FALL/WINTER 2019 | VOL. 41, NO. 2 PSR REPORTS HONORING A LEGACY | CELEBRATING BOLD CHANGEMAKERS | VISIONARY LEADERS AWARDS 75694 PSRReports_Fall_Winter_19_Vol. 41 No.indd 1 12/10/19 2:31 PM From the Executive Director his past November, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) published a new Treport, The Production Gap, that for the first time analyzed whether the current outlook for fossil fuel production around the world is consistent with the climate objectives set by the Paris Agreement. This report followed in the footsteps of UNEP’s 2019 Emissions Gap Report (and other reports) that have examined current greenhouse gas emissions and compared them with the emission levels needed to meet global climate goals. To put it simply, these reports reveal a large and alarming disconnect between the world’s governments’ commitment to limit warming and their plans for expanding production of coal, oil, and “natural” gas production. The release of these two new UN reports coincides with the launch of a major campaign by the oil and gas industry to weaken public support for bans on fracking, led by the American Petroleum Institute (API). API plans to target key states in 2020 with, among other things, a digital advertising campaign heating, cooling and cooking with gas — thus reducing promoting the misleading message that American the demand for gas over time. oil and gas production is the only path to energy The API campaign is pushing back hard on the effective security — ignoring the fact that 100 percent work of health professionals to promote clean energy renewable energy, which over 100 U.S. cities have and educate policymakers and the general public on already committed to, would not only provide greater the public health emergency posed by climate change. energy security, but — unlike oil and gas — doesn’t The voices of health professionals will need to be contribute to climate change or threaten public health. raised even higher as this industry pushback grows As the UN notes, “The time to begin planning for a in intensity over the coming months. wind-down of gas production is, as with other fossil At our 2019 Visionary Leaders Awards Symposium fuels, already upon us.” last month (see page 6), former PSR President Dr. This industry effort comes at a time when momentum Helen Caldicott summed it up perfectly: “Being health has been building — thanks to your efforts and the professionals, it’s important for us to realize that our efforts of millions of others across the U.S. and abroad planet is our patient, and it’s in the intensive care unit. — towards serious climate action that includes a ban We’re doctors to a dying planet, and we have a job on fracking. Last September, for example, on the eve to do.” Thank you for being on the job with us. of the massive global climate strikes, over 400 activists Wishing you a healthy and peaceful new year. sent a letter to UN Secretary General António Guterres calling for a worldwide ban on fracking. PSR has been making the health case against fracking and fossil fuels for decades. At the same time, we’re promoting changes to our energy infrastructure that will reduce the demand for them. This year, for example, we’ve been working with several of our Jeff Carter, JD chapters to promote healthy electric alternatives to 2 | PHYSICIANS FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY WWW.PSR.ORG 75694 PSRReports_Fall_Winter_19_Vol. 41 No.indd 2 12/10/19 2:31 PM Heidi Hutner, documentary filmmaker, author, professor and Director of the Sustainability Studies Program at Stony Brook University in New York, served as moderator for the Visionary Leaders Symposium on November 7, 2019. Photo: Gabriel Martinez WE are PSR Inside This Issue PRESIDENT ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF 4 | FROM THE PRESIDENT Pouné Saberi, MD, MPH PHILANTHROPY AND MEMBER SERVICES EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Amy Ciciora 5 | ESTABLISH YOUR LEGACY Jeff Carter, JD DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS MEDIA RELATIONS MANAGER 6 | VISIONARY LEADERS SYMPOSIUM: W. Taylor Johnson, MFA, DLS Olivia Alperstein CELEBRATING BOLD CHANGEMAKERS (Executive Editor, PSR Reports) (Senior Editor, PSR Reports) ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH WEB MANAGER 10 | VISIONARY LEADERS AWARDS: PROGRAM DIRECTOR Julia Morgan HONORING LEGACIES Barbara Gottlieb CLIMATE & ENERGY PROGRAM NUCLEAR WEAPONS ABOLITION MANAGER 14 | ACTIVIST SPOTLIGHT: PROGRAM DIRECTOR Antonia Herzog, PhD Helen Caldicott, MD Martin Fleck GRASSROOTS COORDINATOR, DIRECTOR OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS ABOLITION PHILANTHROPY PROGRAM Cheryl Talbert Sam Allen Hester PSR Reports (ISSN-0894-6264) is the newsletter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, a nonprofit organization. Guided by the values and expertise of medicine and public health, Physicians for Social Responsibility works to protect human life from the gravest threats to health and survival. To