California Governor Jerry Brown to Launch Satellite to Track Greenhouse Gas Emissions

SAN FRANCISCO – California Governor Jerry Brown kicked off the week by signing two actions for his state to only use electricity from green sources such as wind and solar power by 2045. He ended the week on Friday. announcing that the state would launch its own "cursed satellite" to hunt for the greenhouse gas emitters that fuel global warming.

Both actions were intended to demonstrate the power that California and other cities, states, societies and individuals must take to combat global warming, particularly in the face of inattention or hostility President Donald Trump and the federal government.

In the days between the two announcements, Brown hosted a meeting of nearly 5,000 environmentalists, elected officials, business leaders and activists from five continents at the World Summit on Climate Action, here. They have repeatedly pledged to do more to curb global warming while trying to stimulate an equal level of commitment from 195 national governments.

The week was a mixture of great aspirations, growing commitments to action against greenhouse gases and long-standing regrets about the calamities that await the world.

"In California, with the science attacked, in fact, we are attacked by many people, including Donald Trump, but the climate threat continues to grow," Brown told delegates at the Moscone Convention Center. "With science still under attack, we will launch our own satellite, our own satellite, to find out where the pollution is."

Brown's office said the satellite – which will be developed in collaboration with Earth Planet's imaging company, based in San Francisco and launched in 2021 – will allow the state to track greenhouse gas emissions.

The government could then crack down on catastrophic releases of carbon dioxide, methane and other pollutants, said Stanley Young, spokesman for the National Air Resources Control Commission. And he could use data to detect more chronic problems and develop policies to reduce them, Young said.

It has not yet been determined whether satellite data would be available for others wishing to track greenhouse gas emissions, said Young.

Mr. Brown, 80, will be leaving his position in January at the end of his fourth term. His first two terms lasted from 1975 to 1983, when he was nicknamed Governor Moonbeam. This nickname is due, at least in part, to Brown's proposal to join a satellite project.

At the beginning of his second term at the end of 2016, Brown told a group of scientists at an event for the American Geophysics Union that some people were denying science that clearly showed that humanity's activities were heating up. the planet. He has described rumors that Trump would "extinguish even satellites that monitor the climate."

While Trump has never said he intends to cut data from US climate satellites, a senior advisor said the administration intended to suppress "politicized science" by refocusing the mission of the science division. of NASA's Earth.

Brown added, "If Trump turns off its satellites, California will launch its own satellite. We will collect this data. "

It was not clear if Brown was serious about this promise. On Friday, he made it clear that he is there.