“When the public links climate change with their own health, they’re much more likely to take action”  Dr. Sheri Weiser is a professor of medicine in the Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases, and Global Medicine at UCSF, works at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, and is a researcher for how extreme weather drives food insecurity and poor health outcomes.  She is also involved in educational initiatives in the UC system to infuse themes of climate change and sustainability into health professional education, co-launching a UC wide center on Climate Health and Equity.  Dr. Weiser redefines the role of health professionals, provides advice on how to engage with those who think climate change is not in their lane, and tangible ways to harness brilliance to combat harmful inaction. Check out The University of California Center for Climate, Health, and Equity at: climatehealth.ucsf.edu If you live in California, please join us by visiting www.ClimateHealthNow.org and introduce yourself and become a member by emailing us at: caclimatehealthnow@gmail.com If you live outside California, we recommend you find your state clinicians for climate action group by visiting the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health’s website at: medsocietiesforclimatehealth.org/about/affiliates/

“We as America have not created a robust safety net or we had to rely on a safety net because of so many holes in our larger system and so we as physicians have to be the stewards of offerings, the stewards of resources that can catch everyone that falls through the cracks”

Kelley Butler MS4, MPH completed undergrad at Howard University, where she saw the influence that physicians can have on patients' physical, mental, and social health.  She discusses the difference in mindsets among her medical school classmates, the impact of the AMA and lobbying, and how to get started as an advocate for a healthier world.  

If you live in California, please join us by visiting www.ClimateHealthNow.org and introduce yourself and become a member by emailing us at: caclimatehealthnow@gmail.com
If you live outside California, we recommend you find your state clinicians for climate action group by visiting the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health’s website at: medsocietiesforclimatehealth.org/about/affiliates/

Check out: @uche_blackstock, @choo_ek, @DrAlethaMaybank, @RheaBoydMD @ChaseTMAnderson on Twitter!  

and here is the environmental health policy statement Kelley mentioned from the SNMA https://cdn.ymaws.com/snma.org/resource/resmgr/hlpa/policy_statements/environmental_health.pdf

"I realized that there was a lot more work to be done and if we weren’t willing to take the values that we think about in public health everyday to our politics then we would always be doomed to try and beat around the bush or pick up the scraps" Dr. Abdul El Sayed is a physician, epidemiologist, educator, author, speaker, podcast host, 2018 Michigan gubernatorial candidate, and former health commissioner of the city of Detroit.  He recounts how growing up in Michigan and Alexandria, Egypt opened his eyes to health disparities, how that inspired him to pursue public health, and how physicians should leverage their abilities to listen to pain in order to advocate for a more just, equitable, and sustainable world.   Check out Dr. Abdul El Sayed's books: Healing Politics: A Doctor’s Journey into the Heart of Our Political Epidemic and Medicare for All: A Citizen’s Guide, his newsletter The Incision, and his podcast America Dissected.   If you live in California, please join us by visiting www.ClimateHealthNow.org and introduce yourself and become a member by emailing us at: caclimatehealthnow@gmail.com If you live outside California, we recommend you find your state clinicians for climate action group by visiting the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health’s website at medsocietiesforclimatehealth.org/about/affiliates/

"We (physicians) have a unique opportunity to leverage our trust, our health expertise, and our influence to advance sustainable healthcare" Dr. Amy Collins is an emergency physician and senior clinical advisor for physician engagement for Health Care Without Harm.  She illustrates pivotal moments in her life that led her to climate advocacy, the steps she took to keep her promise to her son ranging from educating herself to pitching green methods in the hospital, and how her efforts have prevented burnout.   Join Health Care Without Harm's Physician Network here and the Health Care Climate Challenge here.   If you live in California, please join us by visiting www.ClimateHealthNow.org and introduce yourself and become a member by emailing us at: caclimatehealthnow@gmail.com If you live outside California, we recommend you find your state clinicians for climate action group by visiting the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health’s website at medsocietiesforclimatehealth.org/about/affiliates/

"...because there is no way you can deny that we need cleaner air, that we need clean water, we need to address our infrastructure, you cannot deny it and just leave it as a prescription— that’s just not good medicine” Internist Dr Cheryl Holder is an HIV treater, Interim Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity, Inclusivity, and Community Initiatives at the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, and co-chair of Florida Clinicians for Climate Action.  She chronicles her journey to becoming a physician, how her eyes were opened to the climate crisis through her patients in the community health center, and how clinicians can incorporate climate advocacy in the clinic and beyond.   Listen to her TED Talk "The Link Between Climate Change, Health, and Poverty." Interested in the National Health Service Corps?  Check it out here. If you live in California, please join us by visiting www.ClimateHealthNow.org and introduce yourself and become a member by emailing us at: caclimatehealthnow@gmail.com If you live outside California, we recommend you find your state clinicians for climate action group by visiting the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health’s website.

