In 2006, Dr. Susan E. Pacheco experienced a stark paradigm-shift due to an inconvenient truth. She learned that the Earth—and those who inhabit it—could experience destruction and devastation at the hands of climate change. Once Pacheco gained that understanding, she says the only thing left to do was to act. “It’s just the knowledge,” Pacheco said. “Just knowing that this is happening and that medical students, residents, and doctors don’t have the benefit of that knowledge. I have to do something. I just can’t sit and keep this knowledge to myself. “That’s why I’ve been so engaged in educational activities that have to do with climate education because it cannot be ignored.”
Introduction to Helping others Through Healthcare
Pacheco is one of the few ...
Is your town quickly becoming unlivable? That's the case for Jose Luis Ortiz, a farmer and an environmental activist with the Los Jardines Institute. He describes how, despite what some might think, climate change is already destroying his home. Check out this discussion on the #SaludTalks Podcast, Episode Nine, "An Endangered Community"! WHAT: A #SaludTalks discussion on the current, real-time impacts of climate change
GUESTS: Jose Luis Ortiz, an environmental activist with the Los Jardines Institute
WHERE: Available wherever fine podcasts are downloaded, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud, Tune In, and others
WHEN: The episode went live at 11 a.m., Nov. 6, 2019 In this episode, we explored questions such as: How is the climate crisis impacting ...
One of America’s highest Latino-populated cities now has a strategy to address the climate crisis. Earlier this month, the San Antonio (64% Latino) City Council passed Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP) by a 10-1 vote. It outlines objectives that will aim to reduce the city’s greenhouse emissions by 2050 and achieve climate equity for all populations. This plan follows in suit with many cities across the U.S. that are taking personal responsibility for its role in the climate crisis. “We declare that we will not be bystanders,” San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said, according to the Rivard Report. “In no simpler terms, here and around the world, we are in a climate emergency.”
What Does the Climate Action Plan Say?
The main goal is to make the city and its ...
The vast majority of major baby foods brands contain toxic heavy metals, recent data show. Of the 168 popular brands tested, 95% contained lead, 73% contained arsenic, 75% contained cadmium, and 32% contained mercury, finds Healthy Babies Bright Futures' newly published report. These numbers should be troubling, as even low levels of these kinds of toxins can cause harm as they build up, according to Dr. Philip Landrigan, pediatrician and Director of the Program in Global Public Health and the Common Good in the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society at Boston College. "Arsenic, lead, and other heavy metals are known causes of neurodevelopmental harm," Landrigan said. "Low-level exposures add up, and exposures in early life are especially dangerous. The cumulative ...
Last week, people across the world marched through city streets in hopes of prompting world leaders to act on the climate crisis. Over 7.6 million people participated in this strike from cities in over 185 countries, according to the Global Climate Strike website. These protestors demanded immediate action in the climate crisis from their respective elected officials. This event was inspired by the words and actions of Swedish 16-year-old, Greta Thunberg, who has made significant influences in the current climate crisis conversation — some say she's the spark that lit the Climate Strike fire. "We have gathered today because we have chosen which path we want to take, and now we are waiting for the others to follow our example," Thunberg said at an earlier climate protest in ...
For over 100 days in 1996, Melanie Cambron experienced migraines so severe she couldn’t leave her home. Other maladies surfaced during this time — all of which had no reasonable explanation. It wasn’t until she discovered she was one of the many people experiencing Toxicant-Induced Loss of Tolerance (TILT), that everything changed. “My symptoms kept escalating,” Cambron said. “There was a lot of cognitive dysfunction, also known as brain fog—an inability to think and form rational thoughts—lots of depression, lots of anxiety, wild mood swings, and just general malaise. “Doing one little activity, that would seem normal, would wipe me out for two days. I would be bedridden for a couple of days for just running one little, quick errand.” Since this ...
Children are meant to learn and thrive while at school — not face harmful lead exposure through the water supply. Unfortunately, schools in at least 22 U.S. states failed to protect students from water contamination, including lead. This kind of exposure can cause a host of health complications to arise, including nervous system damage and learning disabilities, especially in young children. This is a huge problem, according to Joan Leary Matthews, a senior attorney and director of Urban Water at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). “It’s everywhere,” Matthews said in an interview with Salud America! “Here’s why. There’s no such thing as lead-free plumbing. Federal law has limited the amount of lead that can be in new fixtures.”
Why is Lead Possibly in ...
In its first episode, the Salud Talks podcast covers one of the critical issues of our time: the Climate Crisis. We sat down with experts in this field to discuss the history behind climate change, how we got where we are today, and what has to be done to save the planet. The episode went live on Sept. 4, 2019, at 6 a.m. WHAT: A discussion on the climate crisis and how it is and will continue to impact Latinos and all Americans
GUESTS: Dolores "DeeDee" Belmares, the Texas Field Consultant for Moms Clean Air Force, and Dr. Juan Declet-Barreto, a climate scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists
WHERE: Available wherever fine podcasts are downloaded, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud, Tune In, and others.
WHEN: Live Wed., Sept. 4, 2019, at 6 ...
Feeling the sun’s rays, breathing in cool air, lying amongst the trees, standing in the rain — all ways of how nature can ground people and bring about feelings of joy. While it’s true that most Latinos and Americans might spend up to 90% of their time indoors, building design can give inhabitants a sense of connectivity to our environment, or biophilia. Construction workers and architects should make the most of nature to create health-centric structures, according to the American Institute of Architects (AIA). “Simply put, nature is good for us because we are part of nature,” writes Dr. Miles Richardson, director of core psychology programs at the University of Derby. “We are human animals evolved to make sense of the natural world, and this embeddedness in the ...
