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CLIMATE HEALTH NOW
May 2022 Community Newsletter
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Climate Health Now is a group of California health professionals who advocate for climate action through a health and equity framework. We use community organizing to build the base of climate-engaged health, allied health, and healthcare administrator professionals across California to leverage our trusted health voices in support of the climate justice movement in order to protect health and achieve health equity.
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Hello Climate Health Now Community,
It's been more than a month since our last newsletter -- we hope you are all staying safe and healthy.
Lots has been going on at CHN! In case you missed our April or May community monthly meeting, you may find the recordings here and here. Our April meeting focused on narrative and story telling and our May meeting featured a panel of climate, health, and equity experts answering our questions.
Below you'll find lots of information, including:
- Opportunities to share ideas about CHN's strategy and structure with our organizational coaches from Building for Mission;
- Resources shared by our panelists related to climate, health, and equity;
- Updates on our fundraising efforts;
- Information on our June community monthly meeting, which will feature Dr. Linda Rudolph speaking about the U.S. Call to Action on Climate, Health, and Equity; and
- Our first member spotlight -- featuring Meghana Pagadala!
Thank you all for being here -- we can't wait for what's next.
In solidarity,
Ashley McClure & Amanda Millstein
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We want to hear from YOU!
Upcoming opportunities to speak with organizational coaches from Building for Mission
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May 31, 5p - meeting for members interested in healthcare decarbonization/sustainability, though all welcome to join - register here!
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June 2, 12p - CHN membership wide meeting with Natalie Thomas - register here!
*Please note: all meetings are PT and are for one hour
Thank you to everyone who has already participated in a focus group. There will also be more opportunities ahead. Please save these dates!
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June 29, 12p - Strategy/Structure Update
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July 27, 12p - Strategy/Structure Update
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September 14, 12:30p - Final BFM presentation
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Membership Fundraising Drive! |
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In order for CHN to have a greater impact in our work, we are fundraising for a full-time staff member. To date we've raised $7,815! Our goal is to raise $30,000 by Saturday June 4th. For the first time ever, we're asking for financial help from members. Thank you to everyone who has already donated!
Here are 3 ways you can help:
2. Post 1 or both of THESE posts below on your social media outlets
3. If comfortable, would you consider asking friends and family to donate? To help, we made THIS email template – please feel free to modify!
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CHN Member Spotlight:
Meghana Pagadala
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Meghana is an MD/PhD student at UC- San Diego.
Where are you from and where do you live now?
I grew up in the Quad Cities on the border of Iowa and Illinois. I came to California for college at Caltech and now live in San Diego.
Where do you work and what type of healthcare are you involved with?
I am an MD/PhD Candidate at University of California, San Diego, finishing up my PhD and returning to third year of medical school in 2022.
What was your "climate awakening moment," if you can think of a single one?
Climate change was always something on my mind growing up on the banks of the Mississippi River. Surrounded by corn fields and the river, in school, we were constantly reminded of how important it was to preserve the lands around us. For our local science fairs, I would lead research projects on wind energy and ethanol development. My town is the headquarters for John Deere and very agricultural, so the bond with the land was so strong. Once I decided on a career in medicine, I became passive and thought climate change was not in my “lane”. In 2019, seeing the increases in climate-related deaths and intense fires in California, I realized that I didn’t have time to sit back and I had to take an active position on climate change. Especially with the COVID pandemic, I had so much free time to think about my career goals. I entered research and medicine to make a difference and I feel we are at time where we need to make a difference with climate change right now.
When and how did you become involved in climate advocacy?
I connected with Ashley McClure in 2019 about Climate Health Now. During medical school, I was part of the California and American Medical Associations and really loved health policy. When I got an email through the California Medical Association Medical Student Section about getting involved in climate health advocacy, I jumped on the opportunity. Especially being quarantined during the pandemic, I thought this would be great to learn more about how I can take action on climate change.
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Who inspires you to do this type of work?
Ashley McClure was the first person who inspired me to get involved. Seeing her passion and energy for climate health advocacy still drives me today. I also think the other healthcare workers I’ve met through the Catalyst Collective led by Ashley and our Center for Health Equity Education and Advocacy fellowship are so inspiring and I’m so honored I get to work with them.
Are you working on any environmental justice projects currently?
Most of my focus right now has been on using the California Medical Association and organized medicine to push climate health advocacy. Specifically, we are trying to get CMA to support at least one climate health-related bill each year and prioritize climate health education amongst physicians. The Center for Health Equity Education and Advocacy fellowship I am part of is helping us build a plan to achieve these goals.
What do you do to recharge?
Traveling, eating and working out. I played volleyball at Caltech, so I really enjoy playing both indoor and sand volleyball in San Diego. Also, I love to dance and do aerial silks.
What are two books that made an impact on you?
Emperor of all Maladies and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. My PhD research is in cancer genomics and I think Emperor of all Maladies is one of the best written books about anything biological. It is basically a biography of cancer and is very engaging. I recently finished listening to the 21 Lessons for the 21st Century audiobook and climate change is mentioned several times. I really enjoyed the perspective of this book on some of the pressing challenges our generation is dealing with.
A huge thanks for Meghana for being interviewed and Chelsea Young for interviewing her. We'd love to spotlight a different member in each newsletter -- know someone we should spotlight? Let us know!
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Ask a Climate, Health, and Equity Expert |
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Here are a few links and resources that were shared by our panelists:
Related to the health costs of climate change:
Related to environmental justice and climate change:
Related to wildfire smoke and health:
Related to healthcare decarbonization:
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CA health care sector decarbonization:
HHS Pledge Action Opportunity
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1. At minimum, reduce organizational emissions by 50% by 2030 (from a baseline no earlier than 2008) and achieve net-zero by 2050, publicly accounting for progress on this goal every year.
