Gov Brown Calls California "Epicenter of Climate Change"

Governor Jerry Brown called California "the epicenter of climate change" on Monday, citing multiple examples of how the state is being severely affected by rising temperatures. The governor expressed his desire that other states work with California to take steps to slow climate change and its potentially adverse effects.

The Californian governor made these comments during a speech to a University of California agricultural economics group, San Jose Mercury News reports.

During his speech, the governor reportedly spoke about how rising temperatures in the state are turning once "prime farmland" in the Central Valley into dusty fields. A severe drought - one of the worst ever seen by the state - is currently hanging over California's agriculture industry, while the dry climate is also making the region increasingly susceptible to new wildfires.

"I have a ranch where the temperature was over 100 degrees for 35 days," Brown said during the speech. "I know what heat looks like. Rattlesnakes like it, and it's not easy to manage if someone throws their cigarette butt out the window."

Brown urged that state officials and citizens alike learn to "adapt" to climate change rather than deny it, implementing new precautionary measures in the wake of some irreversible problems.

This comment follows reports from the scientific community earlier this month that the melting of the polar ice cap and rising sea levels are "unstoppable" with Antarctic ice losses having doubled in recent years.

Wildfires in Southern California continue to rage in California, igniting an estimated 10,000 acres and forcing 21,000 Sand Marcos residents to leave their homes as of last Thursday.

Recent research has shown that an increased prevalence of fires like these in the Northern Hemisphere are sending ash to Greenland, causing the Greenland ice sheet to melt at a faster rate than if it were affected by just a warming climate alone.