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Climate Health Now's May 2023 Newsletter

Hello ,

Happy Spring and we hope this message finds you well. This is a jam-packed newsletter -- we are excited to be getting it out to you all! 

There are so many updates and opportunities to get involved with what's going on both within CHN and outside it.

First, CHN's Healthcare Sustainability Resource Team is hosting its first meeting on May 16 at 5p. You can register here. If you haven't already filled out this survey, please take a few minutes to do so before you register! 

Second, we are thrilled to announce our state-wide campaigns! Our Leadership Team and our Advocacy Advisory Team have been hard at work discussing possible state-wide campaigns and helping us think things through. We are going to be jumping in on 3 campaigns to start:

  • AB-579 (Ting) - Electric School Buses: requires that all purchases of new school buses be zero emission buses beginning in 2035;
  • California Air Resource Board (CARB) Funding Plan for Clean Transportation Incentives: preparing for and participating in workshops, workgroups, and/or committee meetings to provide CARB feedback on its proposed California Clean Transportation Incentives funding plan;
  • SB-394 (Gonzalez) - Master Plan for Healthy, Sustainable, and Climate-Resilient Schools: requires the California Energy Commission to convene a group of agencies and stakeholders to develop a master plan for healthy, sustainable, and climate-resilient schools.

We will be sharing much more at our May Monthly Meeting, coming up on May 24 at 12p -- you can register for that here!

Right now, we are recruiting co-leaders for each of these 3 state-wide Campaign Teams! If you have a particular interest in one of these campaign topics, please email amanda@climatehealthnow.org by May 10. This will be a commitment for the duration of the campaign. This work will involve participating in the wider campaign coalition, interfacing with our Local Hub Teams, and contributing to strategy and tactics for Climate Health Now! We are not looking for experts or extensive prior experience -- just enthusiasm and a willingness to grow! And of course reach out with any questions.

Third, we are on Instagram! If you are too -- please give us a follow here. A huge shout out to Knox Kelly for getting this up and going for us (and assuring us that Instagram might be a bit friendlier than Twitter?). 

And last but certainly not least, we are working hard to make sure we have updated information on all of our members in our database! This is especially important as we start to engage in legislative advocacy. We do not share this information with anyone outside of CHN. If you haven't updated your profile in our database, please take a minute to do so here!

In solidarity,

Shuinn Chang, Margie Chen, Ashley McClure, Amanda Millstein, Brenda Nuyen and Nneoma Ojiaku - the Climate Health Now Transitional Leadership Team
 
Meet our New Leaders!

Last month we highlighted our new NorCal Local Hub Team Leaders and the leaders of our Healthcare Sustainability Resource Team. If you missed that, check it out here!

This month we're honored to introduce you to our Central Valley and Advocacy Advisory Team leaders. Our Advocacy Advisory Team specifically works with our Leadership Team to make recommendations about legislation and regulation where CHN can get involved and and where adding our health voices can help advance climate, health, and equity in California. 
Central Valley Local Hub Team Leaders
Hannah Valino

Hannah is a general pediatrician at a community clinic in San Joaquin County. She enjoys all things outdoors and believes that nature is healing. She enjoys doing what she can to protect this planet for her daughter’s future.
Alex Sherrifs

Alex practiced Family Medicine in Fowler, CA for 40 years and continues to teach in the UCSF-Fresno residency program. He has been involved in Central Valley air quality issues and was appointed by Governor Brown to the California Air Resources Board and the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District. 
Kunal Sukhija

Kunal is an Emergency Medicine physician who practices in and around Fresno in the Central Valley. He is involved in resident teaching.  
 
Advocacy Advisory Team Members
Debra Gore-Mann

Debra has over 25+ years of leadership experience in nonprofit and private research universities and over ten years of private sector business development expertise having worked in investment banking, international infrastructure development and engineering. Debra identifies as bi-racial and was raised in an inter-racial family. She is a tireless advocate for ethical and responsible management of mission-driven organizations employing the highest commitment to excellence, performance and integrity. Debra received her B.S. in Management Sciences and MBA in finance from Stanford University. She serves on multiple nonprofit and foundation boards that work to serve communities whose works include criminal justice, nonviolence, youth educational opportunities, supporting young adults in sports, and economic opportunity.
Linda Rudolph

Linda is a public health physician and currently consults as a policy advisor on climate, health and equity for the Public Health Institute, the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health, and the DNC Council on Environment and Climate Crisis. She is on the national Board of Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Advisory Council for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. In her prior role as Deputy Director for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion in the California Department of Public Health, Linda launched the Department’s climate and health program and was the founding chair of the Strategic Growth Council’s Health in All Policies Task Force. Linda was named a White House Champion of Change for Climate and Health. She likes to spend time outdoors, especially with her seven grandchildren.
Nailah Pope-Harden

Nailah is the Executive Director of ClimatePlan, where she is responsible for expanding the network presence, cultivating new members, and ensuring the mission and vision of the organization are being carried out. She comes to this position with years of community organizing and coalitions building experience that spans neighborhood, regional, state, and national social justice campaigns. The through-line in Nailah’s personal and professional life is always ensuring that her son has a healthy, safe, loving environment and future. She does this by building community everywhere she goes, learning from those around her, and being open to (transformative) change. Nailah is located in Sacramento.
Jerilyn Lopez Mendoza

