week for the event, which is designed to continue momentum at local levels — despite indifference from the Trump administration — to expand renewable energy and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases that scientists say are warming the planet and leading to more wildfires, heat waves, droughts, floods and other problems.
Brown discussed the issues in an interview with Paul Rogers, resources and environment writer for the Bay Area News Group.
QWhy have this event in the first place? Some people will say that Califor-
nia is not its own country.
AThe whole purpose of this summit was to boost ambition to give a chance to the sub-national jurisdictions — states and regions — and also corporations and other entities like universities and nonprofits, to come together to express their greater commitment.
We want to build from the grassroots a greater demand for more action, a demand that’s driven by actions at the state, the regional and the corporate level, but all advancing the cause and putting the Paris agreement on the world’s agenda. There are many other topics.
The tweets of Donald Trump have gotten more publicity than all the climate stories of the past two years. That indicates that more needs to be done, and one of the “mores” is this particular summit.
QWhy have you made climate change such a centerpiece of your last two terms as governor?
AConcern about the environment goes to the heart of human existence, of society, of the underlying physical conditions that make human life possible. I would use an analogy to theology. It’s not theology in a strict sense, but it’s dealing with the fundamental and the existential. And that’s why I took such an interest even in my first two terms.
I spoke about climate change in the early 1980s, but it’s become more insistent because the parts per million are increasing, the climate is changing, the scientific reports — there are literally thousands of peerreviewed reports on climate change that simply didn’t exist 30 years ago.
This is a topic that in fact is fundamental. It’s imperative. And I feel that this is something that as a Californian, I can contribute to because we have the institutional framework that was created a long time ago under the Clean Air Act that gives our air board such authority on auto emissions, and under (Gov. Arnold) Schwarzenegger, on carbon emissions.
We have a sensitivity here, a value, placed on the beauty of the state. The environment has always seemed fundamental, and not passing. This is more fundamental and that’s something that has always interested me from the time I entered the Jesuit seminary until today. I want to get down to the roots of things, and certainly environment and climate change goes right to the heart of what permits human existence to continue.
QAnd you’ve seen it get worse in recent years with the big wildfires and the drought.
AOh yeah. It’s getting more real now, with the drought and the fires. Certainly, the fire season is extended. That fire tornado up in Redding had never happened before. And the heat and the winds and the combination with the low humidity that took place in the Napa fires.
The world is changing. The scientific evidence is irrefutable and widely, widely accepted. So the Republicans, the deniers in Washington, the president, are really deviant to the international norm. And that’s why it’s important that America maintain its climate actions through the states, cities and private organizations, companies and nonprofits. We can’t just let Trump undermine and sabotage America’s part. This affects us, it affects the world. And as a matter of fact, many of the other countries are stalling out.
We are facing a truly devastating challenge, and climate change, although it comes on gradually, it has an irreversible quality.
QWhat do you say to folks who worry that the costs of action are too high? Higher gasoline prices, higher energy prices, electricity, that kind of thing?
AWell, just ask the people of Redding or Napa or Santa Barbara or Riverside if they think the price is too high. We are going to be talking devastation, tragedies that are going to cost hundreds of billions of dollars. With defense, we don’t even have an immediate enemy, but the Congress mobilizes over $700 billion.
We know that climate change is the enemy of humanity. It’s an impersonal enemy. And in fact, it’s ourselves through our collective behavior. But we have to wake up to it so it saves money.
Some people trot out cost-benefit analyses. I’ve read a few in the Wall Street Journal this week with their analysis of energy and its costs. Absolutely false. The do-nothing option is by far the most expensive.
We are going to spend well over a billion dollars (this year) on our emergency response. Not all of it is climate change, but a significant element is climate change, and every year, every decade, it will be more climate change causing billions of dollars in floods, mudslides and fires.
This is not about whether the costs go up a little bit. The costs are going up, and we better spend the money on the right topics to minimize catastrophe, not just to save pennies. We are talking about saving millions and hundreds of millions of lives, not to mention our own civilization. If we start getting massive migrations coming into Europe from Africa, what we are seeing today in xenophobia and fear of migrants, that’s going to multiply a thousandfold. So to talk about cost here is to miss the gigantic cost, which would be the result of not doing anything.