ACTION ALERTS
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Together, we have the strength to resist. THANK YOU for being part of our growing community of medical and public health professionals, scientists, health and community advocates, staff and consultants.
ACTIONS & UPDATES
- URGENT: Oppose the SAVE Act to Protect Voter Rights, Email ASAP April 2-4
- APRIL 4: Stand Up for Science & Sanity Rally with Dr. Bob Gould
- APRIL 5: Join one of the HANDS OFF! rallies being hosted nationwide!
- COMING SOON: 2025 Bills to Support and Oppose
- READING: Recent articles to help you keep up with the news
- READ our response to the current attacks by the new administration: Standing Together for Justice and Health for All
ONGOING!
- UPDATE: Air District Advocacy for Zero-Emission Water and Space Heater Rules
- UPDATE: No More Money for Nukes Week, by Intern Navreet Purewal
- Keep Coal Out of Oakland!
- Save Rooftop Solar in CA
- Ask San Francisco to fund their Climate Plan
- Close Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant
- Demand the Cleanup of Bayview Hunters Point in San Francisco
- And more below
URGENT! Oppose the SAVE Act!
Protect Voting Rights!
Email Your Representative TODAY!
Your right to vote could be taken away from you if the SAVE Act passes and becomes a law.
THIS WEEK the SAVE Act is scheduled for a vote by the U.S. House of Representatives.
If the Act becomes law, it would technically only apply to new voter registration. However, the ongoing threat of far-right election protests that seek to retroactively invalidate existing voters means that every voter would need to consider re-registering and providing proof of citizenship, if this were to pass. Additionally, there are provisions in the Act that allow state elections officials to remove a registrant where “the registration otherwise fails to comply with applicable State law.”
Citizens would be required to show documentary proof of citizenship to register.
- A valid U.S. Passport (not expired)
- The REAL ID does not show proof of citizenship
- U.S. Birth Certificate that includes parent(s) name, date, signature of government agency head, and corresponding seal. There is no assumption of citizenship for individuals whose legal name does not match the name on a birth certificate (many women).
- Military ID, only if accompanied by service record showing place of birth
- Naturalization Certificate
URGENT ACTION
TODAY: Call or Email Your U.S. House Rep to Oppose the SAVE Act
Deadline: The vote will be happening this week, so please do this ASAP.
Find your House Representative HERE
Tell them how the SAVE Act would affect your ability to vote and ask them to oppose it.
Stand Up for Science & Sanity Rally
With Dr. Bob Gould, SF Bay PSR President, and others
Friday April 4, noon-2pm, in-person
Lytton Plaza, 200 University Avenue, Palo Alto
RSVP HERE
Join SF Bay PSR and Board President Dr. Bob Gould at Lytton Plaza to celebrate reason, critical thinking & democracy. We will use our brain power and creativity to develop strategies to protect and restore our healthcare system, our democracy, science funding and sanity! No one voted for destroying our healthcare system, our medical and scientific research and our democracy. Defend Medicaid! Defend Medicare! See you there!
April 5: Join nationwide rally HANDS OFF!
Protect our Health, Climate, and Democracy
Dear Friends,
Many of us are feeling dismayed, angry, and afraid, and wonder what we can do. We see the current administration gutting the health, safety, and security of our communities while running roughshod over the rule of law and assaulting the democracy we’ve counted on to make our voices heard. Some of us are even avoiding the news, hoping it will blow over or not be that bad. The last few weeks make clear that we can no longer afford business as usual. “We are facing an unconstitutional threat to our country and our freedoms through an illegal power grab.” (Earthjustice)
What can we do?
Attend a HANDS OFF! Rally
Dozens of rallies are planned across the Bay Area and the country!
