Jerry Brown criticizes 'political lemmings' of climate change
David Siders
Fresno Bee
12/15/2011
Gov. Jerry Brown railed this morning against politicians who doubt climate change, calling "political lemmings" the chief obstacle in combating global warming.
"The main thing we have to deal with in climate change is the skepticism, the denial and the cult-like behavior of the political lemmings that would take us over the cliff," Brown said at a high-profile conference on climate change at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.
The Democratic governor said climate change has lengthened the state's fire season and quickened its snowmelt, affecting agriculture and taxing public infrastructure.
He acknowledged that Californians have been "squeezed" by the flagging economy, but he said investment is necessary to stem the effect of climate change. He is expected next year to propose a peripheral canal or another way to move water through or around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
"It will cost money," he said. "But if we don't do that and the levees collapse in one of these extreme events, we could run out of fresh water."
Brown championed environmental causes when he was governor before, from 1975 to 1983, and he has sought in his return to Sacramento to continue with the work of his Republican predecessor, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Brown signed legislation in April requiring California utilities to obtain one-third of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020, and he has said he will promote the creation of 20,000 new megawatts of renewable energy by that year.
