California is launching its 'own damn satellite' to track climate pollutants

California Gov. Jerry Brown
(Image credit: Stephen Lam/Getty Images)

California's state government will work with a company called Planet Labs to build and launch a climate change research satellite capable of tracking the sources of pollution, California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) said Friday.

"We're going to launch our own satellite — our own damn satellite to figure out where the pollution is and how we're going to end it," Brown said at the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco. "This groundbreaking initiative will help governments, businesses, and landowners pinpoint — and stop — destructive emissions with unprecedented precision, on a scale that's never been done before."

Brown did not say when the satellite would be ready or how much it might cost. A statement from his office said the project "has the potential to deliver global emission reductions equivalent to 1,000 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually — or removing 200 million vehicles from roads every year."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The day before, at the same event, Brown argued environmental issues would be a major black mark on President Trump's legacy. "When Trump says, in effect, 'We like more methane going into the air,' that is highly destructive, very highly destructive," he said. "So I think he'll be remembered [as] he is now — I don't know: liar, criminal, fool, pick your choice."

To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.