Saturday, April 5, 1-3pm PT, in-person
San Francisco: in front of SF City Hall
Oakland: Oscar Grant Plaza, 409 14th St
Berkeley: North Berkeley BART Station, 1721 Acton St
Richmond/El Sobrante: San Pablo Dam Road & Appian Way
San Rafael: Marin Center Exhibit Hall lot, 10 Avenue of the Flags
Palo Alto: Near Tesla Dealership, El Camino Real near Arastradero
San Jose: 180 N First St
Santa Cruz: 701 Ocean St, Water St. side of the building
And more….find more details and a rally near you at handsoff2025.com
Grab your white coat and demand this corrupt regime get their hands off everything that matters to us: our rights, freedoms, and government services; science, truth, health, environmental justice, and our democracy. Find info here to make signs and post on social media.
For information about Why turnout at this rally matters and Why now, as well as more details and background about HANDS OFF, please read here.
If you agree, please spread the word about HANDS OFF! through your personal networks ASAP, and if appropriate, through your organizational networks too.
Together we can defend the communities and issues we care about and join the movement to build a better future.
In peace and solidarity,
SF Bay PSR Team
SF Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization. Our support for the Hands Off! rallies reflects our commitment to human rights and public health, not for or against any political party.
Special thanks to SF Bay PSR Environmental Health Committee member and co-founder of Voting4Climate&Health Cynthia Mahoney, MD, for her dedicated efforts bringing this action to the attention of the environmental community.
READING
It’s hard to keep up with the news these days. We are working to make that a bit easier for you by sharing a selection of the articles we are reading. Also, please share these articles far and wide—together we can help combat misinformation.
KQED Forum Radio: How Countries Fall into Autocracy with Anne Applebaum and Steven Levitsky
More than 1,900 scientists write letter in ‘SOS’ over Trump’s attacks on science
Americans are beginning to fear dissent. That’s exactly what Trump wants
Why Trump’s brutal crackdown on free speech is unprecedented in the US
The Trump administration is descending into authoritarianism
‘The authoritarian playbook’: Trump targets judges, lawyers … and law itself
Donald Trump is seeking to erase the United States as we know it
Federal Government’s Growing Banned Words List Is Chilling Act of Censorship
Economic Policy Institute: Cutting Medicaid to pay for low taxes on the rich is a terrible trade for American families
Here are all the ways people are disappearing from government websites
Books:
Autocracy Rules for Survival by Masha Gessen
How to Stand Up to a Dictator by Maria Ressa
How Fascism Works by Jason Stanely
More articles:
Trump’s shocking purge of public health data, explained
Outcry as Trump withdraws support for research that mentions climate
First Trump threatened to nuke hurricanes. Now he’s waging war on weather forecasters.
Outrage as Trump cites ‘emergency’ to fast-track fossil fuel projects
Trump administration yanks CDC flu vaccine campaign
CDC cuts expected to devastate Epidemic Intelligence Service, a ‘crown jewel’ of public health
US federal websites scrub vaccine data and LGBT references
Killing PEPFAR means killing millions of people: All to save 0.08 percent of the budget.
‘Will I be safe’? Transgender California youth feel threatened by Trump’s executive orders
Health care workers are rushing to learn about immigration law in case of ICE raids
Trump officials fired nuclear staff not realizing they oversee the country’s weapons stockpile
UPDATE: Air District Advocacy for Zero-Emission Water and Space Heater Rules
On Dec 4, 2024, we organized a striking turn-out of white coats, health professionals, to make public comments at the Bay Area Air District in support of the first-in-the-nation rules to phase in zero-emission water and space heaters. An Air District board member told us that our health professionals had a big impact!
These rules are expected to help prevent 15,000 asthma symptom incidents and avoid up to 85 premature deaths every year, and save an estimated $890 million annually in ER visits skipped, lost days of work and school avoided, and family members’ lives extended. These rules would greatly improve health equity and of course, help to protect our climate. Above: Drs. Mary Williams, Bret Andrews, Margie Chen, and CHN colleague Dr. Wendy Bernstein.
