
Jerry Brown: ‘Take Fossil Fuels out of Our Lives’
California Gov. Jerry Brown addressed a public hearing on Thursday in Sacramento and made clear he will continue his war on fossil fuels.

California Gov. Jerry Brown addressed a public hearing on Thursday in Sacramento and made clear he will continue his war on fossil fuels.

A new Pew Research Center survey, released as Pope Francis publishes an encyclical on the environment and climate change, finds that 71% of self-identified American Catholics believe the earth is getting warmer, but only 47% attribute the perceived warming to human activity.

On Tuesday, California Governor Jerry Brown signed onto a pact between 12 regions in seven countries, including four U.S. states, binding each to reduce greenhouse gas emissions drastically. The goal of the cuts is to keep the rise in global average surface temperatures below 2º Celsius. However, recent revisions by the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change suggest global temperatures are projected to rise by less than 1º C over 30 years–and perhaps by less than 0.5º C.

California Gov. Jerry Brown issued an executive order Wednesday mandating a statewide reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent under 1990 levels by 2030, an ambitious addition to the state’s already-tough emissions cutback targets.