This governor is ready to step onto the climate change battlefield
Dec 19, 2016, 5:57 AM | Updated: 10:18 am
By now, we all know about the electoral college and why the Founding Fathers created it — to make sure that California’s votes don’t count.
The Federalist papers don’t put it quite that way, but that’s certainly how it feels to Governor Jerry Brown who told a convention of climate scientists last week that he’s ready to do battle.
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“We’re facing big oil,” Brown said. “We’re facing big financial structures that are at odds with the survivability of our world. It will be up to you, as truth-tellers, to mobilize all our efforts to fight back.”
There have been reports that Trump advisers want to cut back on NASA’s Earth observation satellites — the ones which have collected evidence of climate change — and Governor Brown suspects the president-elect is up to no good.
“And if Trump turns off his satellites, California will launch its own damn satellite,” Brown said. “We’re going to collect that data.”
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I should point out Trump himself has made no such threat to stop climate research, but Governor Brown was worried enough about his cabinet picks to go full Patrick Henry.
“We’re ready to ride the backlash back to sanity, sustainability and truth,” he said. “Scientists of this world unite. You have nothing to lose but your grants, your tenure and who knows what else.”
But he reassured the scientists as well.
“If anyone in Washington starts picking on researchers, you can be sure you’ll have a friend in California in our attorney general and all the legal talent we can bring…”
I believe the head of the world’s sixth largest economy just told the new head of the first largest economy “see you in court.”
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