Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is developing a new greenhouse gas reduction program they call the “Climate Protection Program.” At hearings on September 30th, DEQ will invite the public to submit comments on its plans for the program (Deadline: October 25th).

Currently, the program is not slated to live up to its lofty name: 

• It provides exemptions for fracked gas power plants and infrastructure.
• It includes loopholes for Oregon’s biggest polluters.
• It prioritizes polluters' profits over the health and safety of frontline communities experiencing the impacts of pollution every day.

Alongside our community partners at Power Past Fracked Gas, we hosted a webinar on September 21st to dig into the environmental justice issues at stake for Oregon in the drafting of this program. Oregon PSR Healthy Climate Action Team member Patsy Kullberg, MD was one of the panelists for this webinar and our staff Climate Justice Organizer, Samantha Hernandez, was the event's bilingual emcee.

Learn more and message Oregon decision-makers to call on them to protect Oregonians from climate pollution. The deadline for this comment period is Monday, October 25th, 2021.

View the recorded webinar to learn from environmental justice leaders from across the state about how communities are being impacted by pollution and how we can all take action at the DEQ hearings to ensure that it develops a program that protects Oregon communities and our climate. A Climate Protection Program should do nothing less.

More than 60 organizations collaborated on a recently released report titled Methane Gas: Health, Safety, and Decarbonization to set the record straight on the environmental and health impacts of so-called "natural" gas, which powers appliances in many of our homes. On September 14th, we hosted a Health Impacts of Gas Appliances webinar for attendees to learn more about why the fracked gas industry is detrimental to our climate and to the health of our communities. Three of our featured speakers are co-authors of report.

Oregon PSR is celebrating our 40th year of work for a more healthy, peaceful, and just world in 2021. We began from the powerful vision of our founders who sat on Dr. Karen Steingart’s living room floor and strategized about how a health message could help prevent nuclear war. Over the next forty years, our members, volunteers, and donors contributed their passion and leadership to the organization, bringing a broad public health frame to issues such as environmental justice, gun violence, and climate health, learning and growing along the way.

We hope that you will join us online on Thursday, November 18th from 6:30 until 7:30 PM (PST) in celebrating our 40th anniversary! Though the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic unfortunately prohibits us from safely gathering in person, we look forward to celebrating virtually with you. We will premiere a new video highlighting some of our work over the last four decades, sharing stories and images from many of the longtime members and leaders who have made our 40 years of work possible.

This online event is free to join, and you can learn about 40th Anniversary Celebration sponsorship opportunities here.

RSVP below to let us know that you'll plan to join us. We will follow up with you after you have RSVP'd with details for joining our online celebration in November.

We look forward to celebrating our 40 years of work with you on November 18th, and hope that you will RSVP today!

We did it! In response to years of organizing by Oregon PSR members and partners, the City of Portland today denied a Land Use Compatibility Statement, declaring that Zenith’s oil-by-rail storage and transfer facility in NW Portland is inconsistent with the City’s land use rules.

Indigenous activist Winona LaDuke (pictured above) will deliver the 32nd Annual Salem Peace Lecture. The topic will be Indigenous Strategies to Address Climate Change. Oregon PSR is a proud sponsor of the annual Salem Peace Lecture, and we're excited to hear from this year's keynote speaker.

The lecture will take place on Wednesday, November 10th at 6:30 PM (PST) and will be delivered via Zoom, so you can attend from anywhere that has internet access. To receive a link to the lecture, please email Peter Bergel. Also, please feel free to share this save-the-date announcement widely.

The author of Native Struggles for Land and Life and Recovering the Sacred, LaDuke is the co-founder of Honor the Earth, an organization that provides financial and organizing support to initiatives that directly address Indigenous environmental issues. LaDuke's current efforts to promote a just transition to a greener path are deeply rooted. She was a leader at the 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline protests and is currently actively opposing the Enbridge Line 3 Pipeline in Minnesota as a water protector. 

Peacemakers of the Year Announced

Each year, the Salem Peace Lecture Committee selects a Salem Peacemaker of the Year who is honored at the Peace Lecture. This year's recipients will be Delana and Russ Beaton, who will be honored for their decades of leadership of peace-related causes in Salem. Delana has long been a leading advocate for more deeply effective solutions for our unhoused neighbors. Russ, a retired economics professor, has been a wellspring of economically sensible proposals and activism as well as a beloved and respected shaper of many students' attitudes.

Please put this year's Salem Peace Lecture on your calendar now, and email Peter Bergel to receive a link to the event.

