Online Conference: Shifting Paradigms: A Grassroots Response to Industry and Climate – Jan 23-26

Posted by Physicians for Social Responsibility PA on January 23, 2024

Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) Pennsylvania will hold its second annual Shifting Paradigms online conference on January 23-26, 2024.

Sessions include:

January 23, 12:00 PM: Witnessing the Permian Climate Bomb,  – We are methane hunters who use optical gas imaging technology to expose the dirty secrets of oil and gas. In this presentation we will share the story of the Texas Permian Basin and how Oilfield Witness uses this intelligence to educate the public and policy makers to strengthen climate movements.

January 24, 12:00 PM: Cancer Corridors: Lessons Learned in Environmental Justice Communities – From Appalachia to the Gulf South, people living in communities bordering industrial activity have long been burdened with the health impacts of pollution from these industries. They have also suffered the consequences of a government that has failed to take protective action, claiming lack of scientific research or evidence of an official cancer cluster. Despite these claims, peer-reviewed research continues to show health impacts, and these regions have become known for their increased rates of cancer and other health problems. In this panel discussion, we will hear how research can aid environmental justice issues and the importance of scientific literacy for decision makers and activists. We will also hear from community organizers who have worked hard to bring awareness to the health issues facing their communities and demand government action.

January 24, 6:00 PM: Petroleum-238: Big Oil’s Dangerous Secret and the Grassroots Fight to Stop It – As Justin Nobel traveled the United States reporting on the oil and gas industry he learned a disturbing and little-considered fact: a lot more comes to the surface at a well than just the oil and gas. Each year the industry produces billions of tons of waste, much of it toxic and radioactive. The fracking boom has only worsened the problem. So where does it all go? Justin’s new book, Petroleum-238, provides the shocking answer. Shielded by a system of lax regulations and legal loopholes, this waste has been spilled, spread, injected, dumped, and freely emitted across America. Nobel relies on oilfield workers, community activists, a century of academic research, and a trove of never-before released industry and government documents to lay out a series of game-changing reveals into the world’s most powerful industry. None have been more deceived than the industry’s own workers, who are suffering mysterious health maladies and dying from unexplainable cancers. This book is an impressive work of investigative science journalism with surprising moments of literary beauty, and a welcome breakdown of the false wall corporations and politicians often set between industry workers and environmentalists. In the tradition of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, Petroleum-238 is both a landmark work of environmental writing and an urgent call to action.

January 25, 12:00 PM: Oil Change International’s Fossil Fuel Report

January 26, 12:00 PM: Noise: A Public Health Problem – In 2006, the US Surgeon General declared the “debate is over” – any form of secondhand smoke is harmful to health. Scientific evidence on harm from environmental noise has reached a similar tipping point. In the fifty plus years since environmental noise was first announced as a public health problem, little if any progress has been made in protecting the American public from its harmful effects largely due to the defunding of the federal Office of Noise Abatement and Control in 1982. Today, noise, labeled “the new secondhand smoke,” is threatening the health of one-third of all Americans. This informational session provides an overview of noise as a public health problem. It will discuss the state of the science on noise and its adverse health effects – auditory and non-auditory; its nexus with climate and environmental impacts; worker and environmental justice issues; and the state of public policy.

Register here.