2. Designate an executive-level lead for our work on reducing emissions by 2023 and conduct an inventory of Scope 3 (supply chain) emissions by the end of 2024.
3. Develop and release a climate resilience plan for continuous operations by the end of 2023, anticipating the needs of groups in our community that experience disproportionate risk of climate-related harm.
We want to thank Helen Wirth, Dr. Naomi Hauser, Dr. Marc Futernick, Dr. Jerry Abraham and Dr. Bill Pevec, for being part of the CHN mini-campaign team (who have named themselves "Decarbonize Now!") to work towards 10 health care systems in California committing to the pledge. We have received confirmation that all 5 UC Health Systems, Stanford Health, Providence Health, and Kedren Health have signed the pledge. Kaiser Permanente, Dignity CommonSpirit, Adventist and Sutter are still 'evaluating participation' as far as we are aware.
Will you consider emailing the leaders at your institution (however big or small!) to ask for them to commit to the HHS pledge? Dr Bill Pevec drafted THIS letter template for such outreach and the Med Society Consortium and Health Care Without Harm have this toolkit for outreach from individuals and groups to their healthcare institutions. Please consider sending this to the leaders at your institution and let Ashley know what they say! Even if they say no at first, it is critically important to start the conversation, build these relationships and advocate for this emissions-reducing alignment effort for our sector.
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On climate change and health equity |
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Dr. Nneoma Ojiaku is an OB/GYN practicing in Sacramento. She is currently a 2022 Climate, Health and Equity Fellow through the Medical Society Consortium. Here she shares an overview of the intersections between climate change, structural racism, and health inequities -- we'll explore these areas in further detail in upcoming newsletters. ______________________________________
“Climate change is not the Great Equalizer. It is the Great Multiplier.”
The climate crisis is one of the single greatest public health threats of our time. The disastrous effects of this threat, however, are not uniformly distributed. In California, communities of color and low-wealth communities are positioned to suffer the worst effects of the ongoing climate crisis, owing to structural racism, political disenfranchisement, and barriers to economic opportunity.
Efforts to adapt to climate change and engage in mitigation strategies are immobilized by long-standing social inequalities, thereby worsening climate change-mediated health outcomes. The climate crisis, much like the COVID-19 pandemic, exposes and exacerbates health inequities. We cannot solve the climate crisis without addressing social inequalities.
Legislative efforts to address climate change must prioritize the health of our state’s most vulnerable communities. As health professionals, many of us serve these communities. Centering their experiences and involving these communities in the climate change conversation early is key to effective advocacy.
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July 20, 12:30p PT - Webinar with Nailah Pope-Harden (Executive Director, ClimatePlan), Linda Rudolph, and Will Barrett (National Senior Director, American Lung Association) - this webinar will follow up and build on the webinar above to explore and better understand how the Call to Action applies to current legislative and regulatory efforts in California around climate, health, and equity. Register here!
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Climate Health Organizing Fellows Program |
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Our friends and allies at the Cambridge Health Alliance, Center for Health Equity Education and Advocacy (CHEEA) are accepting application for the 2nd class of the Climate Health Organizing Fellows Program, which will start in October. Click HERE for more information and to apply. HERE's Dr Basu's twitter post about it.
Their "vision is to create a vibrant educational space and community to develop a cadre of health professionals who are inspired and enabled to develop and advance climate solutions. The power to accomplish this will come from learning about the health equity implications of climate change and through developing durable community organizing skills that can create structural change." All sessions are Held on Zoom; a letter of interest suggested by June 24 and applications due by July 24.
This is an amazing program that gives invaluable education on community organizing for health equity. CHN members Meghana Pagadala, Jerry Abraham, MD, MPH, Sarah Mae Smith and Ashley McClure, MD all did this earlier this year to focus their work to advance climate leadership within the CMA-- and they couldn't more highly recommend it. Reach out to us with any questions and we can connect you to them!
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Other Opportunities for Climate Health Action! |
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June 8, 12p - virtual - Exploring Climate, Health, & Equity Within the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act of 2021 - join this webinar hosted by the Medical Society Consortium to explore their recently released policy brief and guide to the bipartisan infrastructure law that was recently signed into law in November. Register here!
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June 9, 8:30a - Sacramento - Join a climate justice rally outside the June 9th CARB hearing to push the Board to do the right thing and speed the transition to 100% electric vehicles. Learn more and register here!
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June 4, 5, 11, & 12 - Bay Area - join 350 Bay Area's "Road to a Livable Climate" to explore the Bay Area by foot and bicycle across six counties. Each event will feature inspiring speakers, climate points of interest along the way, a delicious lunch, and prizes. Learn more and register here!
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Thank Yous and Shoutouts! |
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- To Meghana Pagadala for being our first spotlighted member
- To Chelsea Young for interviewing Meghana and conceiving of the member spotlight idea
- To all of the CHN members and supporters who have contributed to our membership fundraising drive to date
- To Natalie Thomas and the BFM team for being great partners and organizational coaches
- To Venise Curry, Vijay Limaye, Emily Sbiroli, and David Gonzalez for participating in our May Community Monthly Meeting and sharing their insight and expertise with us on climate, health, and equity
- To Brenda Nuyen for starting us on the road to creating a CHN Speaks! slide deck
- To CHN's Listening Team members for their amazing work outreaching and holding 1:1 calls with so many CHN members
- To Jackie Mostow to speaking at the press conference in Contra Costa about oil and gas drilling and to Elizabeth Ortega for stepping up and being willing to speak
- To Lisa Chang, Jeff Mann, and everyone else who submitted comments and called in to tell the Contra Costa County Planning Commission to stop new oil and gas drilling
- To Nneoma Ojiaku for contributing the first "On climate change and health equity" section to our newsletter
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