Jerry Brown on a California Exodus: ‘Where Are You Going to Go?’

is, we have a global crisis that has been mounting and the scientists have been telling us about. For the most part, it’s been ignored. Now we have a graphic example.”

Mr. Brown, a Democrat, served twice as California’s governor. He retired — because (and probably only because) of term limits — to make way for Gavin Newsom, his lieutenant governor, who took office in January 2019.

Mr. Newsom has inherited the burden of managing a state besieged by the coronavirus pandemic and the worst wildfires in its history.

As governor, and after his departure, Mr. Brown became an international environmental advocate, pushing back against President Trump and other Republicans who sought to roll back environmental protections enacted in Washington and in California. Since leaving office, Mr. Brown has run the California-China Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, and served as the executive chairman of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Mr. Brown said the fast-moving fires made it clear that a global effort was needed to reduce and eventually eliminate greenhouse gases. California, which has over the years sought to wean itself from fossil fuels, and the United States cannot deal with the scope of the problem alone, he said, adding that Mr. Trump’s election, and his efforts to undo environmental laws and regulations, had been a major setback.