DYING FOR GROWTH: Industrialization, Climate Change, and Health Effects

 Description: Levels of several greenhouse gases have increased by 25% since industrialization began in the West. Now, nations such as China, India and Brazil are undergoing their own ‘industrial revolution’ and increasing their demand for oil, coal and other fossil fuels.  The U.S., meanwhile, remains the highest per capita greenhouse gas producer as our SUV/flat screen TV lifestyle offsets gains in energy efficiency.  Global consumption of coal, oil, gas, and electricity is expected to triple within the next 30 years. What effect will this have on climate change?   On health?  What can we do to reverse this trend?

Goal: The U.S. and other industrialized nations must lead the way and set examples for responsible growth. This panel will present expert speakers to explain what efforts you can support at the international, national and local levels to reduce CO2 emissions.

Speaker:

Cindy Parker, MD, MPH

Dr. Parker is on the faculty at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she co-directs the Program on Global Sustainability and Health engaged in education, policy work, practice, and research on the health impacts of climate change, peak petroleum, and global sustainability.  She also directs the undergraduate major in Global Environmental Change and Sustainability at Johns Hopkins University. As part of her work to educate the public and policy makers about the health effects of global climate change, she is a frequent speaker on the topic and recently co-authored the book Climate Chaos: Your Health at Risk published by Praeger.

Dr. Parker received her MD from the University of Arizona and her Masters in Public Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is board certified in Public Health and General Preventive Medicine and is a Fellow of the American College of Preventive Medicine where she is Vice Chair of the Environmental Health Committee. She also serves on the National Board of Directors for Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Board of Directors for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.

Karen Orenstein Karen Orenstein is International Policy Campaigner at Friends of the Earth US, where she focuses on climate policy, especially climate finance, within a framework of equity, social justice, and environmental integrity. Friends of the Earth U.S. and its federation of grassroots groups in 76 countries defend the environment and champion a more healthy and just world. Karen has worked on international environmental and human rights campaign for more than a dozen years. She worked for 7 years at the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN), where she led Washington efforts to support genuine self-determination and justice for the people of East Timor and human rights protections for the peoples of Indonesia and West Papua. Karen continues to serve on ETAN’s board. Prior to joining Friends of the Earth, she was national outreach coordinator at National Audubon Society, where she focused on global warming. Karen has done research and volunteer work for the Maasai Environmental Resource Coalition and has lived in Tanzania.

Janet Redman

Janet is co-director of the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network, where she provides analysis of the international financial institutions’ energy investment and carbon finance activities. Her recent studies on the World Bank’s climate activities include World Bank: Climate Profiteer, and Dirty is the New Clean: A critique of the World Bank’s strategic framework for development and climate change. She has appeared on several radio programs and C-SPAN sharing positive visions for fair and equitable climate action in the United States and overseas. As a founding participant in the global Climate Justice Now! network, Janet is committed to bringing hard-hitting policy analysis into grassroots and grasstops organizing.

Before joining IPS, Janet was a visiting faculty member at the College of the Atlantic and directed the Watershed Initiative of the Center for Applied Human Ecology at the College. Her work in youth and women’s empowerment through community farming and sustainability has brought Janet from coastal Maine to the heart of Worcester, Massachusetts to Bangladesh.

Janet holds a Master’s Degree from Clark University in International Development and Social Change, where she focused her graduate research on regional trade integration in Latin America and the Caribbean. She also holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science from the University of Vermont.