Byron Sher, an uncomfortable politician who left an indelible mark on California's environment, dies at 98

This is read by an automated voice.Please report any issues or inconsistencies here.

See more from the L.A.Times in Google Search.

Set us as preferred Byron Sher, a Stanford law professor-turned California legislator who wrote some of the state’s most far-reaching environmental laws, died Saturday.He was 98.Cerebral and soft-spoken, Sher was the antithesis of politicians nowadays.

He rarely issued press releases, didn’t convene news conferences, and disliked raising campaign money.But he left an indelible mark on the environment, authoring legislation offering incentives to recycle, limiting advertisers’ inflated claims about products’ environmental benefits and combating water and air pollution.He helped lead the effort to preserve ancient redwoods in Headwaters Forest in Humboldt County in 1999, pushing the state and federal government to buy it from Texas financier Charles Hurwitz, who owned Pacific Lumber Co.and was preparing to log it.A decade earlier, in 1988, Sher authored legislation requiring that California take stock of the sources of greenhouse gases.

It was the first time the legislature in California — or any other state — embedded the term “global warming” into a state law, and became the foundation for bills in later decades to combat climate change.“The heat is on,’’ Sher said presciently, as quoted by the Sacramento Bee on May 5, 1989.“The state can either ignore what science is telling us, or we can respond to this challenge in a responsible way.’’Because of his legislation, manufacturers today sell more products in spray bottles rather than aerosol cans, people can more easily dispose of televisions and other electronic waste, and underground gasoline storage tanks rarely leak and foul groundwater.“Byron Sher built the legal and research foundation for California’s climate change regime and by extension helped shape how the world has tried to handle climate change,” said Joe Mathews, a Berggruen Ins...