The United States needs a “qualified” president who understands the urgency of Earth’s changing climate, Democratic presidential candidate Jay Inslee told a town hall gathering in Mountain View on Wednesday.

The Washington governor told about 40 people who showed up at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation that he is the only candidate capable of taking substantive action to slow the effects of climate change.

“I love being governor, but I made a decision,” Inslee said to applause. “On my deathbed, I want to be able to look at my three grandkids and say, ‘I did everything humanly possible to help save you from climate change, and that includes running for president of the United States.’”

The town hall was the first of a series titled “Road to the White House,” cosponsored by KQED and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, and designed to “introduce” presidential candidates to the region. Inslee is one of roughly 20 Democrats hoping to garner support from voters for the 2020 election.

Inslee largely focused on his signature climate-change campaign issue during the hour, but he said he should not be viewed as a single-issue candidate.

He spoke of the “post-apocalyptic” ruins of Paradise, the Butte County town that saw the brunt of California’s deadliest and most damaging wildfire in state history, the Camp Fire. He pointed to unprecedented flooding that turned a fair portion of downtown Davenport, Iowa, into a lake. And he predicted that the Pacific Gas & Electric Co. decision in January to file for bankruptcy protection will be followed by fires that may be “twice as grievous in the decades to come.”

“I’ve seen the damage that is already being inflicted upon our people,” Inslee said. “This is a nationwide assault to what we hold dear. It is an economic disaster movie.”

In addition to talking about how climate change disproportionately affects communities of color and underserved communities, he touted the “slew of progressive” policies he’s passed in Washington, such as a “robust family medical leave law,” minimum wage increase, a net neutrality protection law, and his pardons for thousands of people who had marijuana convictions because of the “racial disparity of our drug laws.”

He took jabs at President Trump’s ban on people traveling into the country from some Muslim-majority countries, and Trump’s threats to close the southern border to asylum seekers.

“I believe in the power of diversity and the strength of tolerance, the ability to love who you want to love, and the ability to accept people who might look a little bit different than you,” Inslee said.

Paula and Karl Danz, a Bay Area couple who work with Citizens’ Climate Lobby, a volunteer organization that lobbies for climate legislation, said they were happy about Inslee’s “passion” on climate change, although Paula Danz said she wished he had focused more on bipartisanship for legislation.

“I was curious to see how much he was emphasizing the need for bipartisan support to get carbon pricing legislation to pass,” Paula Danz said. “My concern is that if we don’t have strong bipartisan support for climate legislation, it won’t be able to withstand changes over time.”

Her husband said Inslee’s leadership in pursuing comprehensive climate change legislation shows he could be the leader to get the nation “through this really dark period that we’re in right now.”

Lauren Hernández is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: lauren.hernandez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @LaurenPorFavor