Opening of SEJ’s 26th Annual Conference

Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr.

Sacramento CA - Sept 21, 2016

Introductory Note

This excerpt of Governor Jerry Brown’s inspiring remarks is the conclusion of his address at the Opening Reception and Dinner of the 26th conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists. His talk certainly reflected the conference theme  of “Land of Extremes / Home of Big Dreams.”  His motivational comments and positive energy were clearly welcomed by this annual gathering of environmental journalists. For those who would like to listen to Gov. Brown’s entire address, SEJ offers this audio.

Volunteers in the Golden Gate National Recreational Area restore native plants on the San Francisco Bay Shoreline.

Key Quote  The news of climate change keeps coming in…. Can you so inspire and educate the citizenry, that we take the tough actions, the enlightened actions to make sure that future that we now see doesn’t occur?

All images © Alison M. Jones, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

JOURNALISM and the ENVIRONMENT

California has increased its number of cars by three or four times. Yet, we’ve cut the pollutants by more than 90%. We can do a lot better, and so can the other states. So can the other countries. This is a matter when you can turn a problem into a solution, a lemon into lemonade. We need these problems.

But we don’t want the problems to be so catastrophic that we can’t really respond. The news of climate change keeps coming in. Based on scientific papers, it includes the events of heat and forest fires and flooding. Those are the events of the day. But the real news is the peer-reviewed science that tells us – and puts into context – the implications of what’s happening.

What’s around the corner is really the challenge, the trick. Can you bring forward a future that doesn’t exist? Can you so inspire and educate the citizenry, that we take the tough actions, the enlightened actions to make sure that future that we now see doesn’t occur?

Volunteers in California bringing forward a future.


That’s the exercise. It’s bringing the future forward, and then feeling it, experiencing it. It’s making the difficult and wise decisions now, so that that future we can now see doesn’t occur, and certainly doesn’t occur in the way that we’re predicting it too. So that’s the story on climate change from my point of view.

California, I would say, is doing far better than most, but our steps are very tentative and very small compared to the magnitude of the problem. So we must continue. It will only get more difficult. Others must join with us — and the others are not just a few other states, but all the other countries of the world. That was the exciting consequence of the Paris Accord.

That conference was a lot of work with a certain amount of luck. If China’s President Xi and Russia’s President Putin hadn’t come together and taken the lead, it wouldn’t have happened. If it hadn’t happened, we don’t know how many years or decades we might have been set back. So at least we have the thrust. We have the predicate for real news because there are more events. It’s more real. We’re at least asking everybody, “Step up. Tell us what you’re going to do. People are watching.”

Now it’s up to journalists to report that news and keep us all on our toes. It’s a very exciting time. California is doing what it can. We need to do a lot more, but we can only do what the world of news makes plausible — in some ways, makes possible. We are not disembodied political spirits pondering the eternal verities. We are politicians surfing on the surface of your stories, so please do your best and allow us to keep going. Thank you.

Surfers in Santa Barbara.

Posted by NWNL on April 21, 2025.
Transcription edited and condensed for clarity by Alison M. Jones.

All images © Alison M. Jones, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.