California Gov. Jerry Brown said Tuesday at a summit of mayors from around the world that humanity may already have “gone over the edge” on climate change and must take measures or face extinction, the Sacramento Bee reports.
Brown, speaking at a Vatican conference full of like-minded mayors organized by the equally climate-conscious Pope Francis, was repeatedly held out as a global leader on climate change. Mayors are considered significant players in efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As mayor, Brown called climate change “an area where I can be constructive,” even more so than if he had ever been successful in his previous bids to become President:
Were I president, I probably would think about nuclear bombs, and I would be very concerned about what Mr. Putin is thinking, and what the Indians and the Pakistanis are doing with their nuclear bombs, and I’d want to make sure that we try to slow this all down. When you’re governor, you don’t have to talk about this international stuff. But climate change, because it is both local and global, it is a big existential threat that I can deal with as a governor.
In the past, Brown has repeatedly called Republican critics of man-made climate change “troglodytes,” to applause.
Brown’s remarks expressed urgency:
We don’t even know how far we’ve gone, or if we’ve gone over the edge. There are tipping points, feedback loops. This is not some linear set of problems that we can predict. We have to take measures against an uncertain future which may well be something no one ever wants. We are talking about extinction. We are talking about climate regimes that have not been seen for tens of millions of years. We’re not there yet, but we’re on our way.
The Sacramento Bee reports that Brown and dozens of other mayors signed a declaration stating that “human-induced climate change is a scientific reality, and its effective control is a moral imperative for humanity.”
“We have to respond, and if we don’t the world will suffer, we will all suffer,” Brown said. “In fact, many people, millions are suffering already.”
“But if every year things get worse,” he said, “our goose will be cooked.”
The Vatican is combining talks on climate change and human trafficking, emphasizing the impact of global warming on the world’s poorest people. Pope Francis himself addressed the group, stating that he has “great hope... that a fundamental basic agreement is reached” among global leaders.
Brown is scheduled to speak again today.
