EVENTS
You’re invited! The events below are open to everyone (not just physicians).
- For action events such as rallies and marches, please visit our Action Alert page.
- Missed an event? WATCH archived events!
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We are experiencing unprecedented times. Together we can respond by educating ourselves, working on advocacy projects, and making our voices heard. Join us!
Below find these events and related resources!
Celebrate Earth Month!
April 17 & 27: CA Nurses for Environmental Health & Justice Webinars
April 17: Life is Better Electric, with Dr. Bret Andrews
April 18: Climate Action Youth Summit
April 26: SF Climate Equity Hub and EcoCenter’s Anniversaries, and Earth Month!
Reading: current news to help you keep up
WATCH Online!
Autonomous Armageddon: Nuclear Weapons and AIIndoor Air Quality in Homes: An Educational Series
ECHO Series: Global Nuclear and Environmental Threats Critical to Climate Change and Human Health
Book Discussion: Toxic City: Redevelopment and Environmental Justice in SF
Building Electrification: New Studies, Advocacy, and How to Electrify Your Home, recording coming soon.
Movie Nights: Films that share the horrors left out of Oppenheimer—First We Bombed New Mexico; Dark Circle; and Radioactive: The Women of Three Mile Island, and more!
Committee Meeting Dates
Wednesday, May 14, 7pm, online: Environmental Health committee
Thursday, June 12, 7pm, online: Nuclear Weapons Abolition committee
To join a committee, please email info@sfbaypsr.org.
CA Nurses for Environmental Health & Justice Webinars
This outstanding series of webinars on environmental health issues is open to all and offers CE certificates for nurses.
MORE INFO HERE.
Thursday, April 17, noon PT, online
Impact of Pesticides on Farmworker Health
REGISTER HERE
Sunday, April 27, noon PT, online
Plastics & Health: What You Need to Know
REGISTER HERE
Life is Better Electric!
With Dr. Bret Andrews, SF Bay PSR Board Member, among others
Hosted by CleanPowerSF
Thursday, April 17, 10am PT, online
REGISTER HERE
Join this free one-hour webinar to discover the benefits of home electrification from industry experts. Learn about available rebates and incentives to help you transition from fossil fuels to clean electricity and make your home healthier, more efficient, and environmentally friendly. SF Bay PSR Board Member Dr. Bret Andrews will present: Air Pollution and Environmental Justice: Electric Homes Make Us Healthier.
Climate Action Youth Summit 2025
Hosted by SF Environment Department
Friday, April 18, 10am-2pm, in-person
Yerba Buena Gardens, 750 Hower Street, San Francisco
LEARN MORE
Join the San Francisco Environment (SFE) Department in celebrating youth-led climate projects at the 3rd annual Climate Action Youth Summit! Learn about all the actions future leaders are taking to fight climate change and make a change in our city.
The summit will showcase:
- Youth presentations to foster peer learning
- Inspiring stories from young changemakers
- Recognition of the passion, creativity, and innovation behind climate solutions.
This year’s theme, Climate Action Across Careers, invites youth to explore their passions through an environmental lens in science, art, fashion, technology, and more! No matter their interest, youth will have the opportunity to connect, share, and explore pathways towards a more resilient future.
Climate Equity Hub’s 1st Anniversary!
EcoCenter’s 15th Anniversary!
Earth Month Celebration!
With SF Bay PSR and Hub partners
Hosted by the EcoCenter and SF Environment
Saturday, April 26, 10am-1pm PT, in-person
EcoCenter at Heron’s Head Park, 32 Jennings Street, San Francisco
Join SF Bay PSR, Climate Equity Hub partners, and host San Francisco Environment to celebrate SF’s Climate Equity Hub’s 1st anniversary, the EcoCenter’s 15th anniversary, and Earth month!
This past year SF Bay PSR and Hub partners have been working together in a model collaboration to support SF’s environmental justice communities and eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from residential buildings while advancing racial and social equity, health, economic revitalization, and resilience. Learn more about the Hub here.
Bring the family! Learn about the health and climate benefits of electric homes including heat pump equipment and portable induction stove demonstrations. And we, Physicians for Social Responsibility, will be providing resources on the health impacts of gas appliances and how to protect your family.
The event will also include free books for children (while supplies last), games, activities, workshops, refreshments and so much more for the entire family!
We hope to see you there!
JANUARY-MARCH 2025 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
The authoritarian playbook’: Trump targets judges, lawyers … and law itself
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
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 READING
Outcry as Trump withdraws support for research that mentions climate
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
How California can advance affordability, clean air, and safer homes in 2025
Press Release: Advocates Applaud Introduction of Groundbreaking Climate Superfund Bill
NEW REPORT: Don’t Bank on the Bomb: At Great Cost, 260 financial institutions finance 24 nuclear weapon producers.