Jerilyn has over 20 years of professional experience as an environmental advocate, government official and utility employee. She has served as an appointed official on the international, state and city levels, including as City of Los Angeles Harbor Commissioner and Public Works Commissioner. Jerilyn has been the recipient of awards from, among others, the Coalition for Clean Air as well as the Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and her Juris Doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles Law School). Jerilyn lives in the San Fernando Valley with her husband and teen daughter and enjoys gardening, attending community cultural events, and following local sports teams.
Bill Magavern

Bill is the Policy Director for the Coalition for Clean Air. He  joined CCA in 2012. Bill has spent more than 25 years advocating for environmental and public interest causes. He has authored numerous reports and articles on energy and environmental issues, and testifies frequently before the State Legislature, Air Resources Board, and other agencies. From 2000-2011, he represented Sierra Club California on a variety of environmental issues, and was honored in 2003 with the Mary Ferguson Award for outstanding service and in 2011 with the John Zierold Award for outstanding legislative advocacy. Bill was named a Clean Air Champion in 2007 by the Central Valley Air Quality Coalition. Bill received his BA from Brown University and his J.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School.
 
CHN is fundraising! Can you help?

Thank you to everyone who has generously donated -- we are getting on our way to being able to hire part-time staff members! If you are able, please consider donating -- monthly donations are especially helpful and no amount is too small!

Would you be interested in hosting a small fundraiser for Climate Health Now in-person? This is an opportunity both to gather people together to talk about climate change, health, and equity and for people to learn how to support our work. Please reach out to Amanda Millstein (amanda@climatehealthnow.org) if you're interested! 

We are thrilled to announce that Climate Health Now has won two of the four grants we've applied for so far this year! 
 
Big Oil Resistance Tour!

Last Chance Alliance is organizing a state-wide Big Oil Resistance Tour and it's in full swing! Read on for more info and get your tickets here.

Big Oil bullies are ripping off Californians, polluting our air and water, poisoning our communities, and setting us on a path toward climate destruction. It’s time for the Big Oil Resistance to fight back.

Governor Newsom is talking tough on Big Oil and trying to stop them from fleecing us at the gas pump. But, we need him to truly move California beyond fossil fuels once and for all – by ending neighborhood drilling and halting all new fossil fuel permits. 

To get the Governor to act, we need to build our movement’s power. That’s why the Last Chance Alliance – representing 900+ community, environmental, and public health organizations worldwide – is hitting the road for a 7-stop, statewide Big Oil Resistance Tour. 

Join us for a dynamic show to learn what Governor Newsom must do next to protect our communities and our climate and to join the massive movement that we’re building to demand action. Each event will feature Californians on the front lines of oil drilling, celebrities, movement leaders, music, and organizations fighting to move CA beyond fossil fuels. 
 
Action Opportunities:
Two Quick Things To Do Right Now!

1. Health Professionals Call to Stop Oil Permits in the Health Protective Zone - via Physicians for Social Responsibility San Francisco Bay and Los Angeles!

Within months of Governor Newsom signing SB 1137 into law, a law mandating a health-protective zone around homes, schools, hospitals and other sensitive receptors, Big Oil spent millions to deceive Californian voters on a referendum to overturn SB 1137. The law went into effect in January of 2023, but it is now on hold until it is voted on through a ballot measure in 2024.

Meanwhile, CalGEM, the state agency responsible for "prioritizing public health
and safety" continues to approve rework permits (at a 76% increase from
this time last year) right in our backyards. In the first three months of 2023 alone, almost 900 permits have been approved to drill in California. A whopping 62% of them - 556 - were approved within the historic 3,200ft health and safety
buffer zone, putting frontline communities STILL at risk for the toxic
consequences of oil and gas extraction.

Please add your name to this letter to Governor Newsom and Secretary Crawford to stop oil permitting in the health and safety buffer zone - signatures due by 5/19!

2. Tell Sacramento to Keep Moving - via TransBay Coalition! 

California depends on transit to reduce traffic, get people to work and where they need to go, free up parking for people who have to drive, and clean our air. But our transit lifeline is about to run out as pandemic rescue money runs out next year, leading to massive service cuts, more cars clogging our roads and more neighbors disconnected from where they need to go. 

Bus and train systems across California are on the brink of having to shut down stations and cancel services making it harder for everyone to get around because federal COVID relief funds that keep transit running are about to run out. Unless state legislators step in, California faces a transportation death spiral that will clog our freeways and grind our economy to a halt.

Please add your name to this petition asking our legislators to save public transit!
 
Climate Health Now:
In Real Life! 

This spring has been especially awesome as several members of the CHN Leadership Team have gotten to meet in person (some for the first time!). We thought we'd share a few glimpses! From left to right: Shuinn and Amanda in DC together, Shuinn and Brenda speaking at the USC Women's Conference, and Ashley and Amanda and Advocacy Advisory Team member Jerilyn Mendoza (read more about her above!) in Sacramento at the Climate Center's Climate Policy Summit.
 
