Returned home from today’s City Council hearing. It was a discussion about the environmental health disparities & the impact of pollutants in at-risk neighborhoods, and organized by City Council’s Committee on Health and Human Services, chair Council member Cindy Bass, see resolution No. 180785.

students testifying on poverty, air quality & health in Philadelphia

Many people testified, including these:

  1. Dr Thomas Farley, Health Commissioner, City of Philadelphia
  2. Glen Abrams, Senior director of Sustainable Communities, PHS
  3. Mike Ewall, Founder & Director, Energy Justice Network
  4. Jerome Shabazz, Executive Director, Overbrook environmental education center
  5. Sue Edwards, Sierra Club PA & southeastern PA Group of the Sierra Club
  6. Terri Burgin, Climate Justice Fellow, POWER Interfaith
  7. Dr Walter Tsou, Executive Director, Physicians for Social Responsibility
  8. Tammy Murphy, Medical Advocacy Director, Physicians for Social responsibility
  9. Jennifer Clarke, Executive Director, The Public Interest Law center
  10. Lynn Robinson, Neighbors Against the Gas Plants
  11. Peter Winslow, Evolve Foundation
  12. Eric Marsh, parent
  13. Karen Melton, citizen
  14. Alexa Ross, Philly Thrive
  15. Pat Libbey
  16. and more that I missed!

I, Meenal Raval, spoke up at the end, essentially this:

London just announced a climate emergency.  The health impacts we heard about today are symptoms of our fossil fuel addiction — our children are the canaries in the coal mines.

Let’s accept it. There’s no future for the teens who were here today. I could have told them about the students in Sweden and Australia are on a #ClimateStrike. Young people in their 20s are rising up for a #GreenNewDeal.

Philadelphia, too, must declare a climate emergency. We need to set up a Committee on the Climate Crisis, develop a Green New Deal for our City, and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions ASAP!

Media coverage from the day;

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