California governor Jerry Brown was a guest speaker at the American Geophysical Union’s Fall Meeting in San Francisco on December 14, 2016. A strong supporter and defender of science, Jerry Brown gave an impassioned speech regarding how California was going to stand up to the threats against science posed by the Trump administration. The governor’s spirit should serve as inspiration to scientists everywhere.
Here are some notable quotes from the address:
Often when you’re moving along at a tepid pace, you’re not going to get there. When someone [read: Trump] comes along and says, ‘Let’s blow it all up!” sometimes it wakes us up. Some people need a heart attack to stop smoking. Well maybe we just got a heart attack!
In California we have the scientists; we have the lawyers, and we’re ready to defend.
If Trump turns off the satellites, California will launch its own damn satellites. We’re going to collect that data!
If they start deleting [climate] databases, we’ve got a lot of databases in California; we can take a few more.
Our new Secretary of Energy would come to California and say, ‘Come to Texas because we have all the jobs in Texas.’ Well Rick, I’ve got some news for you. California’s growing a hell of a lot faster than Texas. And we’ve got more sun than you have oil! And we’re going to use it!
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