Gov Jerry Brown Tells Scientists California Is Epicenter of Global Warming

Governor Jerry Brown told a group of scientists in a speech on Monday in Sacramento that California is the “epicenter” of global warming. Moreover, the New York Times reported, Brown affirmed that the state’s drought and the wildfires in San Diego are a direct result of man-made global warming.

Once known as Governor Moonbeam to Californians, Brown is now making a case for the sobriquet “The Godfather of global warming,” as he pontificates on the effects of climate change on a daily basis. “We have to adapt because the climate is changing… we have to live with nature, not collide with it,” he insists.

Governor Brown alerted those attending the conference in the state’s capital, who were there to discuss the effects of drought on California’s agriculture industry, that California and other states are not on a “sustainable path” when it comes to global warming. “Now there’s no doubt that the evidence has been strong for quite a while, and it is getting even stronger,” the governor said.

California’s chief spokesman for the dangers of climate change hasn’t let the borders of the state interfere with his crusade to get the word out: “We have to get other states and other nations on a similar path forward.” The Times reports that Brown has traveled around the world to China to make his case for the benefits of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and has rallied other governors across the nation to take up the sword and join him in the fight.

Governors from Maryland, New York, and Washington have joined Brown and are also fearful of rising sea levels, drought, and snowmelt, according to the Times. Eight states have passed legislation reducing carbon emissions, although not as restrictive as the Golden State’s measures. Moreover, nine states along with California have employed cap-and-trade policies for the greatest producers of greenhouse gas emissions.

Governor Jay Inslee of Washington demonstrated he is in lockstep with Gov. Brown, having recently signed an executive order to initiate a cap-and-trade program. Inslee asserts that climate change is not a “hypothetical thing for governors on the West Coast–this is fire alarms and floods.” For the Evergreen State’s chief steward, global warming “is not a next-century issue. This is a next half-hour issue.”