Trump officials fired nuclear staff not realizing they oversee the country’s weapons stockpile
SF Chronicle Letter to the Editor, by SF Bay PSR Board Member Dr. Bret Andrews: Blame Big Oil Regarding the article: There’s one key villain in the L.A. wildfires. Any student of history knows who it is
NY Times Op-Ed by PSR-LA leader Dr. Bob Dodge: Pulling Back from the Nuclear Brink
Bulletin of Concerned Scientists: Closer than ever: It is now 89 seconds to midnight: 2025 Doomsday Clock Statement
Independent Media Network: The California wildfires and the unmentioned threat of nuclear radiation
HEATMAP: The Los Angeles Fires Accelerated the Looming Natural Gas Crisis. All American cities are at risk.
NPR: Here’s how climate change fueled the Los Angeles fires
Guardian: Climate triple whammy boosted risk of LA fires, study shows
NY Times: This is who should foot the bill for the Los Angeles fires
Inside Climate News: The Supreme Court Let Lawsuits Against Oil Companies Proceed. This Is What It Means
The Hill: Trump packs EPA with chemical, oil industry alumni
NY Times: Trump Signs Orders to Promote Fossil Fuels and End Climate Policies
And the following article explains how states are responding:
Guardian: How US states are leading the climate fight – despite Trump’s rollbacks
WHO: Health community calls for urgent action for clean air ahead of WHO conference
Medical Society Consortium on Climate & Health: Press Release: Leading Healthcare and Public Health Organizations Call for Federal Government to Fast-Track Rules to Protect Workers from Worsening Extreme Heat
Autonomous Armageddon: Nuclear Weapons and AI
Hosted by ICAN
WATCH the RECORDING HERE
This recorded webinar explores the alarming dangers posed by the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into nuclear weapons systems. Hosted by three Nobel Peace Prize-winning organizations dedicated to eliminating nuclear weapons, featuring expert speakers, including:
– Representative of Nihon Hidankyo, 2024 Nobel Peace Prize
– Professor Geoffrey Hinton, 2024 Nobel Prize Winner in Physics
– Connor Leahy, CEO of Conjecture (AI safety research)
– Dr. Ruth Mitchell, neurosurgeon and Chair of IPPNW, 1985 Nobel Peace Prize
– Melissa Parke, Executive Director of ICAN, 2017 Nobel Peace Prize
– Moderated by Professor Karen Hallberg, Secretary General of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, 1995 Nobel Peace Prize.
Together, they discuss the general and specific risks AI presents to nuclear command and control systems, the catastrophic humanitarian and environmental consequences of nuclear war, and ongoing initiatives to mitigate these threats.
Indoor Air Quality in Homes:
An Educational Series for Nurses and the Public
Hosted by California Nurses for Environmental Health & Justice
We recommend the entire series but particularly want to highlight this session:
Improving Indoor Air Quality
With SF Bay PSR/ANHE Fellow Crystal Loucel, RN, and Barbara Sattler, DN, DrPH
WATCH HERE and MORE INFO
This webinar expands on the Introduction to Indoor Air Pollutants in Homes webinar. This session will equip nurses with practical actions they can implement at home to improve indoor air quality. Additionally, an indoor air quality home assessment tool designed for use in patient’s homes will be shared. This tool is especially relevant for nursing specialties such as public health, home health, case management and other roles where nurses commonly enter the patients living space.
Global Nuclear and Environmental Threats Critical to Climate Change and Human Health: 2024
Hosted by Climate Change and Human Health ECHO Program, University of New Mexico (UNM)
Given the decades-long global threats of nuclear weapons and power, environmental health exposures from chemical solvents and superfund sites, and resulting environmental injustice, these sessions are a primer for health professionals, public health officers, first responders, and community-based educators interested in learning from nationally and internationally known experts.
This series may be from last year, but it is still very much worth watching!
WATCH RECORDINGS, click on the titles below:
1. The Global Nuclear Threat and Nuclear Landscapes in the United States: the first session with Dr. Robert Gould.
It is outstanding!
2. Health Impacts of Radiation with Dan Hirsch (The talk starts 6 minutes into the video.)
3. Environmental Justice and Nuclear Harms Panel, with Tina Cordova, MSC, BSC; Doug Brugge, PhD, MS; Marylia Kelley; Ryan Edgington, PhD; Jacqueline Cabasso
4. Environmental Exposures: Environmental Risk in Your Neighborhood, with Michelle Hunter—and Nuclear Superfund Sites in New Mexico, with Myrriah Gomez
5. Identifying the Source of Chemical Solvents and Their Health-Related Impacts, with Michelle Hunter—and Microplastics are Here with Matthew Campen—recording coming soon.
