Brown: Climate change is looming catastrophe for California

Global warming is a looming catastrophe for California, the nation and the world, but few people — politicians and the general public alike — want to talk about it, Gov. Jerry Brown told a San Francisco conference on climate change Thursday.

While no one can say when —or even if — a worst-case environmental disaster could occur, that’s no reason to avoid the discussion, he added.

“If it’s possible, we need to talk about it,” the governor told the standing-room-only crowd at the opening session of the 15th annual Navigating the American Carbon World conference at the South of Market InterContinental Hotel.

The gathering of climate change activists was the friendliest of crowds for Brown, who received a standing ovation even before he gave his 20-minute talk.

Relaxed and tieless, the governor warned the audience not to pay attention to accomplishments of the past.

Reports that the West Antarctica Ice Cap is melting rapidly and warnings that the level of San Francisco Bay could rise by as much as 10 feet in the next century are getting far less attention than they deserve.

While efforts like California’s landmark emissions cap-and-trade program, which the governor is working hard to get reauthorized past 2020, and the 2015 Paris Agreement on cutting back greenhouse gases worldwide are important, they aren’t enough, the governor added.

President Trump’s declaration that climate change is a hoax invented by the Chinese to hamstring U.S. manufacturing doesn’t make it any easier to change the country’s direction, he said.

When people see what’s at stake, they will respond, the governor promised.