Event Details

Speaker:  Laalitha Surapaneni, Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Minnesota

Dr. Laalitha Surapaneni will discuss the adverse health impacts of the damage we are doing to our climate. Climate health impacts are geographical in nature, so she will outline impacts in Minnesota, United States, and worldwide with a focus on environmental justice. Given the current state of the climate crisis and the urgent need to address it at a legislative level, the lecture will be followed by a 20-minute workshop session with a goal to write letters to legislators urging them to action. This is an opt-in activity.

Dr. Surapaneni is a member on the steering committee for 100% Minnesota campaign and an executive member of Health Professionals for Healthy Climate. She divides her time between patient care, teaching students about how climate change impacts health and advocating for environmentally sound policies. When she worked as a hospitalist at Johns Hopkins Bayview, she testified for the Maryland Department of Environment on environmental justice impacts of a local incinerator. She was also part of a campaign that worked to pass landmark climate legislation to limit crude oil trains passing through Baltimore city. In Minnesota, she was invited to give health expert testimony at the State Capitol. She is currently working on clean energy and electric transportation legislations.

This EnviroThursday is co-sponsored by the Environmental Studies and Biology Departments.

Refreshments provided.