6. Environmental Justice and Toxicities Panel—recording coming soon.
Toxic City: Redevelopment and Environmental Justice in San Francisco
Hosted by City Lights Bookstore in conjunction with SF Bay PSR
Did you miss this event?
WATCH the RECORDING HERE
Lindsey Dillon discussed her new book!
With comments by Karen Pierce of the Bayview Hunters Point Community Advocates, SF’s oldest environmental justice nonprofit.
Toxic City: Redevelopment and Environmental Justice in San Francisco
Published by University of California Press
Toxic City presents a novel critique of postindustrial green gentrification through a study of Bayview Hunters Point, a historically Black neighborhood in San Francisco. As cities across the United States clean up and transform contaminated waterfronts and abandoned factories into inviting spaces of urban nature and green living, working-class residents—who previously lived with the effects of state abandonment, corporate divestment, and industrial pollution—are threatened with displacement at the very moment these neighborhoods are cleaned, greened, and revitalized. Lindsey Dillon details how residents of Bayview Hunters Point have fought for years for toxic cleanup and urban redevelopment to be a reparative process and how their efforts are linked to long-standing struggles for Black community control and self-determination. She argues that environmental racism is part of a long history of harm linked to slavery and its afterlives and concludes that environmental justice can be conceived within a larger project of reparations.
Building Electrification: New Studies, Advocacy, and How to Electrify Your Home
Ask experts questions about electrifying your home to make it healthier and more climate-friendly!
Wednesday, July 24, 2024
Recording coming soon!
Learn about new research, upcoming regulations on new water and space heaters, how to protect your family, electrify your home, and advocate for a just transition to all-electric homes in CA and beyond.
After industry and transportation, buildings are a top emitter of greenhouse gases. In California, 25% of greenhouse gas emissions are from buildings and 15% are from homes. Electrification of buildings is a critical step toward decarbonization, improved health, and health equity.
Fossil Fuel (“natural” gas) appliances and heaters are proven to increase indoor air pollution and exacerbate conditions such as asthma. The health harms from indoor pollution are compounded by the high outdoor air pollution levels in California, per the American Lung Association’s State of the Air 2023 report. Also, while 98% of Californians live in counties with a failing grade for at least one air pollution measurement, a person of color is three times more likely to live in a county with failing grades in all measurements.
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- Dr. Bret Andrews, SF Bay PSR board member, will share the latest health and scientific studies on indoor air pollution that is caused by burning fossil fuels in our homes and info about local and state air quality regulatory agencies plans to electrify home appliances.
- Nurse Crystal Loucel, SF Bay PSR/Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments fellow will review how environmental justice communities are overburdened by air pollution and how building electrification can improve health equity, and she will provide a healthy home checklist.
- QuitCarbon will answer all your questions about how to transition your home to a healthier, climate-friendly, electric home. QuitCarbon offers free home electrification plans and support to save you time and money.
- We will also cover our recent advocacy efforts and how you can help to promote an equitable and just transition to electric buildings in California.
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Dr. Bret Andrews is a former Associate Chief of Neurology at Kaiser Permanente, Oakland and now works part time there. He focuses primarily on advocacy for climate health policy and presents to physicians and policy leaders on climate health. He is a co-founder of NICHe, Neurologists Interested in Climate and Health, and a board member of San Francisco Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility.
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For over a decade Crystal Loucel has served as a bilingual and bicultural Public Health Nurse for the Latinx community within the San Francisco Bay Area. Born and raised in Southern California to Mexican immigrants, she obtained her Master in Public Health from Loma Linda University in 2009 and a Master of Science from UCSF’s School of Nursing in 2014. She has been a Certified Diabetes Care & Education Specialist and a Health & Wellness Nurse Coach since 2019. Crystal currently serves on the National Board of Directors of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses and Co-Chair of the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Committee. In 2023, she was awarded year-long fellowships with SF Bay PSR through the Alliance of Nurses for a Healthy Environment as well as an Emerging Diversity Leaders through AcademyHealth. In her current role, she works as a UCSF Clinical Research Nurse for a study of co-transplantation of parathyroid and islet cells for insulin independence of patients with Type 1 diabetes.