Dispatches from the field: 
The MSCCH Annual Meeting 

This March, Shuinn Chang attended the Med Society Consortium's Annual Meeting in DC -- she shares the following reflection:

I fortunately was able to attend in-person this year's MSCCH Annual Meeting in Washington DC, a gathering of climate health advocates from across the country. Besides the obvious highlights of being able to hear from Dr. Jalonne White-Newsome and John Podesta, as well as criss-crossing Capitol Hill doing legislative visits with the offices of our California representatives and senators, it was also a great opportunity to hear from policy experts and other health community members who are doing similar work as CHN. It was powerful to hear that in this world we're in (post-Inflation Reduction Act) health voices at the state and local level are primed to have a huge impact. We can help shape future investments where we live towards healthier and more equitable solutions, as long as we are organized and stick to our simple messages. The work CHN is embarking on this year aligns with the climate experts and the environmental justice experts. I am so excited to build our movement with all of you! 

We hope to be able to find ways to help more CHN members attend the Annual Meeting in 2024 -- stay tuned for that! And see Shuinn in action in DC below.
 
Training Opportunity:
Be a Climate Communication Champion!

The Med Society Consortium is offering an awesome training opportunity and any member of CHN is welcome to participate!

Are you interested in learning how to communicate about the intersection of climate change and health most effectively? This 6-part training series will help you grow your strategic communications skills and public voice to change hearts and minds. Read more and register here! 
 
CleanMed - May 2023

CleanMed 2023 is coming up this month in Pittsburgh, PA -- and it's not too late to register! Presented each year by Practice Greenhealth and Health Care Without Harm, CleanMed is the premier national environmental conference for leaders in health care sustainability who are on the leading edge of greening the health care sector. Check it out here! Pam Lee, CHN's Healthcare Sustainability Resource Team Co-Leader, will be there -- reach out to her if you will too! 
 
What We're Reading and Watching
 
CHOF Fellowship

Climate Health Now is establishing a really exciting tradition of having members participate in the Climate Health Organizing Fellowship. We can now count Ashley McClure, Jerry Abraham, Meghana Pagadala, Sarah Mae Smith, Shuinn Chang, C Freeman, and Cindy Haag as graduates!

CHOF's 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.

CHOF just put out a call for applications for the next cohort, which is due May 30! If you are interested in applying or want to learn more about the fellowship from CHN grads, please let us know! You can check out the application and learn more here. Please email us at caclimatehealthnow@gmail.com to talk more!
 
More Opportunities to Learn and Engage
  • May 3-June 14 -- Climate Change and Human Health ECHO: Climate Change is Community Health series (including free CME credits) - check it out and register here! 
  • May 10 -- Public Narrative Coach Training Program via Leading Change Network -- learn the craft of Public Narrative coaching for developing powerful narratives for change.- register here!
  • May 22 -- EPA Climate Change and Children’s Health and Well-Being in the U.S. Report -- register here! 
  • October 21-22 -- Climate and Health 2023 Conference -- virtual and in-person - check out the agenda and register here!
 
Calling all Neurologists!

Neurologist and CHN member Bret Andrews and Larry Junck, a neurologist in Michigan, have the following ask of our members:

We are looking to connect with neurologists in the U.S. who are members of the American Academy of Neurology so that we can assemble a critical mass of members to persuade them to become involved in climate health advocacy, including joining the Med Society Consortium as an affiliated society! 

Know someone or want to reach out directly? Email Bret (bretdandrews@gmail.com) and/or Larry (ljunck@med.umich.edu). 
 
Climate Health Now Shout Outs and Thank Yous!

  • To Teresa Munoz for speaking at an El Cerrito City Council meeting about the need to ban new oil and gas drilling in Contra Costa County to protect health! 
  • To Ami Kapadia for giving an Earth Day Grand Rounds at Kaiser South San Francisco titled "Climate Change and Health!"
  • To Knox Kelly for putting so much thought and work into our CHN Instagram account!
  • To the 6 members of our Advocacy Advisory Team for working with us the past few months to understand upcoming legislative and regulatory advocacy opportunities and answering our MANY questions! 
  • To Shuinn Chang, C Freeman, and Cindy Haag for graduating from the Climate Health Organizing Fellowship!
  • To Pam Lee and Bill Pevec for working to get info and opportunities out to our membership about The Joint Commission's proposed sustainability efforts! 
  • To Laurie Lalakea for her amazing organizing at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center to get them to sign the HHS Pledge!
  • To Hannah Valino, Bill Pevec, and Jess DeJarnette for their awesome help and insight into our campaign decision-making process! 
  • To Brenda Nuyen for her collaboration on a talk at the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery Annual Meeting, titled "Making Ophthalmology Sustainable: Reducing Your Overhead and OR Waste!"
  • To Jess DeJarnette, Mani Berenji, Bret Andrews, Ilana Murphy, and Paulina Nava who are embarking on the Health Equity Activism and Reflection Training (HEART) training program, a national initiative with an aim to increase an impact of clinician led health equity activism through community organizing!
 

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