Gov. Jerry Brown, who has pushed California to reduce pollution, hailed Pope Francis’ controversial encyclical on climate change.
“In the face of the deep obsession with markets and material stuff, Pope Francis has called attention to our fundamental dependency on the natural environment,” Brown said in a statement.
“It’s now up to leaders in business and government — and wherever else — to join together and reverse our accelerating slide into climate disorder and widespread suffering.”
On Thursday the pontiff released an encyclical, or teaching document, concluding that climate change is one of the biggest threats to humanity.
“Doomsday predictions,” the Pope warned, “can no longer be met with irony or disdain.”
In April Brown issued an executive order committing California to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030.
The new target is the most aggressive enacted by any government in North America to reduce dangerous carbon emissions over the next decade and a half.
Prior to his career in law and politics, Brown spent three years studying to be a Jesuit priest.