In the coming year, we will be laser-focused on the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to encourage their timely implementation of similar ZE appliance rules, and to support the creation of indoor air pollution standards; our work includes a new partnership with UCLA to study indoor air pollution in lower-income homes.
We are looking for more health professional volunteers to join our Building Electrification Speakers Bureau. We will train you and provide all the slides and materials. Give talks or table at community fairs and health events. It is impactful and inspiring work! Our Building Electrification program created and distributed health- and equity-focused information to educate about the benefits of electrification. In 2025, we will expand our community outreach through our collaboration with the San Francisco Environment Climate Equity Hub and a series of workshops developed in partnership with the Bayview Hunters Point Community Advocates, ensuring that environmental justice communities benefit from the transition to electric buildings. Left: Bailey Ward, Julie Lindow, Crystal Loucel, and Bret Andrews.
ONGOING ACTIONS BELOW!
Update: No Money for Nuclear Weapons Week of Action
Hosted by ICAN
Nuclear weapons programs divert public funds from health care, education, disaster relief and other vital services. The nuclear-armed countries spend more than $173,000 per minute on their nuclear bombs, over $90 billion each year. Meanwhile, the companies producing these weapons of mass destruction and their investors make billions in profit each year.
SF Bay PSR Nuclear Weapons Abolition Intern Navreet Purewal researched what we could do with some of those funds and wrote to her representative. Here is an excerpt from her letter:
“Over the course of 2023 (FY 2024), Sacramento County wasted $430,732,262 on nuclear weapons. That is equivalent to $49,170 per hour. $49,170 is wasted on weapons of indiscriminate harm and mass destruction every hour.
As a member of San Francisco Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility (SF Bay PSR), we know this money can be better spent. Nuclear weapons cost our communities with the resources they take up and the threat they pose to our security. We need to stop banking on weapons which could lead to our destruction and instead start investing in a healthier community and country.
With every passing hour, our Sacramento County loses $49,170 on nuclear weapons, which instead could fund the following programs:
~5 Public Housing Units for 1 Year: Calculated as $8,953.85 per unit per year.
~19 Children Receiving Low-Income Healthcare for 1 Year: Calculated as $2,544 per child per year.
~200 Households with Solar Electricity for 1 Year: Calculated as $246.32 per household per year.
Just one hour without nuclear weapons could fund these projects. Imagine what we could do if we stopped wasting our money on these unnecessary weapons altogether. Our community needs these funds to be invested in our future, not our demise. Spending this exorbitant amount on nuclear weapons doesn’t serve the interests of our community or country.”
Keep Coal Out of Oakland!
Sponsored by No Coal in Oakland
Help prevent the construction of a major coal export terminal on the San Francisco Bay. A recent peer-reviewed Health Impact Study quantifies expected increases in Bay Area negative health outcomes due to emissions from trains that would carry 7.5 million tons of coal per year to the terminal.
ACTION
Please sign your name—including any health credentials—to the attached open letter calling for a binding commitment against handling coal at a marine terminal planned for the Oakland waterfront. The letter is co-sponsored by SF Bay PSR.
ADD YOUR NAME
If you are a member of another organization that could sign on, the attached letter also contains a link to the Organizational Sign-On Form!
Live in Oakland? No Coal in Oakland yard signs are available!
REQUEST FORM
If the property is developed as a coal terminal, it could handle from 4 to 15 million tons of coal per year. Each day, one or more uncovered coal trains, each more than a mile long, would spew toxic coal dust and diesel exhaust from Utah to Oakland, including through densely populated environmental justice communities in the East Bay. After a fossil-fueled trip across the Pacific, the coal would be burned, polluting Asian power plant communities and emitting substantial greenhouse gasses. We cannot allow it.
The coalition coordinating this campaign includes: No Coal in Oakland, 350 East Bay, Youth vs. Apocalypse, West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, SF Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility, Sierra Club, SF Baykeeper, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, West Oakland Neighbors, Interfaith Council of Alameda County, Faith in Action
LEARN MORE at No Coal in Oakland.