receive PSR Reports regularly, we invite you to join PSR and support our work. Write to PSR, 1111 14th Street, NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20005, or visit our website at www.psr.org. Photos (Front/Back Covers): Gabriel Martinez Graphic Design: www.twocatsgraphics.com © COPYRIGHT 2019 PHYSICIANS FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY Printed on recycled paper with vegetable-based inks. FALL/WINTER 2019 | VOL. 41, NO. 2 PSR REPORTS | 3 75694 PSRReports_Fall_Winter_19_Vol. 41 No.indd 3 12/10/19 2:31 PM From the President Download your personal estate planning kit year ago, I had the good fortune of speaking with a figure who is considered a legend A in PSR’s history, Dr. Helen Caldicott. She was in Australia, and I in Poland attending the 24th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Establish Your Legacy hardest part of our call was coordinating our time zones. The best part was what ensued. A year later, At Physicians for Social Responsibility, we are able to keep working to create a Dr. Caldicott came to Washington, DC, spoke at our healthy, just and peaceful world because of the generosity of dedicated Visionary Leaders Symposium, received the Visionary friends like you. To thank you for your support, we want to give you a Leaders Lifetime Achievement Award, and spoke to resource to help establish your legacy while also investing in the health of our Board of Directors the following day, where we future generations. Our Personal Estate Planning Kit helps you lay out your had a chance to ask her questions and hear her in a more intimate setting. One of the points she made long-term plans and provide for your family, while also supporting was that the possibility of activation and deployment organizations you’re passionate about, like PSR, through your will or other of nuclear weapons during the Cold War was future financial plans. extremely tenuous, and in some ways it is a miracle that it did not end in global disaster and the possible end of humanity. Get Your Personal Kit Dr. Caldicott has led a very productive life, and it To download your Personal Estate Planning Kit, simply: makes me think about what I would like to see when I While I will not stop doing personal actions like shutting reach her current age. More specifically, how would I off gas utilities going to my house and switching 1. Go online to psr.mylegacygift.org assess my impact on history and the planet? Are there everything to electricity, it is working with PSR that 2. Look to the top right-hand side of your screen actions that we undertake that are more defining makes me feel collective action is farther reaching. of future impacts than others, and should we be Since this will be the last piece I will be writing for PSR 3. Click FREE PLANNING KIT doing more of those? In the article “The Tyranny of Reports as board president, it is appropriate to reflect Small Decisions,” regulation and deregulation expert on how much PSR contributes to changing history for Alfred E. Kahn describes how our individual decisions the better. That is how I resolve the impact of my small Have Questions? may seem benign, but collectively they can lead to decisions as well as societal movements. situations that are deleterious for the community as a whole. And in the recent book Inconspicuous I can’t express how grateful I am to the contributions Contact: Amy Ciciora of every person who has made this organization Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don’t Assistant Director of Philanthropy and Member Services operate. The staff who always amaze me with their Know You Have by journalist Tatiana Schlossberg, this (202) 587-5227 | [email protected] tension between whether individual actions make knowledge and hard work, the board members who a difference towards environmental destruction or supported my tenure as president, the chapters that societal trends is demonstrated by multiple examples are the roots and the branches of PSR, and generous from the age of Anthropocene. donors and supporters of the PSR family. Thanks to all of you who care enough and make the personal As an organization, PSR has gotten much more decision to contribute to large causes. It has been intentional in assessing the impacts it makes towards an honor and a privilege, and now I pass the torch This information is not intended as legal or tax advice. For such advice, please consult an our mission of abolition of nuclear weapons and to Dr. Alan Greenglass to lead us through 2020 as attorney or tax advisor. Figures cited in examples are for illustrative purposes only. mitigating drivers of climate change. I really appreciate board president. References to tax rates include federal taxes only and are subject to change. State law may these efforts as they give some measure of order to further impact your individual results. the noise and chaos that is happening around us, as well as providing information on where to focus our efforts to make the most impact.