QuitCarbon’s free, expert guidance makes it simple and affordable to get fossil fuels out of our homes. We’ve helped thousands of homeowners with planning, installation, and rebates on upgrades like heat pumps, mini-splits, induction cooking, and EV chargers. QuitCarbon is the only ENERGY STAR® partner providing free assistance with clean energy upgrades.
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Cooper Marcus is the Chief Quitter and CEO at QuitCarbon. QuitCarbon helps homeowners gain the confidence and clarity they need to electrify their homes – and helps contractors grow their businesses by being part of the clean energy transition. He believes that society’s move away from fossil fuel presents an incredible opportunity to respond to the climate crisis while improving the quality of life for homeowners, renters, and the small businesses that help maintain their homes. Cooper has led high-impact projects and products at high-growth startups and large enterprises. He recently spent 2.5 years at PG&E, guiding the development of an industry-leading wildfire risk machine learning model that is used to prioritize over $1B in annual spending on risk reduction.
MOVIE NIGHT!!!
At the 2024 Oscars, the star of Oppenheimer, Cillian Murphy, dedicated his award to “peacemakers everywhere.” That is US! You and SF Bay PSR, and all our affiliated partners in the peace movement!
Here are resources for you to host your own Movie Night and discussion about nuclear weapons abolition! Check out the movies below that so eloquently tell the horror stories that were left out of Oppenheimer.
For your discussion:
Oppenheimer the film!
Watch online at streaming services.
Oppenheimer is focused on the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, an American physicist who was instrumental in the development of the atomic bomb. It debuts just one week after the 78th anniversary of the Trinity explosion, the first-ever detonation of a nuclear bomb over Alamogordo, New Mexico.
The film provides a valuable opportunity to educate the public about the dangers nuclear weapons pose to health and humanity, from the environmental health impacts of nuclear weapons production and testing to the growing threat of nuclear war.
What horrors did Oppenheimer leave out? Watch these award-winning movies!
First We Bombed New Mexico
An award-winning, anti-nuclear film by Lois Lipman, featuring PSR Awardee Tina Cordova, Leader Tularosa Basin Downwinders
WATCH the TRAILER HERE
LEARN MORE and FIND a SCREENING HERE
First We Bombed New Mexico is the untold story of Trinity, the world’s first nuclear bomb detonated in New Mexico one month before the bombing of Hiroshima.
It is a story of government betrayal with tragic consequences.
Thousands of New Mexicans – mostly Hispanic and Native American – were exposed to catastrophic levels of radioactive fallout, never warned, never acknowledged and never helped afterwards. Generations of cancers followed.
Inspiring New Mexico Hispanic cancer survivor, Tina Cordova has catalyzed a movement seeking compensation for families – mostly Hispanic and Native – who suffer multigenerational cancers tied to that bomb – and who continue to be ignored.
This documentary is witness to the people’s narrative for voices not heard.
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Dark Circle
An award-winning, anti-nuclear film by SF Bay PSR member Judy Irving, and Christopher Beaver and Ruth Landy
WATCH HERE
READ MORE
MORE STREAMING OPTIONS HERE
It’s been 75 years since the start of the Atomic Age, with the U.S. nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing hundreds of thousands of civilians, but its trail of destruction has never ended.
Dark Circle covers both the period’s beginnings and its aftermath, providing a scientific primer on the catastrophic power of nuclear energy while also relating tragic human stories detailing the devastating toll radioactive toxicity has taken on people and livestock—focusing in large part on Rocky Flats, Colorado, whose plutonium processing facility infamously contaminated the surrounding area.
Documentary Grand Prize winner at Sundance, Academy shortlisted for Best Documentary, and Emmy winner, Dark Circle is no less potent today than it was 40 years ago. The new 2K HD Restoration done at FotoKem was assisted by AMPAS and supervised by co-director Judy Irving.
“Dark Circle is one of the most horrifying films I’ve seen, and also sometimes one of the funniest (if you can laugh at the same things in real life that you found amusing in Dr. Strangelove). Using powers granted by the Freedom of Information Act, and sleuthing that turned up government film the government didn’t even know it had, the producers of this film have created a mosaic of the Atomic Age. It is a tribute to the power of the material, and to the relentless digging of the filmmakers, that the movie is completely riveting. Four Stars!” – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
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Silent Fallout
LEARN MORE
SCREENING SCHEDULE
This award-winning film by accredited Japanese director Hideaki Ito tells the untold stories of the victims of nuclear testing in America—and the account of one mother who risked her career to expose the dangers of radiation poisoning.
Silent Fallout is more than a film. Our team is working hard to spread the word about radiation poisoning and nuclear contamination in the US and beyond—and we need your help to do so.
