SACRAMENTO-
After several national television appearances in which he talked about the dangers of climate change, Governor Jerry Brown continued his message at an agricultural forum in Sacramento.
He addressed participants in the day-long event sponsored by the Giannini Foundation of Agriculture Economics and UC Davis. While agriculture is suffering through a drought largely blamed on climate change, Brown continued to use the recent wildfires in Southern California to make his point.
“Our fire season is 70 days longer than historically and that means we need fire crews on all the time,” said Brown.
He also used the fires as a dramatic backdrop to his climate change warnings on national television over the weekend. Brown said climate change is not a topic that fires the imagination, but that immediate disasters like tornadoes, floods and wildfires do catch people’s attention.
He said California is doing its part by placing heavy restrictions on greenhouse gases emitted by large industries, requiring the use of renewable energy by state utilities and encouraging the use of electric and gas saving cars. But he says California can’t do it alone. He said California has forged agreements with other states as well as China to reduce greenhouse gases.
“We’re one percent of the problem. We have to get other states and other nations on a similar path forward,” said Brown.
Not coincidentally his belief that Californians have to change the way they live fits in with his support for the transportation of water through his twin delta tunnels project and his support for a high-speed electric train. Both have a huge amount of opposition without regard to climate change. Brown said there was still a good deal of denial when it comes to how to live with a changing climate.