The Intersection of Climate Action, Social Justice, and Healthcare

Listen Now: https://kpfa.org/player/?audio=336205

 

About Health on KPFA.org, 94.1FM, (6/29/20)

A recent article that caught my attention in the New York Times stated: “Climate Change Tied to Pregnancy Risks, Affecting Black Mothers Most.” 

We can’t tackle the Climate Emergency, Health Disparities, and Social Justice in isolation. We need to look at policies and approaches that promote health and well being for individuals, communities, and the world.

Guest: Angel V. Shannon, MS, CRNP, is a board-certified adult-geriatric nurse practitioner with over twenty-five years experience in chronic disease management and mind-body medicine. She is the founder and clinical director of Seva Health and Seva Health Media, providing integrative healthcare and education for adults and seniors. Drawing upon a childhood immersed in environmental stewardship and decades of diverse clinical experiences in critical care, emergency medicine, trauma care, community home health, and insurance administration, Angel takes a unique, whole person approach to disease prevention in her private practice.

Angel holds strong ties to community and public health, serving as an active board member of the Maryland Community Research Advisory Board at the University of Maryland School of Public Health Center for Health Equity (MD-CRAB), and a former adjunct professor of Family and Community Health at Pennsylvania State University College of Nursing. An avid gardener, she recently earned her Master Gardener Certification from the University of Maryland Extension and is working to develop community based gardening programs for active seniors. Her latest career endeavor is creation of the Seva Institute, an organization that redefines healthcare and continues her scholarship in mind-body medicine, provides organizational training in mindfulness based stress reduction, individual coaching and personalized restorative retreats. Learn more at www.sevahealthgroup.com

Health Consequences of Climate Change

All of us are harmed by Climate Change. For example, The Lancet reports that pollution from particulate matter, a key component of wildfire smoke and vehicle exhaust, contributed to 2.9 million premature deaths in 2015 alone. There are mental health impacts, vector-born diseases, food shortages, and increased asthma—all examples of the consequences of climate change. 

Listen now to the show on “About Health” (KPFA, 94.1FM) 1/21/19 https://kpfa.org/player/?audio=302977

 

Guests:

Michael Martin, MD, MPH, MBA, is an Associate Clinical Professor in UCSF’s Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Dr. Martin completed his medical training at the University of Chicago, his Internal Medicine Residency at Yale, and his Clinical Epidemiology Fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco. He also received both an MBA and MPH from the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Martin is an active member of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), nationally and locally, and he is the co-chair of their national Environment & Health Committee, which deals with issues related to climate change. PSR views climate change as a major threat to individual and  public health. He also founded and is the president of the nonprofit group, Physicians Against Red Meat (PhARM.org). Dr. Martin teaches at UCSF, and for over 30 years he saw patients in the General Medicine Clinic at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. 

Matthew Renner is the Deputy Director at The Climate Mobilization. He has been working as a nonprofit executive in clean energy, climate policy, and journalism for over a decade, focusing on the near-term social and economic impacts of climate change. Previously he was the Executive Director at the World Business Academy, and the Development and Strategic Partnerships Director at the Clean Coalition. With a deep passion for local energy solutions and a vision of the flourishing world they can help create, Matt focuses on growing the Climate Emergency Movement and attracting resources for this work.