In our efforts to educate health professionals and the public, HPHC has organized conferences, hosted webinars, produced reports, and provided expert testimony on policy issues. Here are samples of our work.
July 2022
This report tells the story of how systemic racism underlies health disparities and disproportionate health impacts from climate change experienced by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. The report also includes policy recommendations to begin addressing these disparities and building healthy communities.
February 2022
Released ahead of HPHC’s full Climate Justice Report, this brief summarizes the disproportionate climate impacts to BIPOC and low-income communities followed by policy proposals to address climate justice in Minnesota.
January 2021
Climate Change is a Health Emergency
This document signed by 14 Minnesota public health, environmental health, patient advocacy, healthcare, nursing, and medical organizations declares climate change a health emergency and calls for immediate action to protect the public’s health from the current and future impacts of climate change.
February 2024
A Midwestern Low Carbon Fuel Standard is not a Climate Solution
This Minority Report is a response to the fuels report released by several state agencies and the Clean Transportation Standard (CTS) Work Group. The Minority Report asserts a Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) will have negative environmental impacts by incentivizing both increased ethanol production and the carbon pipeline proposed to run through Minnesota to North Dakota. The report also describes flaws in the Work Group process.
June 2020
Health Risks of the Line 3 Replacement Pipeline
This report summarizes evidence that the proposed Line 3 tar sands oil pipeline replacement project poses unacceptable health risks to Minnesotans due to the sensitive ecosystems it will disrupt, the toxic properties of the oil it will carry, and its contribution to continued climate damage.
May 2019
Zero Emissions: School Buses for the Future
This report summarizes the health impacts of diesel school buses. It was submitted to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to recommend using Vokswagen settlement funds for school bus fleet electrification.
October 2023
Electric School Buses: Better Health, Brighter Futures
This fact sheet summarizes how exposure to exhaust from diesel school buses can harm health and explains the health, academic, climate, and economic benefits of transitioning to electric school buses.
October 2021
This fact sheet explains what air pollution is and how it impacts our health as well as summarizing the inequitable exposure that BIPOC communities face and how climate change is making is worse. We also created a companion video that can be viewed here.
August 2020
Clean Cars Protect the Health of Minnesotans
This fact sheet summarizes the health benefits of the clean cars standards proposed by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
January 2020
This fact sheet summarizes the negative health impacts of the Line 3 pipeline replacement project in Minnesota.
In September 2019 we began hosting monthly informal happy hours called “Climate Convos” for health professionals to learn more about topics around climate change and health and to build community. The Covid-19 pandemic forced us to take a brief hiatus and then move our Convos to the virtual platform! Now recordings of past Climate Convos are available for viewing.
Holiday Blues: Climate Grief
December 17, 2020
As one of the most urgent public health threats of the 21st Century, climate change profoundly affects mental health. As climate change grows in the public consciousness, combined with bleak scientific reports and rising carbon dioxide emissions, it is taking a toll on mental health. “Climate grief” is depression, anxiety, and mourning over climate change. It is especially evident in young people, who are increasingly losing hope for the future.
Speakers:
Christine Manning, PhD, Department of Environmental Studies, Macalester College
Kristi White, PhD, LP, ABPP, Sr. Clinical Psychologist, Hennepin Healthcare
Sustainability in the Time of COVID
November 19, 2020
The health care industry represents 18% of the U.S. economy and 10% of the global economy. While the health care sector is a major contributor to waste and pollution, health care organizations across Minnesota and the country are using their significant economic power to help transform the marketplace to prioritize sustainability to protect planetary and human health. Sustainability goals are tougher to meet in a COVID-19 pandemic that has required excessive use and consumption of single-use plastics and PPE (personal protective equipment such as masks and gloves). Plastics, including micro and nano-sized plastics, are a severe threat to the environment and human health. Some of the waste produced by hospitals is burned in incinerators, which emit more carbon dioxide per megawatt hour than coal power plants.
Speakers:
Ranveer Vasdev, 3rd-year medical student, University of Minnesota Medical School
Conor Nath, 2nd-year medical student, University of Minnesota Medical School
Alex Kim, MPH, Communications Director, HPHC
Climate Justice
October 15, 2020
The structural racism that permeates economies, policies and civil society in Minnesota and throughout the U.S. is a cause of disproportionate climate change impacts on people of color, Indigenous people and low-income communities. Please join us for a conversation about how climate change creates disproportionate impacts on the health of communities already suffering from health disparities and how health professionals can contribute to addressing these injustices to create healthy sustainable communities for all Minnesotans.
Speakers:
Sam Grant, Executive Director, MN350
Toya Lopez, MHA, ISSP-SA, Operations Director, HPHC
Fossil Fuel Deception
September 17, 2020
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed a consumer protection lawsuit against ExxonMobil, Koch Industries and the American Petroleum Institute for their decades of deception on climate impacts and the harm their lies caused to public health and the people of Minnesota. The lawsuit argues that the groups’ efforts to deceive consumers about their products and climate change violated Minnesota’s consumer protection laws. Find out more about fossil fuel deception in Minnesota and what a consumer protection lawsuit has to do with health.
Speakers:
Kert Davies, founder and director of Climate Investigations Center.
Alexandra Klass, JD, Distinguished McKnight University Professor, University of Minnesota Law School
Clean Cars Minnesota
August 20, 2020
Learn how the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s proposed standards for low and zero emission vehicles can reduce air pollution and climate change impacts to protect our health.
Speakers:
Anjali Bains, Senior Policy Associate, Fresh Energy
Kathleen Schuler, Policy Director, HPHC
Talking about climate health: Communication and advocacy tips for health professionals
We held a webinar on March 21, 2019 on effective ways to talk about climate change and health, how to use the media to make your voice heard, and tips for advocating for clean energy policies.
Speakers:
Code Blue for Patient Earth: Responding to the Urgent Threat of Climate Change to One Health
On April 20, 2018, HPHC co-hosted our first Code Blue conference at the Science Museum of Minnesota.
Conference Agenda
Conference Summary by our co-host, Fresh Energy
Our planned second Code Blue conference, slated for April 4, 2020, was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but stay tuned for updates on future conferences.