On August 17th, more than 50 health professionals, public health advocates, and water protectors rallied outside the US Army Corps of Engineers’ office in the Lloyd District of Northeast Portland. The attendees delivered a letter signed by over 300 Oregonians calling on President Biden to revoke permits for Line 3, a tar sands oil pipeline being built by Canadian corporation Enbridge through Anishinaabe treaty territory in Minnesota. The rally occurred at the same time as a dozen other actions across the country, including in St. Paul, Minnesota. Our sincere thanks to everyone who joined us in solidarity with water protectors and other health professionals across the country opposing Line 3.

Wildfires fueled by climate change are becoming more intense in the Pacific Northwest. Preparation and adaptation to these climate disasters is vital to building climate resilience and protecting our health. Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility (Oregon PSR), Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN), and Neighbors for Clean Air (NCA) hosted a webinar in June of 2021 titled Our Health in Wildfire Season to explore these issues.

Climate change is a health crisis. We need action now.

This summer, we have seen climate change take a toll on our health here in Oregon and around the world. From record-breaking extreme heat, unprecedented drought, and poor air quality from wildfire smoke, it is clear that health impacts of climate change are here.

Our home is on fire. Even as we struggle to care for our families and communities impacted by climate change, Enbridge is building a new tar sands oil pipeline in Minnesota, Line 3, that will add fuel to this fire. How much fuel? If built, the oil transported by Line 3 will add carbon emissions equal to 50 coal plants to our atmosphere every year it is in operation.

President Biden could stop construction immediately - as he did with Keystone XL - but so far has chosen not to.

TAKE ACTION: Sign our letter to President Biden to stop Line 3.

Line 3 cuts through the heart of the Anishinaabe territory in Minnesota, violating treaty rights, damaging sacred wild rice beds, and threatening the health of Indigenous communities. Health professionals in Minnesota have opposed Line 3 for several years in a movement led by Indigenous leaders. They are now calling on us to stand in solidarity with the water protectors. Oregon PSR stands with our colleagues in Minnesota to call on President Biden to revoke the permits and #StopLine3.

Learn more about health harms of Line 3 in a detailed whitepaper and a fact sheet created by Minnesota-based Health Professionals for a Healthy Climate and find updates on Line 3 at StopLine3.

Sign our letter to President Biden encouraging him to stop Line 3.

Join Us in Portland on August 17th for a Letter Delivery Action.

Oregon Health professionals are standing in solidarity to call on President Biden to revoke the permits and #StopLine3.

Join Oregon PSR for an in-person letter delivery action on August 17th. Sign up to join us on August 17th, and share and amplify your action on social media.

Tuesday, August 17th, 1:00 PM (PST)
Army Corp of Engineers Northwest Division , 1201 NE Lloyd Blvd in Portland. **Note that we will meet on the corner of NE 13th and Holliday Streets, not on Lloyd Blvd**

Fully vaccinated people are welcome to attend this outdoor event. Please wear a mask and physically distance.

Health professionals, please consider wearing clothes that identify you as such, like a white coat or scrubs.

If you cannot attend in-person, join us virtually on social media. Post a picture of you on August 17th in your health professional outfit using the hashtags #FossilFree4Health, #StopLine3, and #OurWaterOurHealth.

Co-sponsored by Health Professionals for a Healthy Climate.

Other Ongoing Ways to Support the Line 3 Movement from Frontline Organizers in Minnesota 

Are you able to travel to Minnesota? Join the August 7th-25th Treaty People Walk.

Now is the time. Enbridge is currently violating 21 river crossings, and hundreds of waterways across so called Minnesota. In the style of walks led by the American Indian Movement (AIM), we ask you JOIN US in a prayerful walk in solidarity with Mississippi River, "Nibi" (water), and to #HonortheTreaties that all of our ancestors signed.

The Treaty People Walk will kick off at Coffee Pot Landing on August 7th, led by  Indigenous Leaders, and take 2 weeks to walk down to the Minnesota State Capitol Building by August 25th. The Capitol Building will hold a large welcome event to celebrate the walkers and to tell President Biden to step in and direct the Army Corps to cancel this pipeline’s permits.

The Stop Line 3 Movement wants your support in any capacity you have. You are invited to join some or all of the walk, host walkers, and join events along the route. For more information, please look at the expectations document and sign up on the Treaty People Walk Google form.

Do you have money or supplies to donate? Find out more about donating to frontline groups and others supporting their work.

We are experiencing temperatures in the upper 90’s and even higher throughout Oregon and the Pacific Northwest, and wildfires are already burning throughout our state and region. While no one wants to repeat the severe air quality crisis of last summer, we also know that it is essential to be prepared.