“We do hold a lot of power and we can use that power to enable people power to achieve some of those structural changes that we want” Self-proclaimed intellectual pessimist yet action optimist, Pedja Stodijicic, MD, MPH, discusses the power of youth led movements, the agency of collective, and the importance of public narratives alongside the need for positivity and humor in the medical field.   Visit Pedja’s new website www.peoplepowerhealth.org and sign up to plugin for ways to link arms.   If you live in California, please join us by visiting www.ClimateHealthNow.org and introduce yourself and become a member by emailing us at: caclimatehealthnow@gmail.com

"We argue that democracy is good for your health, that fundamentally health is political" Originally from Montreal, Canada; Anthony Iton, MD, JD, MPH, attended Johns Hopkins Medical School, where he saw himself in his patients and saw the disparities between him and them just because of the different environments they grew up in, and how those experiences steered him to see the intersection among health, equity, and politics. Currently, he teaches public health advocacy at UC Berkeley's School of Public Health and is the senior vice president of the California Endowment.   Check out An Inconvenient Truth, which helped Dr. Iton understand the gravity of the climate crisis.  Read Dr Iton’s landmark study published in the SF Chronicle: Alameda county death certificates- 22yr differences in lifespan across different areas of Oakland.

"My role as a physician and as a climate advocate are one and the same" Otolaryngologist Dr. Neelu Tummala is in her third year of clinical practice as an attending at George Washington University and is on the Steering Committee for Virginia Clinicians for Climate Action.  She was very involved in environmental advocacy as a young girl, but lost touch with that passion during her training to become a physician.  She found renewed passion to care for the earth after attending the Climate Reality Project Training and is further inspired by Dr. Sakran, who launched @thisisourlane.   Learn more about the health harms of the climate crisis and what clinician groups you can join in your state at the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health’s website.  

"Climate Change is Everywhere Everybody" Newly retired Stanford Emergency Chief Dr. Paul Auerbach is a visiting scholar for the National Center for Disaster Medicine for Emergency Medicine, has advised student-led classes for climate health, and written several books including, Enviromedics: The Impact of Climate Change on Human Health and Medicine for the Outdoors: The Essential Guide to Emergency Medical Procedures and First Aid.  He has also written a JAMA editorial "Physicians and the Environment" https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/181509

"What if we build systems that heal, that allowed people to thrive and be healthy, and allow people to fulfill their goals and dreams."  Dr. Gaurab Basu is a primary care physician, health equity educator and climate advocate, instructor at Harvard Medical School, and co-director of the Center for Health Equity Education and Advocacy.  In this episode, he recalls moments in which he noticed that the system in place was not built for communities of color to thrive and what catapulted him to find a community, process his emotions, to ultimately become the climate advocate he is today.  

"We must decide which side we want to put our power in as physicians- the side of corporate profit, or the side of the people” Dr. Linda Rae Murray has been a voice for social justice and health as a basic human right for over 50 years. Currently she is an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Illinois School of Public Health and she serves on many local and national boards including the Chicago-based Health and Medicine Policy Research Group. She remains passionate about increasing the number of Black and Latino health professionals. In this episode, she lists several questions, including "what in this world disturbs you?" and "how do we create a world that we want to see", while revisiting her aha moment regarding the Pledge of Allegiance to discussing the obligation of physicians to understand history and the experiences of others.   History repeats itself and we must learn it’s lessons to move forward! Learn more about the Great Compromise/Betrayal of 1877 when Reconstruction ended and Jim Crow was ushered in

"This risk is worth leaving normal behind"  Clinical psychologist and founder of The Climate Mobilization, Margaret Klein Salamon PhD, chronicles her path from being "hypomanic" and almost dropping out of her PhD program in order to actually solve the climate emergency to the impact of her self-help book "Facing the Climate Emergency: How to Transform Yourself with Climate Truth".  If you would like to take part in "Breaking the Silence: Sharing Climate Emergency Feelings", email ftce@climatemobilization.org or would like to know more information, check out climatemobilization.org.   A new season of Courageous Medicine for The Climate Health Crisis: Stories of Physicians Activating on Climate will start up again in January!

Living in a fracking zone, Dr. Sam Stea, a nephrologist from Pennsylvania, calls out physicians who don't feel the urgency of the climate crisis, deeming the lack of action as "medical negligence", and details how his science fiction book "Reimagine" has led him to having a renewed mission and new networks within the climate health space.

Feeling a "moral reckoning in her heart" and being personally connected to communities destroyed by climate disasters, Sarah Schear, a medical student at the University of California, San Francisco, recounts her climate advocacy journey of reaching out to a variety of people to learn more about the realities of climate change, having historical figures as role models, joining like-minded communities, and ultimately finding the courage to act.  If you are or know a medical student looking for a climate activism community to join, please check out Medical Students for a Sustainable Future https://ms4sf.org/

"This is altruism in the political space it's saying we're going to take our political energies and move our government agenda toward justice, that would be to me that would be healing to me-- that would be healing and we're supposed to be healers."

Dr Don Berwick is one of America's most well-known physicians, having served as former Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Prior to his work in the administration, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement a not-for-profit organization. Join for this engaging conversation as Dr Ashley McClure interviews Dr Berwick about his personal reasons for engaging in climate solutions advocacy as a grandfather, citizen and physician leader.  Dr Berwick shares about the healing power of solidarity, and how the responsibility of physicians has 'gotten bigger' since many went to medical school, but how our values as a profession compel engaging in advocating for social and climate justice because the policies determined by politics affect our patients' health more powerfully than our direct medical care.   

You can read his article: The Moral Determinants of Health here: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2767353?resultClick=1

If you live in California, please join us by visiting: www.climatehealthnow.org and introduce yourself and become a member by emailing: caclimatehealthnow@gmail.com

If you don't live in California, find your state clinicians for climate action group here: https://medsocietiesforclimatehealth.org/about/affiliates/