Jerry Brown Stokes Climate Change Fears: Droughts, Wildfires, Political Upheaval

While discussing climate change in Mexico on Monday, Jerry Brown predicted droughts, wildfires, political upheaval and mass migration of people fleeing from environments devastated by global warming. “Can we imagine the future… and do something about it in the present?” asked the California governor.

Nathaniel Keohane of the Environmental Defense Fund, who sat on a climate change panel with Brown and Mexican officials, said that the partnership between Mexico and California is “just what the world is looking for.” Also joining in the conference, the Los Angeles Times reported, was Mary Nichols, chairwoman of the controversial California Air Resources Board. She expressed her excitement about the partnership, because in her opinion imposing international constraints is not yet achievable. 

“The idea that we’re going to have a one world government that will police us is not happening,” Nichols lamented. She suggested that in the meantime the next best solution is for states and countries to form partnerships and make their own regulations. 

Last week, at a Chamber luncheon, the Sacramento Bee reported that Brown told reporters that climate change is the “overarching, existential threat to humanity,” and that he was heading off to Mexico to “do something about that… Mexico’s an important place for this,” he said.

The Bee suggests that the governor plans on making the climate change talks with Mexico a predicate for upcoming international meetings on climate change in Peru in December and in Paris next year. Brown emphasized that the Paris meeting “is the crucial event for the future of the world. And it’s going to be very challenging to get something done that has real bite and limits the production of carbon, and that’s what has to be done.”

Breitbart News reported in early July that the rise of carbon emissions may actually increase biodiversity on the planet. According to Doctor Craig Idso, the chairman of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, increased levels of C02 reduce the negative effects of a number of plant stresses including: high salinity, low light, high and low temperatures, insufficient water, air pollution, and C02 protects against herbivores, i.e. being eaten by animals and insects.