Below: Image credit: “Fig. 1. Study Area with Estimated PM2.5 Concentrations associated with 2.1 μg/m3 Increase in the Peak of the Annual Average Increment,” from Health impact assessment of PM2.5 from uncovered coal trains in the San Francisco Bay Area: Implications for global exposures, Environmental Research v252 Part 1. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2024.118787
Save Rooftop Solar in CA, an ongoing battle!
Sponsored by Solar Rights Alliance
BACKGROUND
Rooftop solar has been jeopardized in California because of a string of reckless decisions made by the CA Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) at the behest of the utilities. They are working to end net metering, charge solar taxes and other penalties for having solar panels, and even take control of your panels and the electricity they generate. The new solar-user rules, net metering 3 (NEM 3.0), went into effect in April of 2023, and by December, year-over-year sales were down 77-85% and 17,000 solar workers lost their jobs.
- Before NEM 3.0, rooftop solar was growing fastest in middle and working class neighborhoods.
- Now, everyday people have fewer options to control skyrocketing utility bills. And rooftop solar is no longer financially viable for most apartment buildings, farmers, schools, hospitals, etc.
- Also, the state says rooftop solar must triple in order to meet the CA’s goal of getting 100% of our electricity from clean energy. That won’t happen unless rooftop solar becomes more affordable.
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WHAT IS THIS ABOUT? Utility profits!
- Utilities make profits by spending more money – your money – building and maintaining long-distance power lines.
- Because rooftop solar reduces the need to spend as much money on giant wind farms and power lines, utilities make less profit if rooftop solar keeps growing.
- However, utilities still stand to make tons of profit in the years to come, even with rooftop solar. Yet, they are still trying to kill rooftop solar.
text for space
ACTIONS
Tell Governor Newsom and your state legislators to protect rooftop solar in CA.
EMAIL them here using Solar Rights Alliance’s easy tool.
Thank you!
MORE READING
Solar Rights Alliance Blog: CPUC blocks rooftop solar for farms, schools, and many renters. Will state lawmakers overrule them?
KQED CA Morning Report: Solar Industry Battered by New California Rule
LA Times: California needs to get its act together on rooftop solar
READ MORE at Solar Rights Alliance
UPDATED: Tell Mayor Breed and Supervisors to Fund San Francisco’s Climate Plan
Sponsored by SF Climate Emergency Coalition, including SF Bay PSR
A UC Berkeley Center for Law Energy and the Environment (CLEE) report recommended that the first step toward funding SF’s Climate plan should be a general obligation bond. See page nine of the Executive Summary.
ACTIONS
Make your health voice heard! Tell Mayor Breed and the Supervisors that the City of San Francisco must do its part to address climate change by incorporating climate goals and actions into every aspect of city planning and to ensure the Climate Plan is fully funded.
1. CALL: Please call your Supervisors
Connie Chan (chair) 415-554-7410, ChanStaff@sfgov.org
Rafael Mandelman 415-554-6968, MandelmanStaff@sfgov.org
Hilary Ronen 415-554-5144, hillary.ronen@sfgov.org
Shamann Walton 415-554-7670, shamann.walton@sfgov.org
Ahsha Safai 415-554-6975, ahsha.safai@sfgov.org
President Aaron Peskin 415-554-7450, aaron.peskin@sfgov.org
2. WRITE: Or write a short email to the Supervisors.
Email Clerk of the Committee brent.jalipa@sfgov.org with File #230265 in the subject line.
Copy President Peskin on the letter for sure, and the other 5 Supervisors if you wish.
MORE INFO about the battle to gain funding for SF’s Climate Plan:
The San Francisco Climate Emergency Coalition has been actively meeting with the mayor’s budget staff and supervisors.
