© Sacramento BeeCalifornia Governor Jerry Brown
Gov. Jerry Brown said Monday that his legislative setbacks on climate change last week should be viewed "not in terms of me," warning California will endure European-style effects of mass migration if the state fails to act on global warming.
"What we've in Europe now with mass migrations, that will happen in California, as ... Central America and Mexico, as they warm, people are going to get on the move," Brown told reporters at a Mather news conference on California's wildfires.
Heat, rising sea levels and drought are expected to disrupt populations around the world in coming decades, though the current refugee crisis in Europe speaks to other causes of migration. Millions of people have fled Syria as a result of civil war.
Brown, who has made climate change the signature issue of his administration, suffered a setback when he and legislative leaders - facing opposition from oil companies and moderate Democrats - were forced to abandon a proposal to require a reduction in petroleum use in motor vehicles in California. Another bill, to increase California's greenhouse gas reduction targets, also fell apart.
Brown maintained that he will continue to seek petroleum reductions under his executive authority.
Comment: Although he's off the mark in terms of attributing climate change to human causes, Brown's remarks are prescient in light of what Niall Bradley wrote here:
Syrian refugees in Europe, regime change in Damascus, and the mass migrations still to come