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In the Dark of the Valley
A film featuring PSR-LA’s Dr. Bob Dodge and Denise Duffield!
SCREENED on MSNBC
LEARN MORE at In the Dark of the Valley WEBSITE
READ MORE at MSNBC
In the Dark of the Valley is the first feature film to focus on the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, a former nuclear and rocket-engine testing site near Los Angeles. The film is an exploration into the site’s long history of cover-ups and negligence by site owners Boeing, NASA, and the Department of Energy. It also tells the harrowing story of how a community of mothers have dealt with the struggles of childhood cancer and their new found life of environmental advocacy.
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Radioactive: The Women of Three Mile Island
Another award-winning, anti-nuclear film!
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Starting March 12, 2024
Available to stream on Apple+ and Amazon
READ MORE and WATCH TRAILER
March 28, 2024, marks the 45th Anniversary of the Three Mile Island meltdown—the worst commercial nuclear power accident in U.S. history.
A resonant story about a battle of wills, hubris, and energy – atomic, maternal, moral, and feminist. At the prompting of an ecofeminism professor turned visual journalist, the four original “concerned” mothers, a two-woman legal team and a reporter, now all much older, wiser, and bolder, break open years of corporate silencing and nuclear industry doublespeak, and tell their stories about the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident, the worst commercial nuclear reactor meltdown in U.S. history. And though this disaster took place in 1979, the life and death implications continue in the spiritual, physical, and political DNA of the community, its residents, and their descendants.
Save-Our-Climate Movies!
YOUTH v. GOV: An independent, award-winning documentary about Juliana v. United States
WATCH on Netflix
Climate Psychiatry Alliance co-founder, Lise Van Susteren has been the forensic psychiatric consultant on this historically significant, groundbreaking constitutional CLIMATE case brought by 21 youth plaintiffs.
For over 10 years, Our Children’s Trust’s legal actions seek systemic, science-based climate mitigation actions by governments, demanding that our leaders tackle the roots of the climate crisis rather than just the branches of its impacts.
OCT has represented and supported youth plaintiffs in climate litigation around the globe–including Juliana v. United States, Held v. Montana, & La Rose v. Her Majesty the Queen–as they advocate for their right to a stable climate.
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Big Oil’s Last Lifeline: A 3-part docuseries sounding the alarm on the petrochemical industry’s impact on Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities.
WATCH HERE
Everyday, the oil, gas and petrochemical industry writes off Black, Brown and Indigenous communities as “sacrifice zones.” The industry violates laws with impunity and rationalizes the unconscionable – they dump cancer-causing pollution into communities of color and try to cover it up.
Big Oil’s Last Lifeline takes us to the frontlines of the U.S.’s epicenters for petrochemical production: West Virginia, Houston, and along the Mississippi River in Louisiana.
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The Power of Big Oil, a PBS Frontline Special
WATCH on KQED HERE
We highly recommend PBS’s Frontline show, “The Power of Big Oil.” This in-depth, three-part series examines the fossil fuel industry’s history of casting doubt and delaying action on climate change. It traces decades of missed opportunities and the ongoing attempts to hold Big Oil to account.
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Racial Equity Reading Group Discussions
You’re invited to learn more about issues of racial equity, particularly as they relate to the fields of public health and medicine. The discussions are open to anyone (not just health professionals) seeking to deepen their personal understanding of issues related to systemic racism and strengthen their commitment toward creating a more just, equitable, and healthy world.
Our hearts go out to all those who have lost loved ones by gun and police violence. This discussion series is also part of our ongoing commitment to address the public health emergencies of gun and police violence, particularly toward African-Americans who are three times more likely to be killed by police than white people.
NEXT DISCUSSION & READINGS, TBA
SF Bay PSR Committee Meetings
Environmental Health Committee
NEXT meeting will be on Wednesday, May 14, July 9, Sept 10, Nov 12, 2025.
7:00 pm, via Zoom
Meetings are usually held on the second Wednesday, every other month.
EHC members continue to work energetically during the pandemic on wide-ranging collaborative efforts to engage health professional students and institutions to address the unceasing threats of our climate to our health. READ MORE.
Nuclear Weapons Abolition Committee
Next meeting will be on Thursday, June 12, August 14, Oct 9, Dec 11, 2025.
7:00 pm PT, via Zoom
Meetings are usually held on the second Thursday, every other month.
NWAC is composed of health professionals and others working locally to influence public awareness, civic engagement, and national policy to build a nuclear weapons free world. Toward the latter, we frame our work through our Back from the Brink campaign and its policy platforms. READ MORE.
