This year for the first time I attended the The Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health’s (MSCCH) conference, Our Planet, Our Health: 2025 Climate Action Convention. If you’re wondering what inspired my decision to attend I will direct you to an email written by MSCCH’s executive director Lisa Patel, MD back in December 2024 where she referenced the article, written by Nathaniel Stinett, which highlighted the importance of health professionals telling the story of the criminal contributions of the fossil fuel industry to disrupt our health and climate. I thought to myself this is exactly what we need to be acknowledging and signed up for the conference.
I will tell you about three highlights, although I might also highlight that the food at the conference was all vegetarian, which I think should be the standard at conferences. On the first day a plenary was dedicated to “Identifying and Addressing Misinformation on Climate Science.” The first speaker, Philip Newell, taught us the difference between misinformation vs disinformation, where information is twisted on purpose. He likened disinformation to looking like grassroots effort when it’s actually artificial turf. (As an aside I loved this analogy because PSR PA is part of a coalition of groups in Philadelphia to ensure public athletic fields have safe playing grass rather than toxic artificial turf.) Some of the ways scientific information is cut at the knees is by those who outright deny it, by paltering which is when a kernel of truth is blown up into a lie or by greenwashing. It turns out there are academic definitions of misinformation and disinformation as well as definitions by WHO. Some of the litmus tests that health field professionals can use include asking: does it undermine action or scientific consensus? Does it muddy waters? And as such call out misinformation and or disinformation.
Another very relevant topic that was incredibly educational was a plenary centered around our current understanding of media. The speaker, Mario Alejandro Ariza, reminded us that social media is not real but it shapes reality. He explained how the media works on a platform model where those disseminating lies, often in high power, are not accountable to a board. The black box algorithm trains us, we don’t train it. (As an aside my makeup shopping will attest to how well Instragram knows to send me organic and natural skin creams. And then it will suddenly stop when I don’t give the product a stellar review.) The Truth Sandwich is a method outlined in The Debunking Handbook 2020 and also another helpful tool for health professionals who want to savvy up and learn how to operate in this world of conspiracy. For me it was hard to hear that the platforms scientists and health professionals should use will not enjoy the same economies of scale as large platforms but that is what they should be using because the medium is the message. “We” would not want to use the dishonest media. The last message from this plenary was very interesting. The speaker urged health care providers to talk to patients about their media diet.For example, using questions such as: “where did you hear that?” Or “show it to me on your feed.” He offered this exchange as a way to combat misinformation and truthfully I had never thought of that before. If anyone reading this blog attempts this I would love to hear how it turns out.
The panel in which PSR PA executive director, Tonyehn Verkitus, participated was titled “Examining Health Equity Considerations in Emerging Climate Strategies.” Given the current violent war against even the word “equity”, you know that even a benign concept such as this makes billionaires nervous. And this panel had much truth to tell to power. It was organized by the SciCan team and had contributions from the Tishman Environment and Design Center. Yukyan Lam led the talk about how many touted carbon management approaches such as carbon sequestration and storage are zombie solutions. They mire our communities to the polluted past that landed us in today's disrupted climate rather than usher us to a healthy future. At this time CO2 cannot be stored so how can carbon capture be considered a climate mitigation strategy? But unfortunately states such as Louisiana that have a disturbingly large share of oil, gas and other petrochemical complexes in their communities have received permission to go ahead with the carbon capture zombie scheme due to state primacy.
In addition to other panelists, Tonyehn told the story of how PSR PA is helping to advance real solutions for climate and health. She showed what is arguably one of my most admired series of short videos, that demonstrate the emissions of hydrocarbons from oil and gas structures unseen by the naked eye but captured by FLIR cameras. The first shot in the video is a bland looking background which then becomes infernal once the thermal filter is turned on, and the viewer can see how much carbon is released into the surrounding air. Tonyehn also outlined the new educational videos called Civics Explained where simple topics are interpreted to improve our literacy of government terms and affairs.
The last day was not a conference at all but a day spent on the Hill educating legislators about the benefits that the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act have brought to our communities. In the week leading up to this day we received training by the American Lung Association and that night a funny thing happened. I clicked on the hyperlink for this Act which was housed on the EPA website and looked at the map of its implementation. The next day when I clicked on the link it said “Sorry, but this web page does not exist”. Overnight the website had been pulled. This reminded me of my childhood in Iran, when even a page of poetry was considered dissident material by the then newly empowered Islamic Republic. Fast forward to many years later in the United States of America and I find myself in a strange time when many events are harking back to the Islamic fundamentalists. At any rate, I participated in Hill Day with a group of residents from Pennsylvania and we met with the offices of our legislators. Unfortunately the recently situated office of David McCormick was not able to meet with us, as he is a new senator. Besides him we met with four other offices, all democrats, and offered our expertise in health and public health. We told the stories of how the IRA has benefited our communities and should continue to do the work it was aimed for. We also heard that while many clean and renewable projects have been on hold due to frozen funds, the polluting and climate disrupting ones like the LNG terminal and hydrogen hubs are likely to advance.
This was not what I had wanted to hear, but in times like this it may be helpful to read about what others have done in similar situations. The treatise “Exit, Voice and Loyalty” by Albert O. Hirschman identifies the three responses to decline in organizations, firms and states. Leave, speak up or stay silent. I’d like to add a fourth entity, our planet, and a fourth response, educate. Whichever path we choose to take, I hope that health professionals take those fourth options seriously. Our health and our planet depend on it.
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