San Francisco has an ambitious Climate Action Plan (CAP), which Mayor London Breed proudly introduced in 2021. Confusingly, in the past two city budget cycles, she funded it at $0. The city is in danger of missing its climate goals without serious efforts to fund and implement the CAP.
After years of inaction, the passage of the federal Inflation Reduction Act means the US finally has a fighting chance at meeting our climate goals. But the IRA is just the start — now we have to do the hard work of implementation, everywhere. Cities, including San Francisco, have a critical role to play to ensure we get to net-zero carbon emissions as quickly as possible.
Unfortunately, San Francisco is already behind. This year, the San Francisco Environment Department (SFE) is requesting $7 million for staffing and programs essential for achieving the CAP on schedule. This is a minuscule amount in the city’s overall $14 BILLION budget.
The climate crisis impacts the city in countless ways. It is a public health crisis, and funding climate initiatives will improve residents’ and the planet’s health. Such initiatives are also critical to address environmental justice and equity issues in San Francisco and improve the lives of underserved, low-income, and BIPOC communities. Climate initiatives will attract more businesses and tourists, create jobs, and elevate the status of San Francisco as a world-class city.
Mayors around the world are leading on aggressive climate policies in their cities. It’s time for Mayor Breed to show that she is a serious leader who recognizes that climate action is the path to a livable, equitable, and rejuvenated San Francisco, by committing to funding $7 million for SFE in her 2023-2024 budget and to a city bond that would help fund building electrification and other climate friendly projects.
Prevent California from a Nuclear Disaster
UPDATE: SB 846 passed. This is bad news!
The aging Diablo Canyon Nuclear power plant that is near four earthquake faults will remain active for at least five more years.
We remain OPPOSED to the continued operation of the Diablo Nuclear Power Plant for these reasons:
- It was built on the presumption of no active earthquake faults within 30 kilometers, it is now known there are 4 nearby active faults capable of larger quakes than the plant was designed for. One fault comes within 600 meters of the plant.
- The reactors are aging, with critical upgrades having been avoided because of the presumed shutdown in 2025.
- The attacks on the Zaporizhzhia reactor complex in Ukraine remind the world of the vulnerability of such plants to attack by adversaries / hackers, whether governments or terrorists, and the potential for massive radiation release.
- Spending billions of dollars on the aging Diablo nuclear plant would steal resources that should be used for far more cost-effective renewables and storage, essential for dealing with climate change.
SF Bay PSR Board Member Dr. Aude Bouagnon spoke at a rally on Earth Day 2021 to support Bayview Hunters Point community efforts to advocate for the clean up of toxic wastes harming the health of residents. Photo by Dr. Ahimsa Sumchai.
Demand the Cleanup of Bayview Hunters Point in San Francisco
Contact San Francisco Mayor Breed & Board of Supervisors to ask them to ACT NOW:
● Declare a Public Health Emergency in Bayview Hunters Point and Treasure Island!
● Declare a moratorium on shipyard development and Lennar’s unsafe soil excavation!
● Conduct full retesting, safe cleanup and removal of all radioactive and toxic contamination at Hunters Point Shipyard Superfund Site & Treasure Island!
The San Francisco Hunters Point Naval Shipyard site was home to a Naval shipyard repair facility from 1945 to 1974 and the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory (NRDL) from 1948 to 1960. These facilities contaminated soil, dust, sediments, surface water and groundwater with toxic chemicals, heavy metals, PCBs, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and radionuclides.
We are honored to support the Bayview Hunters Point Community Advocates in their efforts to fight for environmental justice.
READINGS & RESOURCES can be found HERE.
Please join SF Bay PSR to support Bayview Hunters Point Mothers and Fathers Committee, Marie Harrison Community Foundation, Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, Literacy for Environmental Justice, Youth Vs. Apocalypse and other allies to demand a FULL cleanup of ALL contamination at the Hunters Point Shipyard Superfund Site and adjacent areas.
